Presentación del candidato a Secretario General de la OEA Albert Ramdin

Name: Presentación del candidato a Secretario General de la OEA Albert Ramdin
Uploaded: 2025-03-10T14:27:56+00:00
Duration: 15 min 44 s
Channel: Página12

Página12

10/3/2025

A diferencia del que fuera su rival hasta hace días, el canciller paraguayo, partidario de la mano dura con Venezuela, Ramdin opina que "la única forma" de tratar esa situación es mediante un "diálogo" con el gobierno de Nicolás Maduro. "El paraguayo Ramírez Lezcano sostenía una posición disruptiva, basada en reestructurar la OEA y resignificarla, con énfasis en la democracia, el crimen organizado y las necesidades individuales de los miembros. No es que esto no sea necesario, pero hubo un error de lectura del contexto regional. Los países analizaron el presente escenario y concluyeron que el diálogo, la unidad y el consenso serán esenciales para un futuro con más posibilidades. No habrá espacio para grandes proyectos porque el presupuesto será cada vez más limitado, ni tiempo para cambios disruptivos", dijo Heduvan.

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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.

Presentación del candidato a Secretario General de la OEA Albert Ramdin

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