(E-135/01)
June 20, 2001

EL SALVADOR SUPPORTS ADOPTION OF
INTER-AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC CHARTER

 

             At a meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) June 20, El Salvador's Foreign Minister, Mar�a Eugenia Brizuela de Avila, restated her government's support for the move to adopt an Inter-American Democratic Charter to provide mechanisms for promotion and cooperation to shore up democracies in the Americas. 

            The Salvadorian Minister told the Permanent Council that "we should not merely react to situations but must instead bring about a culture of commitment to democracy by bolstering the instruments of the OAS." 

            She argued that the proposed Democratic Charter represents an opportunity for the Permanent Council to bring together "our deep-seated democratic convictions," to consolidate existing   mechanisms to afford us a "dynamic response through cooperation, good neighborliness and understanding among ourselves." 

            Turning to the need for a stronger hemispheric human rights system, the Salvadorian Minister of Foreign Affairs called for dialogue involving the organs of the human rights system, states, civil society and other relevant players.  She declared, too, the Salvadorian government's recognition of "the vital, positive role of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in this endeavor," and pointed to the need for the agencies of the system to be given more autonomy. 

            Minister Brizuela de Avila noted that the Tuxtla Special Summit on the Mechanism for Dialogue and Cooperation, held in El Salvador recently, was an important forum in which the leaders of eight countries not only reaffirmed their unswerving commitment to the defense and strengthening of democracy in the Hemisphere but also stressed that the interruption of democracy should preclude a country from participating in the Mechanism, which involves Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama. 

            The Permanent Council session was chaired by Colombia's Ambassador to the OAS, Humberto de la Calle, who invoked a minute of silence to honor the memory of the late former President of Bolivia, Victor Paz Estenssoro, who died recently.

 

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