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Secretary General
Assistant Secretary General
1st Meeting of Ministers
for Public Security
Mexico - Oct 7-8, 2008
"Green Week" at the
OAS
Sep 15-19, 2008
General Assembly
Colombia 2008
60th Anniversary of the OAS
Secretary General Congratulates Colombia for rescue operation “We celebrate the freedom of the hostages, for them, for their families and for all the people of Colombia. Their liberation embodies the goals of peace that our Organization fights for” - OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza
Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin today reaffirmed the commitment of the Organization of American States to supporting its member countries’ efforts to reduce the impact of natural disasters, appealing to the hemisphere’s citizens to educate themselves on how to respond to hurricanes and other natural hazards, and to take part in the awareness exercises.
Underscoring the importance of the International Day for Disaster Reduction being observed today, Ambassador Ramdin urged individuals to also be alert when information is being provided, “but most importantly, to make the effort to make the right choices in terms of where to build and where not to build.” He also made a pitch for observing the building codes so that roofs and other parts of buildings can sustain hurricane winds and other forces, thus mitigating damage as much as possible and making recovery much easier. “I hope that the people will not underestimate the impact of hurricanes.”
(more)
Mexico City—Mexican President Felipe Calderón and OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza today inaugurated the First Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Security in the Americas, an OAS forum convened to consider joint strategies to tackle the scourge of crime and violence worldwide, and particularly in this hemisphere.
Addressing top security officials from the 34 Member States, the Mexican leader praised the OAS’ initiative to bring the security ministers together to share experiences and devise a joint approach to transnational crime. He called on countries to collaborate to fight transnational crime on the basis of a collaborative approach, shared responsibility and respect for sovereignty.
(more)
Expressing deep concern that the disaster challenges have compounded the economic recovery of Haiti, Assistant Secretary General of the OAS, Albert R. Ramdin, has however lauded the Haitian government’s effort to tackle the country’s difficult situation in the wake of Hurricanes Fay, Hanna, Gustav, and Ike.
Ambassador Ramdin made the remarks Tuesday, during a meeting of the OAS Group of Friends of Haiti, convened at the Organization’s Washington, DC headquarters to review the report on the situation in the Caribbean nation. The meeting of the Group of Friends follows Ambassador Ramdin’s September 11-13 visit to Haiti.
(more)
United States Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), participating at an OAS forum, today called for a Latin America trust for social and economic development, which would complement existing U.S. assistance to the countries of the region and would be an important mechanism to bring regional solutions to regional problems.
Senator Menendez put forward the proposal as he spoke alongside another U.S. Senator, Mel Martinez (R-FL), during the 10th OAS Policy Roundtable, held at the Organization’s headquarters under the title, “Opportunities and Challenges in the Western Hemisphere: Perspectives from the United States Congress.”
(more)
Assistant Secretary General Albert R. Ramdin leads an OAS delegation to Barbados tomorrow, as member governments gather to launch negotiations on the Declaration of Commitment that the hemisphere’s heads of state and government will issue at the Fifth Summit of the Americas, to be hosted by Trinidad and Tobago in April next year.
The two-day Third Regular Meeting of the Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG) begins Thursday with OAS Member States considering the Draft Declaration that the Trinidad and Tobago government had formally presented at the Second Regular Meeting of the SIRG in Washington, DC last July.
(more)
The Organization of American States kicked off Green Week with a series of activities organized by the Permanent Council to raise awareness about climate change. The program inaugurating Green Week also included a panel discussion on “Sustainable Development in the Americas: Accomplishments and Lessons Learnt.”
Experts from the OAS Department of Sustainable Development during Monday’s inauguration shared a wide range of information on projects and other endeavors being pursued by the hemispheric organization to support Member States. Those initiatives include strategic programs implemented in the areas of water, land, energy, and natural disaster risk management in the Americas.
(more)
OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert R. Ramdin concluded a two-day visit to Haiti, during which he expressed the Organization’s solidarity with the people of Haiti, delivered a monetary and in-kind contribution, and presented a proposal to analyze ways to support the relief efforts in the wake of the successive tropical storms that struck most areas of the Caribbean nation.
“I believe that under these extraordinary circumstances the Government of Haiti not only needs the support of the international community, but also from the private sector, civil society and legislators in Haiti,” stated Ramdin. (more)
The OAS this week put the spotlight on the contribution made by the Leo S. Rowe Pan American Fund over the past 60 years in promoting the objectives of the hemispheric organization.
Antigua and Barbuda Ambassador Deborah-Mae Lovell, who chairs the Leo Rowe Fund, led Member State representatives and the inter-American community in also paying tribute to the memory of the head of the OAS’ forerunner, the Pan-American Union. The revolving Fund was set up in keeping with the will and testament of Dr. Leo S. Rowe, who served as the Pan American Union’s General Director from 1920 until his death in 1946.
Over the past sixty years, the Leo S. Rowe Pan American Fund has helped students from Latin America and the Caribbean as well as OAS personnel to pursue tertiary education in the United States.
(more)
Ambassador Albert R. Ramdin, the OAS' Assistant Secretary General, arrives in Haiti on Thursday, on a two-day visit, to assess the situation on the ground after the recent deadly hurricanes, and to reaffirm OAS support for the new government.
The visit includes meetings with President René Préval, Prime Minister Michèle Pierre Louis, and Foreign Minister, Alrich Nicholas. Ambassador Ramdin will reiterate OAS support and solidarity, particularly with the hurricane victims.
(more)
Despite progress in reducing extreme poverty and maintaining relative stability of democracy in the Americas over the last few years, Organization of American States Secretary General José Miguel Insulza acknowledged today that the hemisphere still faces significant challenges because of climate change, energy sustainability and steep food prices increases, among other factors.
“The challenges are piling [up],” the Secretary General warned, citing the energy situation stemming from oil price hikes. He also cited the food crisis as a real problem for Latin America, explaining that given the steep increases in food prices it is quite possible that some of those who had emerged from the ranks of the poor last year could very well return to poverty.
(more)
Renewing the call for a “new energy order,” OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza today argued strongly for stepped-up energy sector integration and cooperation among countries in the Americas as key to the objective of energy security.
Insulza stressed that ensuring energy sector security in the Americas begins by acknowledging that current production, delivery and consumption patterns are unsustainable. He underscored the need to find a balance between national energy self-sufficiency initiatives on the one hand, and energy integration at the hemispheric level, on the other. Furthermore, the Secretary General noted, while the new energy order for the Americas is still taking shape, its foundation most certainly will based on energy integration but also on energy efficiency and diversification of energy supply as key principles.
(more)
OAS Summits of the Americas Secretariat yesterday launched the Summits of the Americas Virtual Platform (SVP), an on-line tool to facilitate communication and complement face-to-face consensus-building activities of the Summits of the Americas process.
A joint initiative of the Summits of the Americas Secretariat and the OAS Department of Human Development (through the Educational Portal of the Americas), with support from the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) / International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Summits of the Americas Virtual Platform provides a forum for using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for a series of virtual consultations and dialogue in key thematic areas within the framework of the preparatory process for the Fifth Summit of the Americas, to be held in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, from April 17-19, 2009.
(more)
The Republic of Argentina deposited instruments ratifying the Protocol to the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty, at the OAS' headquarters on Friday, becoming the tenth Member State to do so. With the Protocol taking immediate effect in the South American country, capital punishment is now completely abolished there.
Argentina’s Alternate Representative to the OAS, Martín Gómez Bustillo, delivered the ratification instruments to OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza during a brief ceremony, where the Permanent Council’s Chairman, Ambassador Nestor Mendez of Belize, was also in attendance.
(more)
OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, speaking in Canada yesterday, called on the Member States’ defense ministers to begin a study of new situations shaping up in Latin America and the Caribbean as a result of rising crime. He said these unfolding developments call for new thinking and discussion as regards the possible roles of various institutions in fighting crime in the Americas.
Addressing the Eighth Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas, in Banff, in the Canadian province of Alberta, Secretary General Insulza said he knows that this kind of cooperation involving defense agencies and public security institutions creates an undesirable situation, since “we are all aware of the specifics and differences between defense activities and public security activities.” (more)
Government representatives from 18 Latin American countries will gather September 3-5, 2008, in Bogotá, Colombia, to participate in a regional workshop aimed at strengthening national legislation in each country against cyber-crime.
A survey conducted by the Organization of American States (OAS) indicated that the people, businesses, and governments of OAS countries are often victims of cyber-crimes such as online identity theft, crimes involving intellectual property, and child pornography shared over the Internet. Yet, as of early 2007, only 15 of the 35 Member States had substantive cyber-crime legislation in place, while only 12 states have enacted procedural cyber-crime legislation.
(more)
Food security and rural development in Haiti took center stage as the OAS Group of Friends of Haiti, representing member countries and observers to the hemispheric body, met at OAS headquarters this week to review ongoing projects and new initiatives with that country, and to facilitate information sharing among the partners.
(more)
Calling for vulnerability analysis as an integral part of the strategy to combat the current food crisis, the World Food Program’s (WFP) Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, said today the OAS and her global agency could work together immediately on best practices for an early warning system. Haiti has been identified as the world’s hardest hit nation in the global food crisis, prices having soared 80 percent. In another dire warning, Sheeran said that throughout the Americas, price increases are expected to push an additional 15 million into vulnerability and below the poverty line.
(more)
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Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin today reaffirmed the commitment of the Organization of American States to supporting its member countries’ efforts to reduce the impact of natural disasters, appealing to the hemisphere’s citizens to educate themselves on how to respond to hurricanes and other natural hazards, and to take part in the awareness exercises.
Underscoring the importance of the International Day for Disaster Reduction being observed today, Ambassador Ramdin urged individuals to also be alert when information is being provided, “but most importantly, to make the effort to make the right choices in terms of where to build and where not to build.” He also made a pitch for observing the building codes so that roofs and other parts of buildings can sustain hurricane winds and other forces, thus mitigating damage as much as possible and making recovery much easier. “I hope that the people will not underestimate the impact of hurricanes.”
(
Mexico City—Mexican President Felipe Calderón and OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza today inaugurated the First Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Security in the Americas, an OAS forum convened to consider joint strategies to tackle the scourge of crime and violence worldwide, and particularly in this hemisphere.
Addressing top security officials from the 34 Member States, the Mexican leader praised the OAS’ initiative to bring the security ministers together to share experiences and devise a joint approach to transnational crime. He called on countries to collaborate to fight transnational crime on the basis of a collaborative approach, shared responsibility and respect for sovereignty.
(
Expressing deep concern that the disaster challenges have compounded the economic recovery of Haiti, Assistant Secretary General of the OAS, Albert R. Ramdin, has however lauded the Haitian government’s effort to tackle the country’s difficult situation in the wake of Hurricanes Fay, Hanna, Gustav, and Ike.
Ambassador Ramdin made the remarks Tuesday, during a meeting of the OAS Group of Friends of Haiti, convened at the Organization’s Washington, DC headquarters to review the report on the situation in the Caribbean nation. The meeting of the Group of Friends follows Ambassador Ramdin’s September 11-13 visit to Haiti.
(
United States Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), participating at an OAS forum, today called for a Latin America trust for social and economic development, which would complement existing U.S. assistance to the countries of the region and would be an important mechanism to bring regional solutions to regional problems.
Senator Menendez put forward the proposal as he spoke alongside another U.S. Senator, Mel Martinez (R-FL), during the 10th OAS Policy Roundtable, held at the Organization’s headquarters under the title, “Opportunities and Challenges in the Western Hemisphere: Perspectives from the United States Congress.”
(
Assistant Secretary General Albert R. Ramdin leads an OAS delegation to Barbados tomorrow, as member governments gather to launch negotiations on the Declaration of Commitment that the hemisphere’s heads of state and government will issue at the Fifth Summit of the Americas, to be hosted by Trinidad and Tobago in April next year.
The two-day Third Regular Meeting of the Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG) begins Thursday with OAS Member States considering the Draft Declaration that the Trinidad and Tobago government had formally presented at the Second Regular Meeting of the SIRG in Washington, DC last July.
(
The Organization of American States kicked off Green Week with a series of activities organized by the Permanent Council to raise awareness about climate change. The program inaugurating Green Week also included a panel discussion on “Sustainable Development in the Americas: Accomplishments and Lessons Learnt.”
Experts from the OAS Department of Sustainable Development during Monday’s inauguration shared a wide range of information on projects and other endeavors being pursued by the hemispheric organization to support Member States. Those initiatives include strategic programs implemented in the areas of water, land, energy, and natural disaster risk management in the Americas.
(
OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert R. Ramdin concluded a two-day visit to Haiti, during which he expressed the Organization’s solidarity with the people of Haiti, delivered a monetary and in-kind contribution, and presented a proposal to analyze ways to support the relief efforts in the wake of the successive tropical storms that struck most areas of the Caribbean nation.
“I believe that under these extraordinary circumstances the Government of Haiti not only needs the support of the international community, but also from the private sector, civil society and legislators in Haiti,” stated Ramdin. (
The OAS this week put the spotlight on the contribution made by the Leo S. Rowe Pan American Fund over the past 60 years in promoting the objectives of the hemispheric organization.
Antigua and Barbuda Ambassador Deborah-Mae Lovell, who chairs the Leo Rowe Fund, led Member State representatives and the inter-American community in also paying tribute to the memory of the head of the OAS’ forerunner, the Pan-American Union. The revolving Fund was set up in keeping with the will and testament of Dr. Leo S. Rowe, who served as the Pan American Union’s General Director from 1920 until his death in 1946.
Over the past sixty years, the Leo S. Rowe Pan American Fund has helped students from Latin America and the Caribbean as well as OAS personnel to pursue tertiary education in the United States.
(
Ambassador Albert R. Ramdin, the OAS' Assistant Secretary General, arrives in Haiti on Thursday, on a two-day visit, to assess the situation on the ground after the recent deadly hurricanes, and to reaffirm OAS support for the new government.
The visit includes meetings with President René Préval, Prime Minister Michèle Pierre Louis, and Foreign Minister, Alrich Nicholas. Ambassador Ramdin will reiterate OAS support and solidarity, particularly with the hurricane victims.
(
Despite progress in reducing extreme poverty and maintaining relative stability of democracy in the Americas over the last few years, Organization of American States Secretary General José Miguel Insulza acknowledged today that the hemisphere still faces significant challenges because of climate change, energy sustainability and steep food prices increases, among other factors.
“The challenges are piling [up],” the Secretary General warned, citing the energy situation stemming from oil price hikes. He also cited the food crisis as a real problem for Latin America, explaining that given the steep increases in food prices it is quite possible that some of those who had emerged from the ranks of the poor last year could very well return to poverty.
(
Renewing the call for a “new energy order,” OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza today argued strongly for stepped-up energy sector integration and cooperation among countries in the Americas as key to the objective of energy security.
Insulza stressed that ensuring energy sector security in the Americas begins by acknowledging that current production, delivery and consumption patterns are unsustainable. He underscored the need to find a balance between national energy self-sufficiency initiatives on the one hand, and energy integration at the hemispheric level, on the other. Furthermore, the Secretary General noted, while the new energy order for the Americas is still taking shape, its foundation most certainly will based on energy integration but also on energy efficiency and diversification of energy supply as key principles.
(
OAS Summits of the Americas Secretariat yesterday launched the Summits of the Americas Virtual Platform (SVP), an on-line tool to facilitate communication and complement face-to-face consensus-building activities of the Summits of the Americas process.
A joint initiative of the Summits of the Americas Secretariat and the OAS Department of Human Development (through the Educational Portal of the Americas), with support from the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) / International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Summits of the Americas Virtual Platform provides a forum for using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for a series of virtual consultations and dialogue in key thematic areas within the framework of the preparatory process for the Fifth Summit of the Americas, to be held in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, from April 17-19, 2009.
(
The Republic of Argentina deposited instruments ratifying the Protocol to the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty, at the OAS' headquarters on Friday, becoming the tenth Member State to do so. With the Protocol taking immediate effect in the South American country, capital punishment is now completely abolished there.
Argentina’s Alternate Representative to the OAS, Martín Gómez Bustillo, delivered the ratification instruments to OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza during a brief ceremony, where the Permanent Council’s Chairman, Ambassador Nestor Mendez of Belize, was also in attendance.
(
OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, speaking in Canada yesterday, called on the Member States’ defense ministers to begin a study of new situations shaping up in Latin America and the Caribbean as a result of rising crime. He said these unfolding developments call for new thinking and discussion as regards the possible roles of various institutions in fighting crime in the Americas.
Addressing the Eighth Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas, in Banff, in the Canadian province of Alberta, Secretary General Insulza said he knows that this kind of cooperation involving defense agencies and public security institutions creates an undesirable situation, since “we are all aware of the specifics and differences between defense activities and public security activities.” (
Food security and rural development in Haiti took center stage as the OAS Group of Friends of Haiti, representing member countries and observers to the hemispheric body, met at OAS headquarters this week to review ongoing projects and new initiatives with that country, and to facilitate information sharing among the partners.
(
Calling for vulnerability analysis as an integral part of the strategy to combat the current food crisis, the World Food Program’s (WFP) Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, said today the OAS and her global agency could work together immediately on best practices for an early warning system. Haiti has been identified as the world’s hardest hit nation in the global food crisis, prices having soared 80 percent. In another dire warning, Sheeran said that throughout the Americas, price increases are expected to push an additional 15 million into vulnerability and below the poverty line.
(