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OAS Permanent Council and CIDI Submit Proposals to the General Assembly in Antigua Guatemala

The Permanent Council and the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) of the Organization of American States (OAS) approved the submission of several draft resolutions to the next General Assembly, which will take place from June 4 to 6 in Antigua, Guatemala.

In a joint session, the Permanent Council and CIDI approved the draft resolution on the “Elaboration of the Plan of Action of the Social Charter of the Americas” and elevated it to the General Assembly, after hearing the report from the Joint Working Group of the Permanent Council and CIDI on this report from the Permanent Representative of Peru, Walter Albán.

Shortly afterward, at a regular meeting of the Permanent Council, the Alternate Representative of Panama, José de Jesús Martínez, presented a report on the "Program of Action for the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities" and the support that it receives for its Technical Secretariat, based in Panama. The Council took note of the report and decided to debate the issue at a future meeting.

The Council also heard a presentation from the Chair of CIDI and Permanent Representative of Barbados to the OAS, John Beale, on the CIDI Annual Report and four draft resolutions to submit for the consideration of the General Assembly. “The integral development agenda is critical to every Member State of the OAS, whether developed or developing,” said Ambassador Beale, adding that “the ability to work together, not only at the bilateral level, but in this multilateral forum, to advance the sustainable economic growth is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal. Now more than ever, we need to strengthen it.” He went on to explain that CIDI had begun an important process over the last year with regard to four issues: the review of the mandates of the organization,, the effort to strengthen new and existing mandates, consideration of the Action Plan for the Social Charter of the Americas, and the redefinition of the development agenda, in order to strengthen this pillar of the OAS.

In addition to taking note of the CIDI Annual Report and submitting it to the General Assembly, the Permanent Council approved the submission of four draft resolutions as well: ““Strengthening the Topic of Migration in the OAS,” ““Strengthening the Inter-American Council for Integral Development: political dialogue and partnership for integral development cooperation,” “Draft resolution: Advancing Hemispheric Initiatives on Integral Development,” and “Promoting Integrated Water Resource Management in the Americas.”

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The video of the event will be available here.

The audio of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-202/13