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Foreign Minister of El Salvador Presents Draft Declaration for OAS General Assembly

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador, Hugo Martínez, today presented to the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) a draft of the final declaration for the Organization’s General Assembly, to be held in San Salvador from June 5 to 7 under the theme of “Citizen Security” as its central axis.

“With this presentation we leave proof of the commitment of the President of the Republic, Mr. Mauricio Funes, with the citizens of the hemisphere, as a contribution of our humanist, supportive and inclusive vision, consistent with the urgent needs and high aspirations of living in a world of security, harmony and social peace,” Minister Martínez said.

In addition to the draft declaration—which must now be negotiated by the Member States before being submitted for approval to the General Assembly—the Salvadoran representative also presented a Plan of Action with the objective of “developing concrete and effective actions” and launching “commitments that are more tangible to the citizenry.”

Minister Martínez asserted that “citizen security is a public good that the States have the obligation of providing our citizens,” not only for the individual wellbeing of every one of them, but also because it will guarantee “the effective exercise of democracy, and through it progress towards a harmonious and supportive social coexistence, ensuring the enjoyment of citizen rights, and at the same time helping the strengthening of democratic institutions.”

To move in that direction, his Government proposes in the draft declaration of San Salvador “a modern and actual vision of security” centered on the need to have “a balance between policies of prevention, crime fighting, rehabilitation and reinsertion, assistance to victims, care for drug addiction and institutional strengthening.”

The Salvadoran Foreign Minister called on the Member States of the OAS to make “contributions and improvements” to the draft declaration and plan of action, with “the conviction that the exercise in negotiation we are about to begin offers the opportunity and challenge to the Member States to arrive at a consensus that directs the course of action to allow, from the point of view of public policy, for the perfecting of national, sub-regional and hemispheric plans and programs on this matter.”

Following Minister Martínez’s presentation, representatives of the following countries intervened during the special session of the Permanent Council: Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Peru (on behalf of the ALADI Group), Costa Rica, Canada, Guyana (on behalf of CARICOM) and the United States. In general, the delegations thanked the Salvadoran Minister for his presentation, praised the approach and concision of the documents presented and committed themselves to work jointly in the following months to arrive at a consensus on a declaration and a plan of action.

The draft declaration is available here.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here

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

Reference: E-565/11