@ Gustavo Otero

The Inter-American Juridical Committee, at its 93rd Regular Session held today at its headquarters in the city of Rio de Janeiro, had a successful meeting with the legal advisers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Member States of the OAS.

Besides the members of the Inter-American Juridical Committee, the meeting was also attended by Ambassador Mario Oyárzabal, General Director of the General Directorate of the Legal Director General of the Argentinean Legal Consulting Service; Mrs. Silvia Rivera Aguilar, General Director of Legal Affairs at the Bolivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mr. George Bandeira Galindo, Legal Advisor of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Mario Chouloute, Business Attaché of Haiti in Brazil; Mr. Jeffrey Kovar, Deputy Legal Advisor for the Western Hemisphere at the State Department of the United States; Mrs. María Auxiliadora Mosquera, General Coordinator of the Legal Advisory Bureau at the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility; Mr. Alejandro Alday, Legal Advisor at the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Juan José Ruda Santolaria, Legal Advisor at the Cabinet of Specialized Legal Counseling Office of the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mrs. Natalia Córdoba, Director of the Legal Advisory at the Costa Rican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship; and Mr. Carlos Mata Prates, Legal Advisor of the Legal Counseling Office at the Uruguayan Ministry of foreign affairs.

Representatives of the African Union´s Commission of International Law also attended the meeting; the Inter-American Juridical Committee has been working on cooperation initiatives with the Commission over the last few years.  

The Inter-American Juridical Committee presented some topics of the agenda, and the legal advisors had an opportunity to express their viewpoints, making substantive contributions. Among these topics we may cite the immunity of international organizations (on which the Juridical Committee approved a final report during the current Regular Session); binding and non-binding agreements; efficacy of foreign judicial decisions; and cybersecurity and foreign interference in the electoral processes of States. Furthermore, the legal advisors presented several topics for discussion and proposed topics that the Inter-American Juridical Committee could address in the future, in order to provide a response to the real and practical needs of the Hemisphere in the area of legal development. Among the themes proposed, it was mentioned the mechanisms on settling differences in general and especially mediation; the recovery of assets obtained through crime, the immunity of Heads of State, the implementing of electronic commerce and good practices to avoid the discourse of hatred against migrants.   

The Inter-American Juridical Committee decided to convene these joint meetings periodically in the future. The next meeting will take place during the next Regular Session of the Committee in August 2020.  

» See report of the VII joint meeting of the Inter-American Juridical Committee with the legal advisers of OAS member states.

» See report of the Joint meeting of the Inter-American Juridical Committee with representatives of The Hague Conference on Private International Law.