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Americas Civil Society Expresses Views to OAS Secretary General, Assistant Secretary General and Guatemalan Foreign Minister, Against Backdrop of General Assembly

Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala Luis Fernando Carrera, and OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert R. Ramdin, meeting today in La Antigua Guatemala, with representatives of civil society against the backdrop of the forty-third regular session of the General Assembly, discussed the drug problem, human rights, and a range of other issues of importance to the social actors.

“This year we have more than 500 invited civil society, labor, and private sector organizations. This, I believe, bears testimony to the importance you place on the work being done by the Organization,” Secretary General Insulza said. “Over the last decade we have made quite a bit of progress on the matter of links with civil society,” the head of the hemispheric organization added, commending the representatives in attendance for “the great effort you are making to network in order to mobilize yourselves and to support the OAS.”

The Organization’s Secretary for External Relations, Alfonso Quiñónez, noted meanwhile that “with forums like this, we are making progress with our mandate to help strengthen democratic culture in the Americas, and we will continue promoting programs and activities that take the contributions of civil society organizations into consideration.”

The civil society representatives commented on issues related to the rights of drug addicts; the risks of drug use; reproductive rights; the risks of alcohol consumption; arms trafficking linked to drug trafficking; disability and sustainable development; conditions in prisons in the region; the high human cost of the “war on drugs;” the rights of people of African descent; the rights of the LGBTTTI community; the criminalization of various sexual acts in certain countries of the Americas; the rights of women; and femicide.

As the meeting drew to a close, the Secretary General remarked that “democracy is a process,” and one that does not always follow a linear path. He alerted the participants to three major threats to democracy in the region: inequality; organized crime; and the lack of a “chain of trust” among the citizens themselves and toward their governments.

The informal discussions between the OAS Secretary General and representatives of civil society organizations has been held as part of the General Assembly since the thirty-seventh regular session that was held in Dominican Republic in 2006. It provides an additional forum for exchange with the social sectors that have been taking part in OAS activities for more than a decade.

Ahead of the formal opening of the forty-third regular session of the General Assembly tomorrow, June 4, there will be a Dialogue of the Heads of Delegation and the OAS Secretary General and Assistant Secretary General with Representatives of Civil Society, labor unions and the private sector, and other stakeholders.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-218/13