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OAS Secretary General Participates in the Opening of the Second Inter-American Conference on Human Rights, Organized by the IACHR

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, participated today, along with the Vice Foreign Minister of Paraguay, Federico González, and the Executive Secretary of the IACHR, Emilio Alvarez Icaza, in the opening of the Second Inter-American Conference on “Human Rights and Exchange of Best Practices in Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights,” organized by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

In his remarks, Secretary General Insulza recalled that the spread of democracy and the economic growth experienced in the region had made it possible “to reduce poverty and improve the prospects for a better life for many people.” “However, “these achievements have not made our countries’ societies more egalitarian. On the contrary, continued injustice in the distribution of wealth and in access to social goods threatens to damage our democratic fabric,” he said.

The head of the OAS pointed out that the denial of economic, social, and cultural rights, which results, for example, from extreme poverty, is a hemispheric problem that “constitutes, in the final analysis, the negation of all human rights. How can we talk about the right to freedom of expression without a right to education? How can we conceive of the right to free circulation without a right to housing? How can we envisage the right to participation in public life without the right to food? How can we refer to the right to legal counsel without considering at the same time the right to health?, he said.

For that reason, Secretary General Insulza continued, “respect for human rights in their fullest sense, without discrimination, is the basic premise of democratic governance and of promotion of the rule of law” and, he emphasized, this is the objective to which both OAS and the IACHR are fully committed and that was the spirit behind the convocation of this forum today.

The Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay, Federico González, for his part, commended the work being carried out by the OAS, in particular its activities to promote human rights among countries, such as the conference on economic, social, and cultural rights. “These meetings are very useful as they enable us to strengthen the capacities of our civil servants, and therefore of our governments, in this area, Vice Minister González stated.

The Paraguayan diplomat reaffirmed his government’s commitment to human rights and described some of the initiatives taken to promote and defend them, such as constitutional recognition of the position of Ombudsmen and the establishment a ministry for women’s affairs, as well as ratification of international agreement on the matter and recognition of the competence of universal bodies.

Vice Minister González, who is also General Coordinator for the OAS General Assembly, recalled that the member states bore “responsibility” for promoting and protecting human rights and said he was convinced that the defense of economic, social, and cultural rights would be part of the hemispheric meeting’s deliberations.

Also addressing the meeting was Paulo Vannuchi, the IACHR commissioner in charge of the Unit on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (DESC). Commissioner Vannuchi expressed his belief that the Conference would be successful and that its findings would enable the IACHR to take new steps toward further development of the Results of the Process of Reflection on the Workings of the IACHR with a view to Strengthening the Inter-American Human Rights System, adopted by the member states at the special session of the General Assembly in March 2013.

Commissioner Vannuchi gave as an example of those steps the recent announcement of the creation of a Special Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights within the IACHR, “in response to a demand from civil society organizations and states.”

The event took place at the venue of the XLIV General Assembly of the hemispheric organization, which will be held from Tuesday to Thursday in Asunción, Paraguay. The IACHR is a principal, autonomous organ of the OAS. Also present at the opening session were the Assistant Secretary General of the hemispheric body, Albert Ramdin; the Permanent Representative of Paraguay to the OAS, Elisa Ruiz Díaz; and the OAS Representative in Paraguay, Diego Paz.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The B-Roll of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-216/14