Antigua and Barbuda Envoy, assuming OAS permanent Council Chair, promises more focus on hemisphere’s youth

WASHINGTON, DC – Placing the youth “front and center” on the agenda of the Organization of American States (OAS) will be top priority over the next three months, Antigua and Barbuda’s Permanent Representative Deborah-Mae Lovell declared in Washington on Monday, July 9, as she assumed the chairmanship of the OAS Permanent Council.

Ambassador Lovell accepted the gavel from the outgoing Permanent Council Chairman, Venezuela’s Permanent Representative Ambassador Jorge Valero, arguing that, “We must include the youth on the agenda of the hemisphere.” Lovell explained that such a focus is necessary in order to better serve the youth of the Americas—a constituency that makes up some 65 per cent of the population of the Americas and “100 per cent of our future.”

While at the helm of the Permanent Council, the Antigua and Barbuda envoy will also put emphasis on continuing a conversation the OAS opened earlier this year concerning the trans-Atlantic slave trade, along with the other priorities of the hemispheric forum of the member state ambassadors. Lovell also commended Ambassador Valero for his “stellar work” at the helm of the organization’s second highest decision-making body over the past three months.

For his part, Ambassador Valero, who is also Venezuela’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for North America, reflected on his chairmanship, thanked the OAS Secretariat and member states for their support during his three months at the helm, and expressed ongoing support for the work of the Permanent Council.

Along with several member state ambassadors and other officials, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin were on hand for the brief ceremony for the change of ambassadors to occupy the three-month rotating Permanent Council chairmanship.