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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
OAS Secretary General remarks at 3rd Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)
By OAS
Jan 28, 2015 - 4:35:42 PM
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I
would like to thank you first of all, Mr. President, for the
hospitality that The Republic of Costa Rica has once again offered us,
and for the opportunity to be here again, in this generous land that for
many in our region, in our world, is a symbol of peace, democracy
tolerance, and justice.
I would also like to thank you for the opportunity to attend this
latest meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
In the years that have elapsed since it was founded, CELAC has
established itself as an indispensable frame of reference for developing
shared policies and our region's role in the world.
I have been privy to that process from the start and have pointed
out on numerous occasions that our organizations have complemented each
other's work by jointly addressing, on the basis of the values we share,
the paramount issues of peace, democracy, sustainable development,
integration, and security.
Following a very positive decade for our region, today we face new challenges.
The first is to maintain or recover the economic growth rates we
achieved over the past 10 years. Many of the commercial and financial
factors prompting that expansion are no longer present in the global
economy. Latin America and the Caribbean must be in a position to offset
their absence with greater integration and expansion of their domestic
markets, more effective savings and investment policies, higher quality
education, development of their infrastructure, and enhanced technical
and scientific capacity.
The slowdown many of our countries are experiencing today poses a
threat to the progress we made with reducing poverty and inequality. The
many millions of men, women and young people who emerged from poverty
over the past decade and the many still living in poverty in our region
expect their governments to be capable of crafting and coordinating
effective public policies for overcoming those risks.
For that reason, prosperity and equity are the two leitmotivs of
our next Summit of the Americas: a historic event which will be
attended, for the first time, by all the Heads of State and Government
of the 35 independent States of the Americas. I am sure that the
discussions you will have here will serve to establish common ground for
confronting the huge challenge of achieving sustainable rates of growth
in the new global economic environment, much more significant
integration in trade and production, and a fairer distribution of the
fruits of that growth.
Today, many of our countries are beset by the scourges of
violence, drugs, and organized crime, all of which conspire against the
deeper democracy we all yearn for. We have made headway in our quest for
alternative approaches to dealing with those issues, convinced that
repression is not enough and that what we need is a public health
perspective, less imprisonment and more prevention, and more flexible
administration of justice. Above all, we need to address the problems of
exclusion that underlie much of the criminal behavior we endure.
Equally important is the need to overcome those obstacles while
preserving and expanding the democratic processes now thriving in our
region, as never before. That process, as we well know, is still fragile
and can suffer setbacks. Democratic elections, the rule of law, the
separation of powers, political pluralism, respect for human rights and
freedom of expression, gender equality, and nondiscrimination are values
we all proclaim but which still need to be greatly reinforced in our
day-to-day lives.
Our region needs to be able to come to grips with these core
concerns of our times. Our countries should also strive to present a
common front at major upcoming international meetings, such as: the
formulation of a new round of post-2015 sustainable development goals
and targets at the United Nations; the Climate Change Conference in
Paris in 2015; and the Special Session of the United Nations General
Assembly on the World Drug Problem. All these meetings are about to take
place and afford an opportunity for Latin America and the Caribbean to
speak with one voice. I sincerely hope that this Summit will bring us
closer to that goal.
Thank you
© Copyright 2015 by thebahamasweekly.com
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