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OAS Permanent Council Elevates to General Assembly Draft Resolution on Drugs in the Americas

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), today agreed to send to the 46th OAS Special General Assembly, to be held Friday September 19 in Guatemala City, a draft resolution titled, “Reflections and guidelines to formulate and follow-up on comprehensive policies to address the world drug problem in the Americas.”

Upon presenting the draft resolution, the Chair of the Working Group and Permanent Representative of Guatemala to the OAS, José María Argueta, said the document contains proposals “for the reduction of demand, for the reduction of supply, and cooperation from a hemispheric perspective.” In addition, said Ambassador Argueta, the draft resolution “puts the individual, his or her dignity, and his or her social inclusion at the center of public policies, so that those policies help to strengthen the social net, justice, human rights, health, local and national development and citizen security.”

The resolution, said the Permanent Representative of Guatemala, “calls on member states to review their policies on drugs to address their national challenges, and also looks to establish an equilibrium between the actions of citizen security, public health, human rights and the reconstruction of the social fabric, as well as the establishment of measures, programs and actions that address the needs of the victims of violence and crime, among others.”

The Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, congratulated the Council on the approval of the draft resolution, which he called “an important show of the maturity of the Hemisphere in the way we have moved forward on this issue.”

“What we wanted to achieve was to remove this war on drugs, that was a never-ending war, that led nowhere, that produced nothing, and that affected greatly our countries. We are achieving this, and I am very glad,” said Secretary General Insulza, who concluded by highlighting that “the OAS is today a leader on the issue of drugs at a global level, and that is a great thing that we must recognize and also assume as a responsibility.”

On another point of the agenda, the members of the Council elected Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Paraguay as new members of the Leo Rowe Fund Committee, replacing Chile and Antigua and Barbuda. Since its establishment in 1948, the Leo Rowe Fund has helped students from Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as OAS officials, to carry out graduate studies in the United States.

The Chair of the Council and Permanent Representative of Saint Lucia to the OAS, Sonia Johnny, congratulated Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Chile on their independence days this month, an initiative followed by several member state representatives.

During the meeting, the representatives of Antigua and Barbuda, El Salvador, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Bolivia, Paraguay, Belize, Chile, Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru all took the floor.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The full 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-373/14