Organization of American States
www.oas.org
Press Release
(E-020/01)
January 30, 2001
OAS OFFICIAL SAYS COOPERATION HAS INSPIRED
HEMISPHERIC STABILITY
"The Americas enjoy a level of
democratic stability and security not seen in most other regions of
the world," Assistant Secretary General Luigi Einaudi told
hemispheric delegates at an Organization of American States meeting
that he inaugurated today to continue preparations for the Third
Summit of the Americas in Canada next April.
Ambassador Einaudi attributed that progress to
regional cooperation which, he said, "the summit process is
revitalizing." He told participants at the three-day 21st
Meeting of the Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG) that, since
the first Summit in Miami in December 1994, "a common vision of
democracy and freer trade has inspired much hope and some
progress," including the fact that among 33 of the world's most
troubled countries identified in a recent research, "not one
was in this Hemisphere."
Elaborating, the OAS Assistant Secretary General
noted that "when the state is incapable of providing the
necessary services and resources for the citizens' development on
the basis of equality before the law, this is inevitably seen as an
unmet expectation, a failure of the democratic system."
Presiding at the SIRG meeting, Canadian Prime
Minister Jean Chrétien's personal representative for the Summit of
the Americas, Marc Lortie, reviewed the accomplishments since the
last SIRG gathering. "We made very useful progress in advancing
our work on the first and third chapters of the Plan of Action for
the Quebec City Summit," he said. Those chapters pertain to
"strengthening democracy" and "realizing the human
potential."
Mr. Lortie also referred to the recent
Canada-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Summit in Jamaica, saying it
was "a very timely opportunity to consult Caribbean leaders on
the full range of issues" to be considered by the Hemisphere's
leaders at the Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada,
from April 20 to 22, 2001.
Canada's Ambassador to the OAS, Peter Boehm,
briefed the delegates on the work of the OAS' Special Committee on
Inter-American Summits Management, which he chairs. He noted that
the Committee's special meeting set for February 16 will involve
experts, including civil society representatives, who will discuss
the second chapter of the draft Plan of Action of the Hemispheric
Summit, with a constructive debate on issues related to trade.
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