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Nicaragua Assumes Chair of the OAS Permanent Council

The Permanent Representative of Nicaragua to the Organization of American States (OAS), Denis Ronaldo Moncada, today assumed the Chair of the Permanent Council, at a ceremony in which he announced the priorities on which the Council will focus over the next three months.

Ambassador Moncada explained that his term will concentrate on achieving progress in the dialogue to strengthen the Inter-American Human Rights System (IHRS), in line with what was mandated by the General Assembly; continuing the negotiations on the Social Charter of the Americas; continuing work on the selection, validation and prioritization of OAS mandates; and contributing to the negotiations on the Inter-American Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as working on the preparations for the 43rd General Assembly to be held in Guatemala in June.

The Nicaraguan diplomat received the gavel from the hands of the Permanent Representative of Mexico and outgoing Chair, Ambassador Joel Antonio Hernández García, who reiterated his country's commitment to the organization and offered his full support to Nicaragua during the upcoming quarter. "We are sure this will be a successful presidency," he said.

The new Chair praised the "successful" work of his predecessor with regard to the dialogue to strengthen the Inter-American Human Rights System, "in which great progress has been achieved, receiving proposals from both Member Countries and the various actors involved." "The representation of Mexico has come a long way in this regard and the document that we received on this issue is a very important landmark," said Ambassador Moncada, who announced that, beginning with its next meeting, the Council will resume and analyze a calendar of activities that will allow for the proposal of a work plan "aimed at elaborating proposals to be presented to the General Assembly."

The Vice Chair of the Council will be held beginning today by the representative of Barbados, Ambassador John E. Beale.

The ceremony, held at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC, was attended by various OAS authorities and numerous Permanent Representatives of the Member States.

The Statute of the Permanent Council establishes that the Chair is to be held successively by each of the Permanent Representatives, in alphabetical order as determined by each country’s name in Spanish, and the Vice Chair in the same manner, following reverse alphabetical order. Both positions have a term of three months.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The video of the event is available here.

The audio of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-007/13