Awards ceremony of the 6th International Thesis Contest
The 10th July, the awards ceremony of the 6th International Thesis Contest on Public Security, Victimization and Justice in Latin America and the Caribbean was held in the Headquarters of the United Nations in Mexico.
The presidium was composed of Mr. Antonio Molpeceres, United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Representative in Mexico, Mr. Julio Santaella, President of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), Mr. Mario Palma, Vice-president of the Information Sub-system of Government, Public Security and Justice of INEGI, and Mrs. Salomé Flores, Coordinator of the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence on Statistics on Governance, Public Safety, Victimization and Justice.
Mr. Santaella, thanked the participation and interest of the winners of each level of the contest (Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral Degree) as well as the joint effort of the UNODC Center of Excellence and INEGI that made it possible to hold the sixth edition of a such important contest. He also thanked the participation of the judges that assessed the thesis according to the different academic levels: an INEGI member, a UNODC member and an expert academic.
Mrs. Salomé Flores mentioned the importance of developing this kind of contests that encourage the use of available official statistical information of our country. This year, the three winners of the different academic levels are Mexican, although the contest recorded the participation of 79 thesis from different countries: 24 of Bachelor’s Degree, 41 of Master’s Degree and 14 of Doctoral Degree.
The three winners of the 6th International Contest – the Bachelor’s level Nancy Daniela Núñez Morales from FES Iztacala of National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Master’s level Alejandra Pérez Pérez from El Colegio de México, and the Doctoral level Luz María Durán Moreno from Castilla-La Mancha University – made a short presentation of their researches, focusing on the importance of using official statistics, spatial geo-referencing and the importance of their results in order to develop public policies. Each of them, based on multidisciplinary environments, developed research on topics related to youth, violence, antisocial behavior, theft risk areas and perception of insecurity, among others. Furthermore, a special mention was given to Daniela Serrano Campos from the Research Institute Dr. José María Luis Mora for Master level.
The closure of the awards ceremony was held by Mr. Molpeceres, who thanked the winners and all the participants of the contest, and underlined the importance for developing public policies at local, national and international level, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in particular SDG 16 “Peace, justice and solid institutions”.
