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OAS High Officials and Permanent Observers met with the First Lady of El Salvador

The Chair of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) and Permanent Representative of the United States to the Organization, Carmen Lomellin, today presided over a meeting with the First Lady of El Salvador, Vanda Pignato, and the Permanent Observers of the OAS with the participation and leadership of OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert R. Ramdin and El Salvador's Foreign Minister, Hugo Martinez.

The meeting took place in the context of the OAS Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (CEDDIS), of which the First Lady of El Salvador is Chair, and the 41st OAS General Assembly, which is to be held in San Salvador from June 5 to 7, 2011, with the theme, "Citizen Security in the Americas."

Ambassador Lomellin said the CEDDIS is "an important forum for the States Parties to the Inter-American Convention to share experiences, exchange views and cooperate more fully to enhance the lives of persons with disabilities and to heighten awareness of this issue in our Member States." She added that "the Council will do its utmost to support your work and that of the Committee."

Ambassador Ramdin said in reference to the assigned tasks of the CEDDIS that "this is a noble objective, not only because of the social component and the humanitarian component but because we are speaking about our brothers' and sisters' society that not only needs to be accomodated but supported in their own aspirations." In this spirit, the second in command at the OAS said he hoped that Member States and Permanent Observers present and those who did not make the meeting would continue to support the work of the Committee and Technical Secretariat.

Addressing the Permanent Observers present, First Lady Vanda Pignato asserted that the "credibility" of the Committee she chairs "has grown, and as an example of that new requirements have been assigned to it by the General Assembly."

"Unfortunately," she continued, "these new requirements did not impact the composition of the corresponding budget, and they thus generate a very high pressure on the economic situation of the Committee and the Department of Special Legal Programs that operates as its Technical Secretariat."

Furthermore, though the theme of the upcoming General Assembly in El Salvador is citizen security, the First Lady said, "the Chairmanship would like to insist on raising the visibility of individuals with disabilities in the region and progressively move forward on the fulfillment of the human rights of people with disabilities."

As such, Pignato asked the OAS Permanent Observers for financial support towards achieving the new objectives set out for the Committee. With this goal in mind, the Chair of CEDDIS said she would like to convene a meeting of the Committee jointly with civil society to address the various issues and concerns on matters of people with disabilities, to be held in San Salvador.

Among those present, the Permanent Representative of Canada, Allan Culham, and the Permanent Observers of France and Spain, Pierre-Henri Guignard and Javier Sancho, respectively, took the floor to thank First Lady Vanda Pignato for her visit and reiterate their commitments to continue to contribute towards the very important issue of the human rights of people with disabilities.

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

Reference: E-523/11