Canada is new leader of OAS permanent council

Tuesday, January 6, 2004

WASHINGTON, USA: Canada will preside over the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) for the next three months, with Ambassador Paul Durand now in the rotating chairmanship of the hemispheric body.

During a ceremony on Monday, the Canadian envoy received the symbolic gavel from his Honduran counterpart, Salvador Rodezno, who chaired from October through December 2003. The Permanent Council's new Vice Chair is Brazil's Ambassador Valter Pecly Moreira.

Highlighting a very busy agenda that begins with the January 12 and 13 Special Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, Ambassador Durand said the conference will be "a great opportunity for the hemisphere's leaders to get together to address major problems that have arisen since the last Summit." He expressed the hope that the Special Summit would be a turning point for the reg

Durand also touched on the situation in Haiti among pressing issues the Permanent Council would likely be called upon to continue to deal with during his tenure. And, stressing the need to be ready and flexible, he pledged to conduct the business of the Council in the most efficient way possible.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Rodezno reviewed his three-month chairmanship, identifying important developments over which the Permanent Council presided-including preparations for the Special Conference on Security, held in October in Mexico, where the foreign ministers adopted a broad Declaration on Security in the Americas. Ambassador Rodezno also noted the program of democratic governance on which the OAS embarked, as well as the High-Level Meeting on Poverty, Equity and Social Inclusion, held on Margarita Island, Venezuela, in October. 

OAS Assistant Secretary General Luigi Einaudi and member state representatives were among those on hand for the ceremony. 

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