Election to the Chair of the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Honorable Secretary General; honorable Assistant Secretary General; dear fellow ambassadors.

First, I would like to thank Ambassador González for having nominated me, on behalf of the other States that make up the Central American Integration System (SICA), to serve as Chair of the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs (CAJP) for the 2020-2021 term, and Ambassador Salinas for seconding the nomination; I am likewise grateful for the support of all the Member States and for the trust placed in us by electing us by acclamation to so important a task.

Madam Chair, we take up our election to the Chair of the CAJP with a strong commitment to balance, work and constant dialogue in pursuit of the necessary consensus to move forward on the items of the hemispheric agenda dealt with in that Committee. At the last regular session of the General Assembly, our foreign ministers adopted several resolutions that will be the principal guide for the tight work schedule that awaits us this year, on issues such as the Strengthening of Democracy, the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and international law, among others.

On the Strengthening of Democracy, I should point out that the work we will take forward in this period concerns the following topics:

• Innovation in public management;
• Strengthening cadastre and property registry in the Americas in the face of COVID-19;
• The rights of children and adolescents;
• The holding of the Meeting of Ministers of Justice or Other Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas (REMJA), bearing in mind that the last REMJA was held five years ago;
• Follow-up on the Inter-American Democratic Charter, taking into consideration that September of this year marks the twentieth anniversary of its adoption;
• Follow-up on the Inter-American Convention against Corruption and on the Inter-American Program of Cooperation to Fight Corruption, and the continuation of technical cooperation and Electoral Observation Missions, to mention a few topics.

With respect to the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, our foreign ministers have given us instructions and tasks to carry out concerning the protection of human rights in the face of the pandemic caused by COVID-19:

• Gender parity in the composition of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights;
• Strengthening the follow-up mechanism for the implementation of the Protocol of San Salvador;
• The right to freedom of conscience and religion;
• The human rights of older persons;
• Strengthening the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) for the promotion of gender equity and equality and the human rights of women;
• Strengthening the Follow-up Mechanism on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women;
• Follow-up on the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
• Universal civil registry and the right to identity; and,
• Follow-up on the observations and recommendations on the annual reports of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, among others.

On international law, the work to be highlighted concerns:

• The Inter-American Program for the Development of International Law;
• The Inter-American Juridical Committee; and,
• The promotion of and respect for international humanitarian law.

Dear colleagues, as you can see, we have great tasks ahead of us, for which I am sure we can count on the support and contributions of all the Member States of this Organization; together with the assistance of our Secretariat, that support guarantees the progress of our work, which will contribute to the well-being of our peoples through the further strengthening of our democracies, the protection of human rights and the application of international law in our Hemisphere.

Finally, before concluding, I would like to thank and congratulate Ambassador Carlos Alberto Játiva Naranjo, Permanent Representative of Ecuador, who chaired the CAJP last year, and Ambassador Luis Fernando Cordero, Permanent Representative of Honduras, who served as Vice Chair, for the valuable work done in leading this Committee during 2020.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.