WASHINGTON DC, April 09, 2014 (SKN Embassy DC) – Today, the Organization of American States (OAS) celebrated the handover of the chairmanship of the Permanent Council (PC). The Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to the (OAS), Pedro Vergés, transferred the mantle of chairmanship to Her Excellency, Jacinth Henry-Martin of the Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis.
Enthusiastically and with her well-known professionalism, the Federation’s highest diplomat in the USA assumed the chairmanship of the Permanent Council and showed her resolve to effectively preside over an essential body of one of the oldest and most influential multilateral organizations in the Hemisphere. His Excellency, Milton Romani Gerner, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Uruguay, serves as Vice Chair. Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin and the delegations of the Member States attended the ceremony.
The Permanent Council is a political platform in which the Member States seek to maintain friendly and diplomatic relations while they engage in meaningful dialogue and cooperation to address pressing issues facing the region. The Chairmanship of the Permanent Council is a rotating position, a process which accords the honour of chairmanship to all member states. A full rotation takes approximately eight years. In its regular, special, and protocolary meetings, this body works diligently to promote democracy and human rights, debates resolutions, and implements the mandates from, and submits recommendations to, the General Assembly.
Ambassador Henry-Martin’s experience in diplomacy and the various positions she has held attest to her capacity and commitment to promoting democracy, human rights, security, and development, which are the four pillars of the OAS. The new Chair of the Permanent Council expressed her commitment to a new strategic vision of the OAS, asserting that, “As the organization retools and reshapes for greater efficiency though much needed introspection and consultation, St Kitts and Nevis endorses the indispensability of a new strategic vision, one which contemplates the fiscal reality of the organization, balances the varied needs of its membership and seeks the appropriate balance for dynamism and vibrancy in responding to our shared resolve to improve the lives of our people through the core pillars of this evolving organization.”
Upon commencement of today’s Regular Meeting of the Permanent, the new Chair of the Permanent Council pledged “the active engagement and availability of the chair in directing and advancing the work of the Council” and thanked delegations for their usual support and collaboration.
The Ambassador used her inaugural statement as Chair to bring focus to small states by making the point that, “…the OAS has a role to play in capacity building, in research funding, in building partnerships, in raising the profile of the discourse on SIDS [Small Island Developing States] since these are challenges that confront us all…”
In addition to being St. Kitts & Nevis’ current Permanent Representative to the OAS, Her Excellency is also Ambassador to the United States of America and Mexico.
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