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Last Updated: Feb 10, 2012 - 1:59:23 PM |
Duly Brutus, Chair of the OAS Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Haiti to the OAS
Date: January 25, 2012
Place: Washington, DC
Credit: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS
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The
Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States
(OAS), Albert Ramdin, today reported to the Permanent Council of the
Organization on his recent visit to Haiti, and reaffirmed the
commitment of the organization with the people and government of
Haiti. In his report on OAS activities in that member country and
perspectives towards the future, Ambassador Ramdin recalled that
peace and stability in Haiti have been until now the priorities in
cooperation with the Caribbean country and that in the future the
Organization will continue to work with government authorities to
pursue development and growth of the Haitian people and
institutions.
The Assistant Secretary General traveled to
Haiti last week to Port-au-Prince, where he met with President
Michel Martelly, Prime Minister Garry Conille, representatives of
MINUSTAH and other high-level authorities. “There seems to be a
positive dynamic in Haiti in terms of planning towards the future,”
he said before the Permanent Council. “The Haitian government and
willing partners are taking advantage of various investment
opportunities, new initiatives are being explored, and new markets
are being sought. Also, Haitian citizens are taking advantage of
scholarship opportunities and training programs with renewed vigor,”
he added.
Nevertheless, there is still much to be done, said
Ambassador Ramdin, indicating that two years after the devastating
earthquake of 2010 there is still half a million people living in
tent cities who “continue to be vulnerable to the elements and to
illnesses such as cholera.”
He highlighted the “real need to
improve the method of coordination and execution” between donors and
non-governmental organizations, since it is estimated there are
between 3,000 and 10,000 organizations that conduct diverse projects
in the country, of which only three hundred are officially
registered. “There is no comprehensive plan between these groups,”
said Ramdin.
Regarding the work of the OAS, the Assistant
Secretary General asserted that the Organization “has found a real
interest in the development and strengthening of Haitian
institutions and their capacities.” Among the ongoing projects he
mentioned the civil registry, which has provided identification
cards to nearly five million Haitians; the scholarship program,
which offers new opportunities for education; the youth orchestra
program, which has benefitted 150 youths; and the computers for
communities and schools program, which has benefitted more than 600
children in 48 schools, among others.
The Permanent
Representative of Haiti to the OAS, Ambassador Duly Brutus, who
assumed the chairmanship of the Permanent Council, recalled the
initiatives conducted by the OAS in his country under the guidance
of the Haitian government and expressed the gratefulness of his
government for the work conducted by the Assistant Secretary General
as Chair of the Group of Friends of Haiti.
The Deputy
Ambassador of Haiti to the OAS, Bocchit Edmond, thanked Ambassador
Ramdin for the visit to his country, which “fits within the
framework of strengthening the ties of cooperation between Haiti and
the OAS,” and thanked Secretary General José Miguel Insulza for the
recent appointment of Frédéric Bolduc, of Canada, as new
representative of the OAS to the Caribbean country.
“There is
no doubt that the level and importance of cooperation between the
OAS and my country represent the irrefutable testimony of the need
to continue to strengthen the objectives of the Organization,” he
said, recalling for example that the program of civil registry
modernization has benefitted more than four million adults. Finally,
he reaffirmed the will of President Michel Martelly to “continue
working for the strengthening of democratic institutions with the
different sectors of the country,” and he expressed his conviction
that “the OAS will contribute as it always has with its own
influence to this process.”
On this subject, the following
delegations took the floor: Trinidad and Tobago, United States,
Canada, Suriname, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua.
For
more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.
© Copyright 2012 by thebahamasweekly.com
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