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Press Release

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA’S AMBASSADOR OUTLINES COUNTRY’S
ENVIRONMENTAL EMPHASIS

Antigua and Barbuda intends to more vigorously stress the environmental vulnerabilities of small island states as an important part of the hemispheric agenda, Ambassador Deborah-Mae Lovell told the Organization of American States (OAS) Permanent Council. She said on Wednesday her delegation would seek a total review of how the OAS deals with natural disasters, “with a view towards having implemented a single coordinating policy and a practical and uniform approach toward the question of natural disasters.”

In her first official address to the Permanent Council since presenting credentials last September, Ambassador Lovell used the threats to her country’s coral reefs to illustrate how vulnerabilities affect small island states’ well-being. “Our vulnerabilities are not only geographical, physical and environmental, they are also political, financial, economic, social, cultural and humanitarian,” she explained, citing the effects of crime, terrorism, drug trafficking and arms proliferation and rising global temperatures.

On the latter, Ambassador Lovell applauded the OAS’ effort through its ad hoc working group, chaired by Jamaica’s Ambassador Gordon Shirley, in formulating recommendations on natural disaster reduction.

Touching on what she called the most vulnerable groups, the Antigua and Barbuda diplomat asserted that the OAS has a moral obligation to address the growing plight of women, children and adolescents, “because of the human elements that is involved.” Improving the lives of the citizens of the Americas “is a goal that should remain at the very center of the organization’s activities in the hemisphere,” she argued.

She said the OAS should do more to promote compliance with resolutions on fighting the trafficking in persons, especially women, children and adolescent, and should also give full political support to the work of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM). Lovell wants the OAS to continue to develop strategies to cater to the needs of vulnerable groups, “so that no one becomes a victim of racism, discrimination or indiscriminate violence, and no citizen of the Americas falls through the economic and social safety net.”

Commending the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), she said its Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM) has emerged as “a most effective multilateral, peer-base regime that evaluates the programs to deal with illicit drugs across the hemisphere.”

Noting her recent legislation her government passed, among them anti-corruption, freedom of information and integrity in public life acts, the ambassador asserted, “This is a demonstration of the willingness to break with the past, and to usher in a new thinking and a new attitude in governance and in government.” She thanked the OAS for recently providing technical assistance to improve port security to help member countries comply with security standards stipulated by the International Maritime Organization.

Reference: E-237/04