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ParlAmericas new parliamentary network to strengthen regional responses to evolving security challenges

November 28, 2025 | Activity

Photo Credit: National Assembly of Panama

In response to the increasingly complex security landscape in the Americas and the Caribbean, parliamentarians from across the Hemisphere convened in Panama City on November 27-28 for the First Gathering of the ParlAmericas Parliamentary Network on Security. The event, which was held in partnership with the National Assembly of Panama, served as the official launch of the Network and marked a significant step in strengthening collective legislative action and supporting more coordinated regional responses to shared security challenges.

The inauguration session highlighted the significance of this decision to integrate a new thematic dimension into ParlAmericas’ agenda, presenting it as a timely and strategic response to the region’s evolving security landscape and the imperative for inclusive, structural solutions. Carlos Alvarado, Secretary General of the National Assembly of Panama; Her Excellency Patricia Atkinson, Ambassador of Canada to Panama; Senator Iván Flores García (Chile), President of ParlAmericas; and the Honourable Member of the National Assembly Eliécer Castrellón Barrios, Vice-President of the National Assembly of Panama, reflected on the region’s evolving security context and the critical role of legislatures in shaping more coordinated and people-centred responses. Their interventions underscored both the urgency and the opportunity of the moment: a shared recognition that the hemisphere’s common challenges demand renewed parliamentary leadership and a broader, more inclusive understanding of security – one that addresses the structural causes that give rise to insecurity.

Across the Americas and the Caribbean, evolving social, economic, environmental, and technological dynamics continue to shape the region’s security conditions. Communities throughout the region are contending with intertwined challenges: deepening social and economic inequalities, expanding criminal networks and rising levels of violence, the impacts of climate- and environment-related crises, and growing uncertainty linked to digital transformation and economic volatility. While these pressures vary across countries, their combined impact is felt across the region in ways that undermine human well-being, challenge public institutions, and place added stress on democratic governance.

These interconnected pressures underscore why the launch of the Network offers more than a new institutional space: it provides a shared political forum to rethink security through the lens of human security. This framework places individuals and communities at the centre of legislation and policy responses. Through dialogues with subject-matter experts, parliamentarians examined how this framework can broaden the understanding of insecurity, and support more preventive forms of legislation and policymaking by responding to the different lived realities of the population.

Discussions underscored that safeguarding human security requires addressing interconnected areas such as climate resilience, food security, human mobility, public health, social protection, and economic security, all of which shape the vulnerabilities and opportunities experienced by communities across the region. Participants also highlighted the importance of confronting forms of violence that disproportionately affect women, children, and young people, including gender-based violence, the risks of human trafficking, and the recruitment of youth by criminal organizations – challenges that demand coordinated, preventive, and rights-based approaches.

A recurring theme throughout the Gathering was the urgent need to reinforce regional cooperation to counter transnational organized crime, whose operations increasingly extend across borders. Participants emphasized that legislative action — carried out in alignment with international law and whether through harmonized frameworks, strengthened oversight mechanisms, or improved cross-border collaboration — remains vital to disrupting highly sophisticated criminal networks and addressing the structural conditions that allow them to expand. These reflections underscored why a dedicated inter-parliamentary space is not only timely but essential.

As a key outcome of the Gathering, parliamentarians adopted an outcome document that sets out an initial roadmap for the Parliamentary Network on Security. Grounded in the principles of human security and strengthened regional cooperation, it reflects the main areas of convergence identified during the Gathering and will guide the Network’s work moving forward.

At the close of the meeting, elections were held for the Network’s first Executive Committee. The Honourable Ahmed Hussen (Canada) will serve as President, accompanied by Vice-Presidents representing each subregion: Pedro Haces Barba (Mexico) for North America; Roberto Zúñiga (Panama) and Ana Magdalena Figueroa (El Salvador) for Central America; Speakers Lanein Blanchette (St. Kitts and Nevis) and Arthur Holder (Barbados) for the Caribbean; and Stephan Schubert Rubio (Chile) and Senator Derlis Maidana (Paraguay) for South America.

With its establishment, the Parliamentary Network on Security sets the foundation for sustained collaboration among legislatures of the Americas and the Caribbean. It signals a collective resolve to contribute to a more secure, stable, and resilient hemisphere, where the well-being of individuals remains at the centre of regional cooperation.

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Photo Credit: National Assembly of Panama
This meeting was made possible thanks to the generous support of the National Assembly of Panama and the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada.