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OAS Secretary General Met with President of Peru and Inaugurated Forum on Employment, Youth and Democratic Governance

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, met today with the President of Peru, Ollanta Humala, and inaugurated, alongside the Peruvian Foreign Minister, Rafael Roncagliolo, and the Director of the International Labor Organization (ILO) for Latin America and the Caribbean, Elizabeth Tinoco, the Forum, “Employment, Youth, and Democratic Governance,” a two-day event organized in Lima by the ILO and the International Institute for Labour Studies (IILS).

Secretary General Insulza opened his remarks at the Forum by noting that “nothing affects legitimacy more, and as such, the sustainability of our democracies, than injustice, inequality, poverty, exclusion and unemployment.” He linked his affirmation to one of the fundamental precepts of the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IADC) that establishes that “economic growth and social development, based on justice, equality and democracy, are interdependent and mutually reinforced.”

Along with recalling that this year the IADC celebrates its 10th Anniversary, Insulza insisted that for democracies to be solid, they must meet a minimum of social conditions, and in this sense cited article 12 of the IADC, which states that “poverty, illiteracy and low levels of human development are factors that negatively impact the consolidation of democracy.”

Revisiting past political eras in countries of the region, the head of the OAS recalled that, after a tough decade of dictatorial governments, the democratic governments have returned that after the 90s oversaw significant politico-institutional progress. “But there is still a long road to travel in this continuous, and in truth never-ending process, to achieve the stable consolidation of democracy,” he warned.

Linking the concept of democracy to overcoming poverty, economic growth, employment, working conditions and social inclusion, the head of the hemispheric organization considered that “our models of development risk their credibility and legitimacy on a daily basis.” He identified as one of the great challenges the fight against inequality, and he reiterated that “Latin America and the Caribbean continue to be the most unequal region in the world.” He emphasized that “in fact, ten Latin American economies are among the 15 most unequal economies in the world.” “In general terms,” he summarized, “we can assert that the region has made progress, but there is still a huge social debt.”

In this context, he said that respect for working rights is another pending challenge. He underlined that “in the last decades, collective bargaining has stopped playing a role in the fixation of wages. There is a growing number of workers forced to negotiate their remuneration and working rights individually. The systematic attack to unionization and collective bargaining also harms income distribution.” He also spoke about the quantity and quality of employment, denouncing that the informal labor sector continues to grow and that “more than half of workers in the region belongs to the informal sector, to the point that in some of our countries this sector reaches 70 percent.”

The head of the hemispheric organization offered an overview of the current politico-economic situation in the region, underlining that with strong public finances, with international reserves, with a growth rate of 4.4 percent according to ECLAC estimates, with reigning democratic systems, with good cooperation and exchange relations, there are conditions for a qualitative jump that could drive the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Nevertheless, he warned that, for this to occur, investment is needed in infrastructure, innovation and education, and this, he remarked, “requires tax policies that strengthen incomes, make public spending more efficient, promote transparency, participation and shared responsibility by social actors.” In what constituted a questioning of the current tax systems in the region, he criticized that these “do not change the structure of income: while in Europe the distribution of income changes visibly after taxes, in Latin America, before and after taxes the income structure is the same.” Wrapping up his remarks, he held that “tax systems shouldn’t only serve to collect funds for the State, but also to improve the distribution of income determined by the market.”

Finally, Insulza said that it is in this context that the actions of the OAS “are aimed at supporting governments in the strengthening of their democratic institutions and their public policies.” For it, he continued, “we have spaces for high-level political dialogue that allow for consensus building and for proposing actions to face educational, social and labor challenges to achieve integral development in the region.”

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-1010/11