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(E-058/01)
March 14
, 2001

 

MEXICO URGES OAS TO MORE ACTIVELY PROMOTE
ON REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY

 

In his first address to the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), the new Mexican Permanent Representative today urged the Organization to more actively promote representative democracy in the countries of the Hemisphere.

Ambassador Miguel Ruiz Cabaņas argued that each state should have exclusive responsibility for calling and organizing elections and defining the scope of those elections. He said "the OAS should not seek to replace the competent national institutions as that would only weaken them," but he insisted that the OAS could play a constructive role in preparations for electoral exercises, where a member state so requests.

"Recent experience shows that the OAS could help protect democratic processes from disruption or can foster restoration where democracy has been interrupted, thereby enhancing the legitimacy, transparency, and credibility of electoral processes in the region," he added.

Turning to the Inter-American Convention against Corruption, he said an effective mechanism was needed to monitor the treaty's implementation, as a way of "complementing each country's effort to combat this scourge that hinders national economies and seriously affects general morality and credibility of democratic institutions." He cited the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM) as a product of cooperation in the war on narcotics.

The Mexican Ambassador urged countries that had not yet done so to accept the binding jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. He reported on conciliatory moves by his government for full-fledged peace in Chiapas, stating Mexico’s firm support for the proposed American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Populations. He said the Declaration being developed "acknowledges the rich heritage and cultural, economic, and social diversity of OAS member states and indigenous communities around the Hemisphere."