(E-066/01)
March 22, 2001UNITED KINGDOM SUPPORTS OAS ELECTORAL PROJECTS
AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCESSThe Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland donated $100,000 to the Organization of American States (OAS) today to further the Organization’s activities in electoral observation and dispute resolution.
The United Kingdom’s donation will be used to continue supporting an electoral technical assistance project in the Caribbean, to which the UK has already donated $50,000, as well as to support an OAS election observation mission being sent to monitor the March 28, 2001 Parliamentary elections in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The donation will also be used to support the Secretary General’s efforts to create the necessary conditions in Haiti for a dialogue to resolve the crisis arising from the elections of May 21, 2000.
The United Kingdom has been a strong supporter of the Belize-Guatemala negotiation process, begun last year under the auspices of the Secretary General to help find a solution to the long-standing territorial differendum between those two countries. Part of the donation received today will be used to continue supporting the Belize-Guatemala process.
In presenting the gift during a ceremony at OAS headquarters in Washington today, Ambassador Richard Wilkinson, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Director for the Americas and the UK’s Permanent Observer to the OAS remarked "the UK is pleased to be able to provide this additional support for the valuable work of the OAS in strengthening democratic institutions and in working for the peaceful resolution of disputes".
"The General Secretariat is very grateful to the UK," said Assistant Secretary General Ambassador Luigi R. Einaudi, as he received the gift from Wilkinson. "Our organization needs the support of its Permanent Observers. This contribution demonstrates the growing interest of the United Kingdom in the Organization".
The United Kingdom became a Permanent Observer of the Organization of American States in September, 1995. The Organization currently has 49 Permanent Observers.
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