Chairing OAS Permanent Council, Trinidad and Tobago Diplomat calls for stronger focus on anti-poverty measures

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO – Trinidad and Tobago’s Ambassador Marina Valere today presided over the Organization of American States (OAS) Permanent Council—for the first time as its chair—and urged a more serious look at measures to eradicate poverty and tackle priority concerns such as the needs of women and children throughout the Americas. She said security issues and “our democratic responsibilities” also warrant due attention.

Helping to fight poverty includes “taking decisions to support national and multinational strategies for the creation of decent jobs for our people. Initiatives must be encouraged to enable communities to access and utilize the inward flow of remittances more effectively,” the Trinidad and Tobago diplomat told the member state ambassadors at the regular meeting of the Permanent Council, the Organization’s second-highest political decision-making body. She recalled the “singular goal underlying all our efforts as member states: that of improving the welfare and productivity of all the peoples of the Americas.”

Ambassador Valere said more needs to be done to train teachers, doctors and nurses and technicians as their services are particularly vital in the more inaccessible and economically challenged regions of the hemisphere. According to Valere, these challenges are more pronounced in smaller, more vulnerable states with economies that are less able to diversify. She added that “at the heart of our most earnest endeavors” are hemispheric initiatives to promote health, environmental awareness and sustainable development, education and training, human rights, the strengthening of democratic institutions, entrepreneurship, a knowledge-based society, and mutual respect for shared cultural heritage and traditions.

Observing a renewed commitment to a stronger OAS scholarship program, the Caribbean diplomat said it will remain crucial to the region’s success in this century that greater opportunities be provided for citizens of the member countries, in particular the youth.

Trinidad and Tobago is honored to chair the Permanent Council, the Ambassador said, renewing her country’s commitment to the hemispheric body. She also noted Trinidad and Tobago’s assumption of the chairmanship of the Summits of the Americas process, and made reference to that country’s preparation to host the next Summit of the Americas, in 2009.

On the Permanent Council’s behalf, Valere made a special presentation to her predecessor, Suriname’s Ambassador Henry Illes, in appreciation of his leadership of the hemispheric Council for the preceding three months.

Meanwhile, two new ambassadors to the OAS delivered their first formal interventions in the Permanent Council today. Canada’s Ambassador Graeme Clark and Ambassador Carlos Sosa Coello of Honduras reaffirmed their respective countries’ support for the hemispheric organization and pledged to do all they can to help advance the OAS agenda to secure a better quality of life for the citizens of the Americas.

The Permanent Council later confirmed the election of the Venezuelan jurist Freddy Castillo Castellanos to membership on the Inter-American Juridical Committee (CJI), based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.