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OAS Permanent Council Convenes Special Assembly to Discuss 2014 Budget

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today decided to hold the Forty-fifth Special Meeting of the General Assembly on October 30 to consider the program-budget for 2014, and also agreed to host at the headquarters of the hemispheric institution the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Declaration on Security in the Americas.

The Special General Assembly will review and approve the budget of the OAS for 2014 and will take place at the headquarters in Washington DC, as agreed by the Permanent Representatives in the regular meeting of the Council.

During the session, talks concluded on the effectiveness of the Declaration on Security in the Americas, and representatives approved a measure calling for a commemoration of the tenth anniversary of its enactment on Monday, October 28. At the request of Mexico’s delegation, it was agreed that the day will feature four panels, two in the morning and two in the evening, which will include experts and scholars, government representatives, regional group coordinators and senior officials of the hemispheric institution. The Permanent Representative of Mexico to the OAS, Emilio Rabasa Gamboa said that "starting from the consensus of the validity and relevance of the Declaration, Mexico sees this event as an opportunity for reflection to complement intergovernmental dialogue that has taken place within the Permanent Council ".

On a separate point of the agenda, the Permanent Representative of Uruguay, Milton Romani, gave a presentation on the occasion of the anniversary of the independence of his country, and the commemoration of the bicentennial of the “Instructions of the Year Thirteen,” one of the most important documents in the creation of the Uruguayan identity. Ambassador Romani recalled that on August 25, 1825, the Honorable House of Representatives of the Eastern Province of the Rio de la Plata enacted, among other laws, the declaration of independence of the South American country. Ambassador Romani also paid tribute to the Instructions of the Year Thirteen, a document drawn up under the leadership of the Federalist leader José Artigas, in which "the principles of political democracy which would then mark our national pride were already germinating."

During the meeting, the Alternate Representative of the United States to the OAS, Lawrence Gumbiner, paid tribute to the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. on the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of his "I have a dream" speech, considered a milestone in the fight for the defense of civil rights in the United States. Representative Gumbiner said more than 250,000 people witnessed the words of Dr. King on the mall in Washington DC, and less than a year later, the government of President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act.

The Council also received the Director of the Orchestra of Recycled Instruments of Paraguay, Favio Chavez, who works with children in one of the poorest areas of the country, building their musical instruments with items collected from the trash. "The orchestra is comprised of 35 children and we have 130 children in total who are learning music," said Chávez, adding that in total the instruments of the orchestra cost less than one thousand dollars. "People and education are the keys to the development of our countries," said Director Chávez, whose orchestra gave a concert at OAS headquarters minutes after the Council meeting ended.

Meanwhile, the Council decided to send to the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs the request of the Principality of Liechtenstein to be granted the status of Permanent Observer to the Organization.

Finally, the Chair of the Council and Permanent Representative of Paraguay, Martin Sannemann congratulated, on behalf of the Council, Uruguay and Trinidad and Tobago on the occasion of the celebration of their independence, and the United States for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the historic speech of Reverend King.

During the meeting, the representatives of member states Mexico, El Salvador, Trinidad and Tobago (on behalf of CARICOM), Bolivia, Costa Rica, Canada, Perú, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, the United States, Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia, Panamá (on behalf of SICA), Paraguay, Haití, Honduras, and Antigua and Barbuda took the floor. The representative of the Permanent Observer, Spain, also took the floor.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The audio of the event is available here.

The video of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-317/13