Activity report of the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs

Thank you very much, Ambassador.

I take the floor on this item of the order of business to address you in my capacity as Chair of the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs (CAJP), on the occasion of the presentation of the Committee's 2020-2021 Activity Report.

Allow me to recall that, for the working period on which I am about to report, the CAJP was charged with:

• Studying the juridical and political matters entrusted to it by the Permanent Council, which this year were limited to the study of two requests for the granting of permanent observer status and to the functioning of the Working Group on the Reform of the Rules of Procedure of the Permanent Council;
• Considering the annual reports of the Inter-American Juridical Committee (CJI), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Justice Studies Center of the Americas (JSCA); and
• Following up on the mandates contained in the following resolutions: AG/RES. 2958, “Strengthening Democracy”; AG/RES. 2959, “International Law”; and AG/RES. 2961, “Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.”

From the reading of this introduction alone and, of course, from the presence of you, the delegations, at our meetings, everyone will have been able to form a clear idea of the scale and importance of our regular meetings, of which we held sixteen this year; of our special meetings, of which we held ten in this period; and of one held jointly with the Committee on Inter-American Summits Management and Civil Society Participation in OAS Activities (CISC) on the subject of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. We also held five informal meetings to advance the negotiation of the draft resolutions and, under the leadership of the delegations proposing the topics, thirty informal consultation meetings were held to advance dialogue and agreement on the texts of the most complex sections of the draft resolutions.

With the support of the Secretariat of the CAJP, we distributed yesterday our Activity Report, a document classified as CP/CAJP. 3629/21, in which you will find, in full detail, the information on the activities carried out in following up the implementation of the mandates received. Each topic considered has been identified under the date on which the meeting was held and, as part of the relevant information, electronic links are included to the orders of business, agendas, reports and summaries, as appropriate. The state of fulfillment of each mandate has also been indicated.

Within the ambit of the CAJP there also met, as has been noted, the Working Group Charged with Updating the Rules of Procedure of the Permanent Council and Its Subsidiary Bodies, which convened on nine occasions.

Throughout the year, dialogues of the highest technical and legal level took place, most of them on subjects with an impact on human beings. For this we had the presence of experts in international law from the Organization of American States (OAS) and from the Hemisphere; of authorities of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), of the Inter-American Juridical Committee (CJI); of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM); of the Inter-American Children's Institute (IIN); of the Justice Studies Center of the Americas (JSCA); of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO); of the United Nations refugee agency, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); of the Working Group to Examine the National Reports Envisioned in the Protocol of San Salvador; and of the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, among others. Also under our study were the requests of the Republic of Uzbekistan and of Australia to be granted permanent observer status, which the Permanent Council approved through yesterday's resolutions.

In preparation for the fifty-first regular session of the General Assembly, the CAJP drafted and negotiated three omnibus draft resolutions, which were made up of multiple sections, all of them presented by the delegations of the Member States.

I shall now describe the state of their negotiation and agreement:

First, with respect to the omnibus draft resolution “International Law,” after formally concluding the negotiations on its text, the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs agreed, at its regular meeting of October 21, to submit it for the consideration of the Permanent Council and for subsequent transmission to the General Assembly at its fifty-first regular session.

With respect to the omnibus draft resolution “Promotion and Protection of Human Rights” and the omnibus draft resolution “Strengthening Democracy,” after the pending texts in sections of both draft resolutions had been reviewed and, on some topics, updated, and given that it was not possible to conclude and agree them in their entirety at its regular meeting of October 28, the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs decided to forward them for the consideration of the Permanent Council, in the expectation that the necessary agreements can be concluded in this body so that both draft resolutions may be submitted to the fifty-first regular session of the General Assembly for consideration and adoption by its plenary.

As I approach the end of this report, allow me to mention that the budgetary and human resources allocated to the CAJP for 2021 had to be used to the very limit, something that must be taken into account for next year, bearing in mind that the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs (CAJP) reviews the largest number of mandates and holds the largest number of regular and special meetings within the Permanent Council.

To conclude, the Chair expresses its thanks to the delegations of the Member States for their faithful and active participation, both in the regular and special meetings of the CAJP and throughout all the activities entailed in the process of consultation and negotiation of the three omnibus draft resolutions.

Secondly, to the Vice Chairs of the CAJP, Ambassador Sidney Collie, Permanent Representative of The Bahamas to the OAS, and Ambassador Samy Araya Rojas, Alternate Representative of Costa Rica to the OAS; to all the technical areas of the General Secretariat and the organs of the Organization, and most especially to the Department of International Law (DIL); to the Secretary of the CAJP, Mr. Alejandro Aristizábal; and to Counselor Mabel García, Alternate Representative of the Dominican Republic to the OAS: thank you very much.