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ST VINCENT AND MIAMI TO HOST OAS CONFERENCES
ON HEMISPHERIC SECURITY THREATS

  November 6, 2002

Kingstown, the capital of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Miami will each host an Organization of American States (OAS) meeting next year to examine threats to security in the Americas. The conferences are being convened ahead of the Special Conference on Security, slated for Mexico City next May.

The Chairman of the Committee on Hemispheric Security, Mexico's Ambassador to the OAS Miguel Ruiz Cabañas, announced at a Permanent Council session today that the Second High-Level Meeting on Special Security Concerns of the Small Island States will be held in the Vincentian capital January 12 through 14, and the Meeting of Experts on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures in Miami February 3 and 4.

Delegates to the Kingstown meeting will evaluate recommendations from the First High-Level Meeting and consider appropriate multilateral strategies to effectively coordinate efforts to tackle threats and concerns held by small island states, according to Committee Chairman.

The Miami meeting will evaluate implementation of confidence- and security-building measures in the region, including the San Salvador and Santiago Declarations as well as related OAS General Assembly resolutions.

The Permanent Council meeting also approved requests from four civil society organizations seeking to participate in OAS activities: Amnesty International, Center for International Environmental Law, the Mexican Defense and Human Rights Promotion Commission and the Black Women's Institute, a Brazilian organization.

The Permanent Council congratulated the governments and peoples of Brazil, United States and Jamaica on the “excellent conduct" of their recent elections. Brazil's Ambassador Valter Pecly Moreira said, "Brazil is once again demonstrating its progress in consolidating its democracy." That country's new President will be sworn in on January 1, 2003.

The Council accepted Canada's offer to host a meeting of experts on an information exchange network for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, scheduled for Ottawa April 30 to May 2.

Reference: E-221/02