A delegation of the Edelstam Foundation, consisting of Caroline Edelstam, President of the Foundation and granddaughter of Ambassador Harald Edelstam, together with board member, Mr. Stefan Löfven, former Prime Minister of Sweden, last week visited Santiago de Chile and met with Chile’s President, Mr. Gabriel Boric.
The occasion was the landmark of the 10 December 2023, marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) and the 50th commemoration of the coup d’état in Chile 1973. Further, in is on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the arrest of General Augusto Pinochet in London.
The Edelstam Foundation is named after Ambassador Harald Edelstam, a Swedish diplomat who saved more than 1,500 Chileans and civilians from other countries in Latin America after the coup in Chile 1973.
Photo: Chile’s President, Mr. Gabriel Boric, recieved Ms. Caroline Edelstam, President of Edelstam Foundation together with the board member, Mr. Stefan Löfven in the Moneda Palace, Santiago de Chile.
The President of Chile, Mr. Gabriel Boric, received the delegation in his office in the La Moneda Palace and during the meeting the importance of human rights and the importance of international legislation to protect human rights were discussed. During the visit to Chile, the Foundation’s delegation also met Deputy Foreign Minister, Gloria de la Fuente, and Senator Isabel Allende Bussi, Salvador Allende’s daughter.
During its visit to Chile, the Edelstam Foundation also organized a seminar together with the Universidad de Chile (University of Chile) entitled: “Human Rights: Experience of Protection” which dealt with the power of international cooperation to bring justice to the victims of the coup in Chile in 1973 and elsewhere – the first time in history the principle of universal jurisdiction was used – to prosecute a head of state, General Pinochet.
– For me, it is very emotional to visit Santiago and to meet people who have been saved by my grandfather, Harald Edelstam, but it is also an important opportunity to talk about human rights. It is a great honor for me and the foundation that President Gabriel Boric met with us and we could talk about human rights and the Pinochet case. It is 25 years since Pinochet was arrested in London – a unique case because it was the first time since the Nuremberg trials in 1945 that international criminal law was fully tested and implemented, said Caroline Edelstam, President of the Edelstam Foundation.
Media pictures: https://via.tt.se/pressrum/3236482/the-edelstam-foundation
For further information, please contact:
Linda Lingstedt, e-post: linda.lingstedt@edelstamprize.org
