00:00Good morning, buenos días.
00:09In the first place, I want to recognize the Chairman of the Permanent Council, Ambassador
00:19Héctor Enrique Arce, also my colleague from Paraguay, Minister Rubén Ramírez Descano.
00:30Special welcome and appreciation to the distinguished permanent representatives and also the representative
00:38of civil society organizations.
00:41We recognize also Ms. Paulina Corominas, the Chief of Relations with Civil Society
00:50at the OAS and also Mari Carmen Plata, Secretary of Access to Rights and Equity.
00:59The fact only that these two institutions exist or segments of the Secretariat exist
01:06in the OAS demonstrates how much it is recognized that this is an important topic.
01:14Civil society is without any doubt important and I'll come back to that.
01:21All others present, welcome and I look forward to a discussion.
01:27In fact, I will try not to speak too long because I want to listen to your views and
01:34respond to your questions which you may have had.
01:37I also recognize the presence of those online through the virtual means and I hope that
01:45they can also follow us and go further.
01:48What I want to say very clearly, I'm very happy to stand here because civil society,
01:56in my view, more than governments, represent Assistant Secretary General, welcome, Ambassador
02:04Nestor Mendez.
02:07Civil society represents all in society, even governments in my view.
02:14It is an organizational reality that there are so many civil societies from different
02:23perspectives and I have a list here of the different topics which civil society address
02:31and we are not going to be able to address all of them today but from social inclusion,
02:37social justice and equality, human rights, environmental sustainability and environmental
02:44security, health issues related to crime and security, inclusion, transparency are
02:54all topics which are critically important and I think, in our view, coming from a region,
03:01the Caribbean community, where civil society is embedded in the life of any government,
03:09we have that tradition of recognizing the value of civil society in many ways.
03:16We all may not be completely happy and satisfied because it's a tough discussion which we have
03:24with each other but the Caribbean is known for functioning democracies, functioning parliamentary
03:32systems and also for recognizing the engagement with civil society at large.
03:42We are part of the Caribbean, we are part of South America geographically but culturally
03:48Suriname is part of the Caribbean and I can tell you that from our perspective, we share
03:55those views since this government came in power, in fact even before that, before we
04:04came in power in 2020, we had more than 100 plus consultations with civil society in different
04:14areas, all the areas which we discuss here today to inform us about the policies they
04:20would like to see as part of our governance and that dialogue, that institutionalized
04:27dialogue continues up to today and it has been very useful, I have given myself leadership
04:35to that process on behalf of the president of Suriname to meet with trade unions, to
04:42meet with civil society organizations, to meet with human rights groups, to meet with
04:47indigenous groups, organizations to talk about their issues and as I said, never everything
04:54is perfect but this is a tradition which has grown, civil society is critically important,
05:01media organizations in terms of their role in society, very important, so I want to say
05:08to you that the role of a secretary general in the organization of American states is
05:18of course not to decide for the member states, we will be guided, whoever gets elected, by
05:27the member states and we will always, that's in my case, very strongly support civil society
05:38in getting first of all the message across, have structural dialogue with civil society
05:44organizations, some of them are already embedded, especially the human rights system is embedded
05:51within the OAS but we can do more, so I'm looking at more frequent targeted communication
05:58with civil society organizations from the hemisphere.
06:02The policy setting of this organization is a mandate of the member states, we have to
06:07be very realistic about that but I think as a secretariat we can bring to the table
06:13many issues and guide member states about the relevance of it and try to get policies
06:23out of that and that's the way it has been for the past decades when important resolutions
06:29were adopted, so a lot has been done already, we have to build on that.
06:34We live in challenging times, every single society lives in challenging times in many
06:40ways and we have to make sure that we do not neglect the role civil society at large plays
06:51in our societies and the dialogue which is needed is not only at the level, at the national
06:58level, within the borders of a country, it has to be beyond and I think the OAS provides
07:06a suitable platform for that.
07:08Now some specific issues, how do you deal with the diversity which civil society represents?
07:17I've seen that in practice when I organized 10 of the General Assemblies and in the margins
07:22of the General Assemblies you have discussions with civil society, but not all civil societies
07:31can have a voice there, so we have to find different ways of getting everybody a voice
07:37because there are mostly human rights issues that come to the table there, some of the
07:41legal issues, the legal organizations, some of them have been listed here, but in that
07:48diversity we have to make sure that everybody gets a turn.
07:52We know what social diversity means, ethnic diversity, social diversity in Suriname, one
07:59of the most diverse countries in the hemisphere, but what we have created out of that diversity
08:05of different groups, different religions, different backgrounds, different cultures,
08:11we have been able to do two things.
08:14We have had a process of going from recognizing differences to acceptance and celebrating
08:21together.
08:23That took some time, but we have now a highly united Suriname, a highly tolerant society,
08:32tolerant in many aspects, culture, religion, language, and I give that as an example because
08:40Suriname can be seen as an example of how we build unity.
08:44So with that experience we certainly want to engage in that way with civil society.
08:54I pay specific attention to two or three, and I'm not saying that it's exclusive, but because
09:03of our own realities, I think the role of media in terms of transparency and access
09:10to information is critically important, and we should continue working on that, because
09:19the role of the media, and they have a responsibility as well.
09:24In my discussions with our media I tell them you have a responsibility, we have a responsibility,
09:29but we need to make sure that you can communicate in a responsible manner matters which are
09:35relevant to the people.
09:37That's one area which I'm particularly interested in.
09:41The other one is indigenous people.
09:46We have indigenous peoples, Amerindians, Maroon societies, and we are now in the process
09:53of recognizing, in my view too late, recognizing their right on land, because in our legal
10:04system we don't have the concept, the construct of collective land titling, it's only individually.
10:10So all those things are being changed now, but indigenous people, the law is in Parliament,
10:16and I hope before this government leaves office it will be approved.
10:24So indigenous peoples, and I have participated in many of the meetings of the Working Group
10:28on Indigenous People in the OAS, and I support strongly their inclusion and rightful place
10:41in society.
10:46I think in the case of civil society we have to approach this from a whole of society approach.
11:04What I mean by that is that civil society is an integral part of any community, any
11:12society, but we cannot exclude them from the development of the country.
11:22So when we speak about a whole of society approach it means that we have to involve
11:26them, listen to them, take their proposals and incorporate that in decision making,
11:35because the development of the country, whether it is social development, whether it is economic
11:41development, whether it is political development, it depends on the input beyond the government.
11:51And with that what I'm saying is we must see the responsibility of civil society in
12:01terms of the development of the country.
12:05It's long past that governments alone are responsible for development in our societies.
12:12It's a collective responsibility, individually, collectively, government and civil society.
12:19And we have a broad range of civil society.
12:21In our case, for instance, there are many issues, and I've worked very closely with
12:25the LGBTQ plus organizations in Suriname, and we have been able to improve Suriname's
12:38position in terms of the decisions here adopted, where we before used to have a reservation
12:45on the resolution, we lifted that reservation since we took office.
12:52We cannot discriminate between people, whoever, whatever circumstance they are, whatever representation
13:01they have.
13:02We don't do that.
13:03It's, in fact, in our cases, constitutionally, it's in our constitution that that cannot
13:13be the case.
13:15But most of all is we have the conviction that civil society organizations play an important
13:25role in our societies and in our development.
13:29So for us it's not a question of if, the question is how do we materialize that.
13:37And for that we need dialogue mechanisms, communication mechanisms, and also the leadership,
13:45the commitment of the leadership to do that.
13:49We are all, we are all citizens of a country.
13:54We cannot discriminate with regard to the input in the future of the country.
13:59This is how I look at things in terms of civil society.
14:03They can make a meaningful contribution to policymaking and decisions for the future
14:08of the country.
14:10I'm realistic.
14:12Not always we will agree on everything, and that's fine.
14:19Even within the governance of the countries, between the countries, we don't agree on everything.
14:24But at least there must be an honest debate.
14:26There must be an opportunity for them to express what is relevant.
14:31As I said, I'm not going to go into specifics of the many areas which we, which are listed.
14:39But there are new areas which are coming up on technology and digital inclusion.
14:45The issue about empowerment of youth and vulnerable groups in our societies, of Afrodescientes
14:53in our societies, how we deal with that, and what kind of opportunities, equal opportunities
14:58we provide those groups in terms of education, in terms of access to health, in terms of
15:03the legal rights.
15:05These are all things which we should underscore.
15:09And I think when you have a leadership at the OAS that recognizes that role, you can
15:15count on us and count on me.
15:18So I'll leave it here, and I look forward to more specific questions which will come
15:22shortly.
15:23Muchas gracias.
15:24Muchas gracias, embajador Ramdín.
15:25Y tengo el gusto ahora de cederle la palabra al embajador Ramírez Lescano por un tiempo
15:26de 15 minutos.
Comentarios