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OAS ASSISTANT SECRETARY GENERAL CITES BETTER COMMUNICATION
AS VITAL TO PEACE-BUILDING IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

“We need to foster dialogue and communication—sincere, real communication,” as a vital pillar for building peace and helping to prevent conflicts in society, said Assistant Secretary General Albert R. Ramdin of the Organization of American States (OAS). Very often, “people speak but they don’t hear each other,” he explained, noting that poverty and exclusion must also be tackled to build peace.

Ambassador Ramdin told participants at a recent three-day sub-regional consultation in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, that the underlying causes of conflicts must be properly understood, as conflicts can have a variety of sources—social, territorial and political—and can arise from social and economic marginalization as well. The event, organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), with the OAS providing some support, explored the topic “Capacity-Building for the Peaceful Management of Conflicts in Central America and the Caribbean.”

Ramdin argued that shared responsibility involving government, the business sector and civil society is critical to democratic governability in the Americas. Short-term responses to conflicts necessarily deal with emerging and existing situations, he said, while long-term responses are structural, focused on building capacity and establishing mechanisms in society to prevent conflicts from arising. In arguing for a stronger role for civil society, Ambassador Ramdin also called for the promotion of social policies that can mitigate conflicts in society. He said the role of the media is particularly important in this endeavor.

The OAS Assistant Secretary General suggested said that strengthening capacity to prevent conflicts involves improved governance, especially in the areas of transparency, accountability and efficiency, “so that people get to trust and have confidence in their leaders and in their administrations.” It also involves investing in education and focusing on youth, to provide them a safe environment so they can develop into responsible citizens “who can deal with the challenges any country is going through,” Ramdin said. In the arena of education, he proposed that school curricula include a mandatory subject on democratic citizenship to address how to foster peace in society.

Other effective approaches to peace-building call for better-functioning parliamentary systems, noted Ramdin, who said that dialogue structures are needed in order to prevent political crises. He cited as well the need for the functions of justices of the peace, ombudsman institutions and electoral councils to be strengthened.

The purpose of the sub-regional consultation included raising awareness among government officials, civil society representatives and other practitioners on the relationship between governance and crisis prevention, conflict management and building sustainable peace.

Reference: E-144/07