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OAS and Mexico Sign Agreement for 80th Session of the Inter-American Juridical Committee

The Government of the Republic of Mexico, through its Permanent Representative, Ambassador Joel Hernández, and the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS), represented by Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, today signed in Washington, DC, an agreement for the 80th Regular Session of the Inter-American Juridical Committee (IAJC) to be held in Mexico City from March 5 to 11, 2012.

The event, held semiannually, will consider this time: access to justice, cultural diversity in the development of international law, protection of personal data, strengthening of the Inter-American System of Human Rights, model legislation on the protection of cultural goods in cases of armed conflict, and a Guide for regulation of the use of force and protection of people in situations of internal conflict, among others.

During a signing ceremony, Secretary General Insulza thanked the Government of Mexico for hosting this meeting and recalled that the IAJC “is one of those organizations to which one inevitably alludes when referring to the continuity of the OAS that makes it a centenarian institution.” He also recalled the importance of the issues included in the meeting’s agenda: “it is difficult to emphasize enough the importance that development of law has in our Organization, and in that respect the Juridical Committee has been essential,” he said.

“When one speaks about the functions, priorities and tasks of the Organization of American States, I have always said that the most fundamental ones are determined by the fact that almost all inter-American law, all the juridical norms that regulate relationships between our countries, are concentrated here at the OAS,” emphasized the Head of the Organization.

For his part, the Representative of Mexico recalled that his country’s foreign policy is based on international law, and added that “codification and the progressive development of international law and inter-American law is a fundamental task of the OAS, a task it carries out through this consultative body.”

Ambassador Hernández called the event’s agenda “rich and current” with subject areas that are “very relevant and taken from our regional agenda.” “The Member States of the Organization always are anxious to learn its opinions, which help us, guide us in our daily work.”

The detailed agenda of the activities foreseen for the 80 regular session of the IAJC is found here.

Also present during the signing ceremony were the Chair of the Permanent Council and Representative of Haiti to the OAS, Ambassador Duly Brutus; the OAS Secretary for Legal Affairs, Jean Michel Arrighi; the Mexican member of the IAJC, Fernando Gómez Mont; and the United States member of the IAJC, David P. Stewart; as well as high-level OAS officials.

The IAJC, headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, was created in 1906 under the name of Permanent Commission of Jurisconsults, and serves as consultative body to the OAS on matters of juridical international affairs. It also promotes the progressive development and codification of international law in the region.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-029/12