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OAS Permanent Council Installs Committees until 2014

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today installed its five standing committees for the next year in a regular meeting in which it re-elected the Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda, Deborah-Mae Lovell, as a member of the Leo S. Rowe Pan American Fund Committee, and bade farewell to the Permanent Observer of France, Pierre Henri Guignard.

The permanent representatives formally approved the installation of the General Committee, the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs (CAJP), the Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Affairs (CAAP), the Committee on Hemispheric Security (CSH), and the Committee on Inter-American Summits Management and Civil Society Participation in OAS Activities (CISC). The Council also includes the Joint Working Group with the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) on the draft Plan of Action of the Social Charter of the Americas. Following the rules of the body, the Chair and the Vice-Chair will occupy the same positions in the General Committee, and the chair of the CISC will be exercised by the representative of the member state hosting the next Summit of the Americas, in this case, Panama. The remaining committee chairs will be elected shortly.

At the same meeting, the Council re-elected by acclamation as member of the Leo S. Rowe Pan American Fund Ambassador Lovell, who will serve until the end of 2016. “I would like to express my appreciation for the confidence placed in my delegation,” said Ambassador Lovell, and expressed her commitment to helping young people in the region to receive a better education. The Rowe Fund is an educational loan program of the OAS that helps citizens from Latin America and the Caribbean finance their studies or research in accredited universities in the United States by awarding interest-free loans of up to $15,000 dollars.

In addition, the Council agreed to instruct the CAJP to analyze the request of the Sovereign Order of Malta to be granted the status of OAS Permanent Observer.

On another point on the agenda, the Permanent Council bade farewell to the Permanent Observer of France, Pierre Henri Guignard, and expressed its thanks for his work with the OAS. The Secretary General of the Organization, José Miguel Insulza, thanked Ambassador Guignard for "the indelible mark left he has left behind and the remarkable way in which he has brought his country closer to the OAS." The Secretary General also highlighted the support of the French diplomat for the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Inter-American Juridical Committee. He also highlighted his support during the process of strengthening the Inter-American System of Human Rights, as well as the efforts of Ambassador Guignard in defense of the freedom of expression, the abolition of the death penalty in the Americas, and the OAS Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia (MAPP/OAS).

The representatives also paid tribute to the Permanent Representative of Panama, Arturo Vallarino, who today presided his final session as Chair of the Permanent Council. The Chair of the Permanent Council during the next trimester will be in the hands of Paraguay.

During the meeting, the representatives of Haiti, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Antigua and Barbuda, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Perú, Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, Canada, Colombia, Panama, Brazil, the United States, Bolivia, Guyana, Uruguay, Dominica, Venezuela, Suriname, Paraguay, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Argentina took the floor. The permanent observers of Spain, Italy, the European Union and France also took the floor.

A gallery of photos of the event will be available here.

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

Reference: E-252/13