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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
The
member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) today
approved the Plan of Action of the Social Charter of the Americas, which
“reflects the member states' determination and commitment to eradicate
poverty and hunger and urgently address the serious problems of social
exclusion and inequality at all levels to achieve equity, inclusion, and
social justice.”
The approval of the Plan is the culmination of a process of nearly 11 years of work. The negotiations over the Social Charter of the Americas , began in 2003 and the document was approved in 2012
during the XLII OAS General Assembly held in Cochabamba, Bolivia. In
addition to approving the document, The Ministers of Foreign Affairs at
that time instructed the Joint Working Group of the Permanent Council
and the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) to
conclude the negotiations on the draft Plan of Action of the Social
Charter." These negotiations ended last December, and its result is the
Plan of Action adopted today.
The joint meeting of the Permanent Council and the Inter-American
Council for Integral Development (CIDI) held this morning, was chaired
by Ambassador Niermala Badrising, current Chair of both Councils, who
emphasized that the Social Charter and its Plan of Action "will serve as
tools to jointly address our priorities and objectives in the economic
and social arena." The approval of the document, she said, "is an
important milestone with regard to the progress in the regional social
agenda and a renewal of our commitment to the pillar of integral
development." The Chair of the Council recalled that the Seventh Summit
of the Americas, to be held in April in Panama, will focus its
discussions on the issue of prosperity with equity and the challenge of
cooperation, and in this regard she noted that the Plan of Action of the
Charter "will be an instrumental contribution to the Summit’s agenda."
For his part, the OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza,
joined the expressions of satisfaction and highlighted the "remarkable
achievement" represented by the fact that "34 countries with such
different economic, social, cultural and political realities were able
to agree on what are the fundamental objectives and lines of action in
which must work in the social field." He also noted that the Plan of
Action is "very valuable, because it presents clear objectives in each
of the seven areas that are formulated, with very specific lines of
action."
The leader of the hemispheric institution said that in the issue
of development it is important to have coordination among the agencies
of the Inter-American system, and for that reason the Plan of Action
will be a key tool, as its guidelines "broadly define what we will do
and what we won’t do.” He encouraged members to use existing instruments
such as ministerial meetings, interagency coordination and the Summits
of the Americas Process to advance the objectives proposed in the Social
Charter, and concluded by mentioning some of the remaining challenges,
including implementation and measurement with quantitative indicators
and the identification of monitoring mechanisms between countries "that
will allow for the unification of criteria and facilitate the exchange
of best practices."
The Chair of the Joint Working Group of the Draft Plan of Action
and Permanent Representative of Dominica to the OAS, Hubert Charles,
presented a summary of activities that allowed members to reach
consensus on the Plan of Action. He said that the objectives and
strategic guidelines set out in the Plan of Action of the Social Charter
“reflect our commitment to strive for social advancement in our
countries, the construction of more just and more inclusive societies,
and the eradication of poverty, the last being a need rather than an
aspiration in democratic societies." He recalled that the joint
commitment to social justice and integral development "is
long-standing," referring to the Protocol of Cartagena, in which in 1988
the member states pledged themselves to a united effort to ensure
international social justice in their relations and integral development
for their peoples, as conditions essential to peace and security.
The Plan of Action, which was adopted by acclamation and must be
ratified at the next meeting of the OAS General Assembly this year, sets
objectives and strategic lines of action "in order to help to achieve
the principles, purposes, and priorities contained in the Social Charter
of the Americas." These areas are: labor, social protection, health,
food and nutrition, education, housing and basic public services and
culture. The Plan provides that "member states are responsible for the
implementation of the Plan of Action, based on their domestic laws,
national realities, strategies, plans, and available resources," and
that they may be supported by existing mechanisms of the OAS and other
organizations of the Inter-American system."
The Plan´s development was also assisted by some specialized
international organizations that were invited to participate in the
negotiation process to identify efforts in line with the Social Charter
and reinforce and supplement them, in order to avoid duplication and
deepen synergies in shared goals. In this context, today’s joint meeting
included presentations by the Assistant Director of the Pan American
Health Organization (PAHO), Francisco Becerra, and the Representative of
the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in
Washington, DC, Miguel García Winder, who shared institutional
perspectives on the social goals of the region and stressed the
importance of the Social Charter and its Plan of Action. Both
representatives reiterated the commitment of their respective
institutions to the development goals of the region and expressed their
satisfaction with the progress achieved in a shared social agenda.
"The right to health is a social right and as such it should be
strengthened progressively in the search for a more inclusive and
equitable health," said the Assistant Director of PAHO, who also
emphasized that "the inclusion of this important concept and these
strategies in the Plan of Action of the Social Charter is very important
because it promotes the integration of the efforts of the health sector
with all sectors of social development of the countries of the region."
During the meeting, the representatives of Dominica, Peru,
Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, Belize, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Guyana, Colombia, the United States, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Suriname,
Argentina, Haiti and Nicaragua took the floor to highlight the relevance
of the approved document and its contribution to strengthening ties
between economic growth and social justice, and stress the achievements
and contribution of the Plan of Action to the objectives of development
in the Americas.
For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.
© Copyright 2015 by thebahamasweekly.com
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