SPECIALIZED CONFERENCES

TOPICS:

• Inter-American Conference on Private International Law
• Inter-American Port and Harbor Conference
• Inter-American Statistical Conference (CIE)

Established in Chapter XVIII of the Charter, the specialized conferences are intergovernmental meetings to deal with special technical matters or to develop specific aspects of inter-American cooperation. They are held when either the General Assembly or the Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs so decides, either on its own initiative or at the request of one of the Councils or specialized organizations.

Inter-American Conference on Private International Law (CIDIP-V)

CIDIP-V, convoked by the General Assembly of the Organization, was held in Mexico City, March 14 through 18, 1994. Two treaties were adopted there: the Inter-American Convention on the Law Applicable to International Contracts and the Inter-American Convention on the International Traffic in Minors. The Conference also approved a number of resolutions concerning hemispheric cooperation in legal matters and proposed the agenda to be taken up at the next CIDIP. Participating were delegates from the majority of the OAS member States. The Technical Secretariat for the Conference was the Department of Development and Codification of International Law of the OAS Secretariat for Legal Affairs.

Inter-American Port and Harbor Conference

In late January 1994, the Permanent Technical Committee on Ports held its XVI Meeting in Viņa del Mar, Chile. The Committee is the executive organ of the Inter-American Port and Harbor Conference. The agenda for that meeting concerned the mandates approved by the Eighth Conference, held in November 1993. A total of 21 resolutions were approved, among them one approving a Port and Harbor Emergency Program consisting of a number of activities involving hemisphere cooperation in port-related matters. To finance those activities, the member countries of the Committee decided to create a voluntary fund. Also created was Permanent Technical Committee IV, Port Policy, chaired by Uruguay. In June, Permanent Technical Committee III, Port Training, held its First Meeting in Miami, under the auspices of the Port of Miami. That meeting approved the inter-American port training plan.

Finally, the First Special Meeting of the Permanent Technical Committee on Ports was held in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Inter-American Statistical Conference (CIE)

The General Secretariat provided technical support for organization and development of the Fourth Meeting of the Inter-American Statistical Conference's Working Group on Social and Poverty Indicators, held in Guatemala, March 7 through 9. There the bases of the Subregional Program for Central America, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Haiti were prepared, for establishment of a Subregional System of Social Statistics and Poverty Indicators.

As part of the activities proposed by the CIE Working Group on Measurement of the Informal Sector, a methodological document was prepared titled: "Reliable Indicators for Measuring the Interest Variable in the Informal Sector". A preliminary test of the indicators is planned in Costa Rica.

Technical support was provided to organize and hold the XI Session of the Inter-American Statistical Conference (XI CIE) and the First OAS-ECLAC Joint Meeting on Statistical Matters, which took place at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile. Among the topics considered were social and poverty indicators; measurement within the informal sector; environmental statistics; trade and integration; the services sector; drug statistics; private sector participation in generating official statistics; and statistical training. The XI CIE welcomed the proposal presented jointly by the FAO Statistical Division, the OAS General Secretariat and the Office of the Director General of IICA to create a Working Group on Agricultural Statistics, which will begin to work in 1995.

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