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

  February 22, 2013

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 that will culminate in an Extraordinary General Assembly on March 22 in Washington, DC.

At a special meeting today, the Council addressed the topics of strengthening the consultation mechanisms with users of the ISHR; dissemination of the criteria used to define priorities; aspects of the reports of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR); measures to enhance the institutional framework of the IACHR, and the Commission's annual report. The Permanent Council is currently discussing the proposals it will submit 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."

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

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-059/13