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OAS Permanent Council Finishes Review and Approval of Resolutions and Reports for the General Assembly in Guatemala

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today held a regular meeting to finalize the review of the reports and draft resolutions that will be presented to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the hemisphere gathered next week in Antigua, Guatemala for the 43rd OAS General Assembly.

During the meeting, the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, presented his annual report for 2012, which, as he explained "summarizes the activities of each of the units of the organization and serves as a reference for the work in which the organization was involved during this year." By making the document available to delegates, Secretary General Insulza said he hopes it "will be useful for the review and prioritization of mandates and for the creation of the new OAS strategic vision."

The Permanent Council also received the report of the Chair of the Committee on Hemispheric Security and the Permanent Representative of Guyana, Bayney Karran, on the activities carried out during the 2012 - 2013 period. Ambassador Karran detailed the meetings, debates and documents that made up the Commission’s work during the last year, and introduced the draft resolution "Advancing Hemispheric Security: A Multidimensional Approach," which will be presented to the General Assembly.

For his part, the Chair of the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs and Permanent Representative of Colombia to the OAS, Andrés González, made a presentation of the activities performed by the Committee during the last year, and reported on the status of negotiations of the draft resolutions to be presented to the Foreign Ministers next week. Among them were draft resolutions related to issues of access to justice; rights of Afro-descendants; the elimination of discrimination against persons with disabilities; follow-up on the Inter-American Convention against Corruption; the protection of stateless persons; the strengthening of effective public management; access to public information and protection of personal data; and the promotion and protection of the human rights of migrants, the elderly, and people living with HIV in the Americas, among others.

In closing the session, the Style Committee for the General Assembly was announced, which will consist of Brazil (Portuguese) Haiti (French), the United States (English) and Guatemala (Spanish).

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-204/13