Inaugural address to the Permanent Council

Good afternoon. Thank you very much, Madam Chair of the Permanent Council, Ambassador Rita Claverie de Sciolli, Permanent Representative of Guatemala; permanent and interim representatives; Assistant Secretary General Nestor Mendez; permanent observers; ladies and gentlemen.

It is an honor for me to be here representing the Dominican Republic before the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States. As a founding nation of this Organization, the Dominican Republic is firmly committed to the drive toward coordination and institutional strengthening that the Organization of American States promotes throughout the continent, because we believe that strong institutions, both at the pan-American level and within each of our countries, are indispensable to securing an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our peoples.

The Dominican Republic, although still a developing nation, has advanced a great deal in recent years, and we are firmly determined to continue along this path. For this reason we view with special interest the work of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI), and we consider it an ideal space in which the member countries, and the Caribbean countries in particular, can learn best practices from across the continent while sharing our own experiences with all of you. For example, as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recently noted, ours is the country that has reduced hunger the most in Latin America in recent years: a reduction of sixty-five percent in sixteen years, in keeping with the eighty-five percent level of food self-sufficiency the country has achieved. In the same way, by allocating four percent of gross domestic product to education, we have extended public education to the point that seventy-five percent of students now receive eight hours of class a day, while new technologies are being brought into the classroom.

We are also making progress in fulfilling the commitments we undertook at the Paris Summit, making our economy less dependent on fossil fuels. In the year now beginning, twenty-five percent of the energy we consume will be hydroelectric, solar or wind, and our reforestation plan is advancing, with more than half a million hectares planted in the country's main river basins.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are also moving toward an active and effective defense of human rights in their full dimension and throughout every stage of people's lives. In this regard, the vision of the Dominican Republic is one of full alignment with the inter-American human rights system, and it is our commitment to act decisively and consistently to uphold those rights in our territory, beginning with the right to identity.

Birth registration at the offices of the Central Electoral Board rose from sixty-five percent in March 2018 to seventy-three percent in September of that same year and, although I do not have consolidated figures for 2019, I assure you that the percentage has only increased over the past twelve months.

In our schools we have promoted the National Plan for Inclusive Education, which focuses on attention to diversity, while our Literacy Plan has succeeded in reducing illiteracy from twelve point eight three percent (12.83%) in 2012 to six point one percent (6.1%) today.

As for the right of our elders to a dignified old age, we have multiplied health services and strengthened the pension system that makes their rights effective. At the same time, we are investing in the continuous training of our Police and Armed Forces so that they are able to fulfill their mission of protecting the population with full respect for human rights, and we have undertaken a comprehensive transformation of our prison system.

As for the necessary advancement of women in all spheres of public life, the adoption this year of the Gender Parity Initiative, promoted by the Inter-American Development Bank, is bringing institutions and companies together to increase the number of scholarships awarded to women for higher education. At the same time, in a single year we achieved a twenty-two percent reduction in femicides, thanks to the National Plan against Gender Violence, which embodies the commitment of our entire society to put an end to this situation and is aligned with everything we have defended from the Inter-American Commission of Women, which we have the honor to chair.

For two years we have also had in force our law against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, to strengthen oversight against fraud and to bring order to institutional processes. In recognition of the effort made in this area, our country has been selected to hold, in 2020, the Presidency of the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America, to which the OAS belongs as an observer.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are without doubt many subjects on which we can exchange views and best practices in order to advance the institutional and material progress of our nations, and you may be certain that, in this regard, the willingness of the Dominican Republic will always be full and complete.

As for the strictly multilateral level of this Permanent Council, we see a need to move toward a stage in which decisions are taken by the consensus of all countries. We understand that this Organization has lived through moments of tension as a result of several recent political and humanitarian crises and, of course, in this regard, the Dominican Republic wishes always to reaffirm its commitment to solutions that are democratic, peaceful and consistent with international law. However, we cannot lose sight of the fact that there are many issues, and indeed emergencies, on which our peoples demand our attention and our work. That is why we intend our contribution to the Permanent Council always to be the search for consensus and for common positions that foster unity, transparency in decision-making and effectiveness.

Ladies and gentlemen, in this coming year of 2020, as you know, we have several electoral processes in the Dominican Republic. Naturally, our commitment to transparency, democracy and adherence to the law is total, and this will be reflected in the conduct, first, of the municipal elections in February and then of the congressional and presidential elections in May. This also means that, as on other occasions, we will be happy to welcome the members of the Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States. Since 1962, OAS missions have played an important role on the road to the democratic maturity we have reached today in the Dominican Republic. We are therefore grateful for the work of accompaniment they have carried out, and at the same time we reaffirm our commitment to take part in missions of this kind in support of the electoral processes of other member countries.

With that, I conclude my statement by underscoring, once again, my country's full willingness to continue working in every sphere of this Organization to achieve more progress, more security and more development for all the peoples of the Americas.