E-065/00
March 28, 2000Click here for live transmission
Legislative Leaders from around the Americas To Meet at OAS
Legislative leaders from 34 countries in the hemisphere will meet at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C., March 29-30 to begin a dialogue on key inter-American issues.
The first-ever Meeting of Chairs of Foreign Affairs Committees of National Parliaments and Legislatures of the OAS Member States will begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow with remarks by OAS Secretary General César Gaviria and Mexico’s Ambassador to the OAS, Claude Heller, who chairs the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs.
The meeting grew out of the Summit of the Americas process. At the 1994 Miami Summit, the region’s presidents and prime ministers gave their backing to OAS efforts to encourage dialogue among democratic institutions in the member countries, particularly among legislative bodies. Four years later, in Santiago, Chile, the Second Summit of the Americas reaffirmed the need to continue expanding such cooperation, and called on the OAS Secretary General to facilitate dialogue at the legislative level.
In a resolution approved last June, the OAS General Assembly said that "the establishment of a parliamentary network among member states at the hemispheric level would complement initiatives undertaken by international, regional, and subregional parliamentary forums in the Americas." The idea of creating a permanent parliamentary forum will be on the agenda for consideration at this week’s meeting, which the OAS is hosting through its Unit for the Promotion of Democracy.
The two-day meeting will be transmitted live on the Internet (www.oas.org) and can be accessed by clicking on Webcast.
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