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OAS Permanent Council Continues Discussion of Proposals to Strengthen the Inter-American System of Human Rights

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today continued the debate on strengthening the Inter-American System of Human Rights (ISHR), in a process leading to an Extraordinary General Assembly on March 22, in Washington, DC.

At a special meeting today, the Council addressed the topics of the balance between the functions of the promotion and protection of human rights, the improvement of human rights standards, including the standards of enforcement and compliance of states economic, social and cultural rights, and the strengthening of mechanisms of consultation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) with users of the system. The Permanent Council is currently discussing the proposals to be submitted to the Extraordinary General Assembly.

The event on March 22 will conclude a process that began at the General Assembly of El Salvador, in June 2011, with the creation of the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Council which presented its report of recommendations in January 2012. Subsequently, the General Assembly held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in June 2012, instructed the Permanent Council to complete its work in this area before the end of the first trimester of 2013. To meet the objective, the Council adopted a Work Plan in September 2012, which is currently in its third phase, entitled "Preparation of a report for the consideration of the General Assembly."

Also, in a regular meeting prior to the special meeting, it was decided by lot that Guyana would be first in order of precedence during the Extraordinary General Assembly, which also means that the country will begin the meeting as Chair. In addition, the order of precedence of the Permanent Observers to the organization will start with Italy.

During the session the representatives of Ecuador, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Argentina, Canada, the United States, Dominica, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Panama, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Santa Lucia and Guatemala all took the floor.

Upon opening the meeting of the Permanent Council, the Chair and Permanent Representative of Nicaragua to the OAS, Denis Moncada, commemorated the anniversary of the death in 1934 of Nicaraguan independence leader Augusto César Sandino, sent condolences to Russia on the occasion of damages caused by the falling of a meteorite in its territory, celebrated the return of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez to his country, and praised the civic participation of the Ecuadorian people in the presidential elections on Sunday, while congratulating President Rafael Correa on his victory.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The video of the event is available here.

The B-roll 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-056/13