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Permanent Council Refers Draft Resolutions to the General Assembly in Cochabamba

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today held its final ordinary session before the General Assembly in Cochabamba, in which it heard reports on the work of its various committees in the last year and approved the referral of several draft resolutions to be decided on by the foreign ministers of the hemisphere at the meeting in Bolivia from June 3 to 5.

The reports from the chairs of the Committees on Hemispheric Security, Juridical and Political Affairs, Inter-American Summits Management, Migration Issues, and the General Committee joined that presented last week by the Committee on Budgetary and Administrative Affairs. The issues will be debated by the General Committee of the Assembly, which will eventually refer them to the plenary sessions of the meeting in Cochabamba for their definitive ratification.

The Chair of the Committee on Hemispheric Security and Permanent Representative of Belize to the OAS, Nestor Mendez, highlighted the work of his group on various important issues, among them human trafficking, efforts to make the Americas a landmine-free region, special security concerns of small island states of the Caribbean, the prohibition of nuclear weapons, and the efforts of Member States to coordinate their actions against transnational organized crime.

Ambassador Méndez explained that his Committee presented a single draft resolution to be submitted for the consideration of the General Assembly, including all of the issues analyzed during the year, something that, he said, will help the Assembly to carry out its work more efficiently, and will reduce the use of paper, benefiting environmental measures. “I appreciate the flexibility of the delegations in agreeing to one 'super-resolution,' instead of the more than 20 separate resolutions,” said the diplomat from Belize.

The report of the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs (CAJP) was delivered by its Chair, the Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the OAS, María Isabel Salvador. Ambassador Salvador presented the Committee’s 22 draft resolutions that will be considered by the General Assembly, that include several juridical issues, among them access to public information, the inclusion of human rights as part of formal education in the hemisphere, internally displaced people, and the human rights of migrant workers and their families. The Chair of the CAJP also recalled the recommendation of the Committee to the General Assembly to grant the status of Permanent Observers to the OAS to Albania and Malta.

The chairman of the Committee on Inter-American Summits Management and the participation of the civil society in OAS activities and Ambassador of Colombia, Andrés González Díaz, submitted to the Council two draft resolutions, which in turn moved the Council to the General Assembly. The first project relates to "support and monitoring of the Summit of the Americas", while the second deals with the "increase and strengthening of civil society participation and social actors in OAS activities" in the same process.

The Permanent Council also heard a report on the work done by the Special Commission on Migration Issues, presented by its Chairman, the representative of Honduras and President of the Permanent Council, Leónidas Rosa Bautista.

His Commission presented the draft resolution "Strengthening of the immigration issue in the OAS," which provides, among other things, the establishment of the Committee on Migration as a standing committee of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) of the OAS. "One thing that became clear after performing the process of reflection, is that the immigration issue is of paramount importance to all and together we can find ways to cooperate on this important issue for the benefit of all peoples of the Americas," said Ambassador Rosa Bautista.

The representative of Honduras submitted the report of the General Committee, which its debate in the Permanent Council concluded with a reference to General Assembly resolution 13 projects in areas such as the White Helmets, the rights of African descent, human rights, the strengthening of the Inter-American Commission of Women, and the follow up of the Convention of Belem do Para on violence against women.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The Video of the event is available here.

The Audio of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-190/12