Sesión ordinaria

CONSEJO PERMANENTE DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN DE LOS ESTADOS AMERICANOS

ACTA DE LA SESIÓN ORDINARIA CELEBRADA EL

7 DE OCTUBRE DE 2020

Nómina de los miembros que asistieron a la sesión

En la ciudad de Washington, D. C., a las once y veintiocho minutos de la mañana del miércoles 7 de octubre de 2020, celebró sesión ordinaria el Consejo Permanente de la Organización de los Estados Americanos con el objeto de considerar los puntos incluidos en el orden del día. Presidió la sesión la Embajadora Audrey Marks, Representante Permanente de Jamaica y Presidenta del Consejo Permanente. Asistieron los siguientes miembros:

Embajador Stanley Sidney Collie, Representante Permanente del Commonwealth de las Bahamas y Vicepresidente del Consejo Permanente

Embajadora Elisa Ruíz Díaz, Representante Permanente del Paraguay

Embajador Anthony Phillips-Spencer, Representante Permanente de Trinidad y Tobago

Embajador Riyad Insanally, Representante Permanente de Guyana

Embajadora Lou-Anne Gilchrist, Representante Permanente de San Vicente y las Granadinas

Embajador Anton E. Edmunds, Representante Permanente de Santa Lucía

Embajador Hernán Salinas Burgos, Representante Permanente de Chile

Embajadora Rita Claverie de Sciolli, Representante Permanente de Guatemala

Embajador Alejandro Ordoñez Maldonado, Representante Permanente de Colombia

Embajador Carlos Alberto Játiva Naranjo, Representante Permanente del Ecuador

Embajadora Yolande Yvonne Smith, Representante Permanente de Grenada

Embajador Gustavo Tarre, Representante Permanente de Venezuela

Embajadora Luz Elena Baños Riva, Representante Permanente de México

Embajador Hugh Adsett, Representante Permanente del Canadá

Embajadora María del Carmen Roquebert, Representante Permanente de Panamá

Embajador Josué Antinoe Fiallo, Representante Permanente de la República Dominicana

Embajador Jaime Alonzo Aparicio Otero, Representante Permanente de Bolivia

Embajador Luis Fernando Cordero Montoya, Representante Permanente de Honduras

Embajador Vicente Antonio Zeballos, Representante Permanente del Perú

Embajador Carlos Alberto Raimundi, Representante Permanente de la Argentina

Embajador Luis Alvarado, Representante Interino de Nicaragua

Ministro Consejero Gabriel Boff Moreira, Representante Interino del Brasil

Embajador Olger Ignacio González, Representante Interino de Costa Rica

Consejera Gillian Ingrid Joseph, Representante Alterna de Antigua y Barbuda

Consejero Pierre Michel Bonnet, Representante Alterno de Haití

Señora Kemoy Liburd Chow, Representante Alterna de San Kitts y Nevis

Embajadora Wendy Acevedo, Representante Alterna de El Salvador

Segunda Secretaria Juanita Cleopatra Lont, Representante Alterna de Suriname

Ministro Deon L. Williams, Representante Alterno de Jamaica

Ministra Consejera Alicia Arbelbide Costas, Representante Alterna del Uruguay

Señor Edward Heartney, Representante Alterno de los Estados Unidos

Ministra Consejera Laura Frampton, Representante Alterna de Belize

Ministra Consejera Christobelle Elaine Reece, Representante Alterna de Barbados

Estuvieron también presentes el Secretario General, señor Luis Almagro Lemes, y el Secretario General Adjunto, Embajador Nestor Mendez, Secretario del Consejo Permanente.

Aprobación del orden del día

La PRESIDENTA: Good morning. In accordance with Article 43 of the Rules of Procedure of the Permanent Council, we will proceed to adopt the order of business for this regular meeting, document CP-OD-2302/20.

Approved.

[El proyecto de orden del día contiene los siguientes puntos:

1. Aprobación del orden del día (CP/OD-2302/20)

2. Informe Anual Preliminar de la Oficina del Ombudsperson

3. Invitaciones a organizaciones de la sociedad civil, de trabajadores, del sector privado y de otros actores sociales al quincuagésimo período ordinario de sesiones de la Asamblea General que requieren autorización del Consejo Permanente (Informe de la Secretaría General y proyecto de resolución) (CP/doc.5630/20 add. 1)

4. Adopción de las siguientes actas de sesiones del Consejo Permanente:

- CP/ACTA 2229 (sesión ordinaria del 15 de mayo de 2019)

- CP/ACTA 2230 (sesión extraordinaria del 21 de mayo de 2019)

- CP/ACTA 2231 (sesión extraordinaria del 21 de mayo de 2019)

- CP/ACTA 2232 (sesión ordinaria del 22 de mayo de 2019)

- CP/ACTA 2233 (sesión ordinaria del 29 de mayo de 2019)

5. Otros asuntos]

There being no requests for the floor, no further observations, the order of business is hereby approved.

Informe Anual Preliminar de la Oficina del Ombudsperson

La PRESIDENTA: The first item in the order of business refers to the Preliminary Annual Report by the Office of the Ombudsperson. I offer a warm welcome to the Ombudsperson of the Organization of America States (OAS), Ms. Neida Perez.

Ms. Perez, you have the floor.

La OMBUDSPERSON DE LA OEA: Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Good morning, everyone; good morning distinguished representatives; good morning Secretary General Luis Almagro; good morning Assistant Secretary General Nestor Mendez; colleagues; interpreters; and guests:

I am pleased to be here today and thank you very much for your time. I appreciate the interest and the support to the Office of the Ombudsperson. My apologies for the presentation of the report at this late time. It has been quite a year for all of us and it has been quite a year for the Ombudsperson office, and I apologize for the lateness of the presentation of the report. I will present a report and then at the end, I will be absolutely happy to receive any questions that you may have, any clarifications that you may have.

As you know, the Office of the Ombudsperson is directly subordinated to the political organs, and the representatives can at any point in time request additional information for clarity on specific matters that relate to the activities of the Office. I would of course be happy to help you on any clarity that is needed.

For the benefit of the delegations who are not familiar with the Office of the Ombudsperson and how it works, the Office of the Ombudsperson is one of the oversight bodies. There are four oversight bodies of the Organization: The External Board of Auditors; the Administrative Tribunal; the Office of the Inspector General; and the Office of the Ombudsperson. They are subordinated only to the political organs and therefore at any point in time, you can of course contact us.

The two formal channels, the Administrative Tribunal and the Office of the Inspector General, have matters related to conflict resolution. Those are the formal channels. The only informal channel is the Office of the Ombudsperson. This is the only mechanism outside of the formal channels, where individuals can talk to and come with any issues related to the workplace environment and everything is absolutely confidential. It is off-the-record. What the Office does, it is not only handling cases for workplace environment but also checking where there are trends or systemic issues, which we will talk about later in the next slides.

Also, it is not a prerequisite to use the Office of the Ombudsperson before an individual can go to the formal channels. At any point, they can go to the formal channels without going to the Office of the Ombudsperson. The Office of the Ombudsperson was established in 2015. Again, it is the only off-the-record mechanism. The Ombudsperson is a mutual and independent conflict resolution professional to assist everyone in the Organization, including not only staff members but also consultants, interns, associates, and fellows, anyone who has any issue at the Organization, or any question related to a policy or the application of a policy, or anything including harassment, including sexual harassment, they can go to the Office and they can find resources and find help at the Office of the Ombudsperson.

The Office adheres to the International Ombudsman Association for the standards of practice and there are four principles: Independence, neutrality and impartiality, confidentiality, and informality.

Independence

Independence basically means that the Office is independent from the regular structure of the Organization, and again, in the case of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Office is an oversight body that reports on activities to the political organs. That is why this report is submitted to the General Assembly through the Secretary General, and now distributed to you through the Permanent Council.

Neutrality

As an Ombudsperson, the Ombudsperson in the Ombuds’ office does not take sides but advocates for fairness and for equity in application of policies. That is very important to remember. Also, when something comes up, the Office has the obligation to do something about it because of the mandate, and I am going to refer to the mandate in a minute.

Confidentiality

Everything that comes to the Office is strictly confidential. The confidentiality belongs to the Office and no one can waive this privilege. So, when someone comes to the Office, everything that is said is absolutely off-the-record and not even the Inspector General can ask me for information related to the individuals who come to the Office to report situations. That is very important because it is the only assurance that individuals have to be able to feel comfortable coming to the Office to bring issues that they do not feel comfortable bringing to their supervisors or to Human Resources or to any other resources in the Organization because of that confidentiality. This kind of offices work well because they can guarantee these individuals who otherwise would not speak about situations, about things that they see or things that are happening in the Organization. That is the only space they have to be able to bring this information into internal confidentiality.

As an Ombudsperson, I have the obligation to protect the anonymity of these individuals and also the confidential information that they have shared with the Office. So, when I share information about the findings, I always share information that relates to the possibility of understanding what main areas have been found as having issues, so that there is some information to be able to work with from that specific area or from Human Resources if it is a policy or law. But the information is given in a general manner so that the decision makers can relate to the information but not identify those individuals who have addressed or come to the Office to bring the information. It is very, very important and perhaps this is the most important principle: confidentiality. We Ombuds take this very seriously.

Informality

The final principle is informality, which means basically that it is off-the-record, everything, every conversation is off-the-record and, outside of the formal channels, it is the only mechanism.

Before I go to the cases, I want to make sure that I have briefed the mandate of the Office as it was stated by the Permanent Council in September 2015. The Permanent Council created this Office in 2015 and created an oversight body. I will read the text exactly as it is in this document:

The Organization should provide OAS staff with an institutional mechanism that guarantees and promotes their rights and discreetly processes complaints about possible violations of those rights. Hence, the establishment of the Office of the Ombudsperson, which will be responsible for ensuring all servants of the rights of the Organization’s human resources. Said Office will operate autonomously and report to the Permanent Council on its activities.

This is the mandate. Last year, the Forty-ninth regular session of the General Assembly approved the subchapter in the General Standards, approved the subchapter for the Office of the Ombudsperson and now we have that legal framework as well.

Now going to cases. This is a summary of what the Office of the Ombudsperson has done since its inception in 2015. In 2015, there was the first Ombuds who opened the Office of the Ombudsperson, Ombuds Tross, and she issued the first report at that time in 2016. Before that year, there were 80 users and those 80 users brought to the Office 155 issues. The reason why there is a difference between users and issues is because one single user could bring many issues and also because of the time, if there is a period of time during which the case is open, the same single user could start having more issues related to the workplace environment and bringing those new issues to the Office as the case is open. That is why it is very important to be able to be diligent and to be able to address issues efficiently. That way we can target the root of the problem and hopefully not have an escalation of things.

In 2017, there were 68 users. We do not have specific information about the issues. In 2018, there were 78 users and 255 issues, and for 2019, there were 132 users coming to the Office of the Ombudsperson, and there were 2,673 issues. I know that you are going to say, why so many issues? The reason why there were so many issues is because we had a complicated year last year. We found four systemic issues in the Organization and those four systemic issues included groups of people. Because there were groups of people and because their cases remained open for a long period of time, more issues are reported. Also, we had a couple of critical areas with issues, separately, where we had people affected by a circumstance and those were critical areas as well. Regarding that, we unfortunately do not have two directors that the Organization lost at the end of the year, but those areas were of course impacted by instability and things like that and that is why the issues magnified.

This is a summary of the most frequent problems or situations that have come to the attention of the Office during 2016-2019. There is a standard of categories of issues that all or most Ombuds report on. Those are nine categories, and it is a standard set by the International Ombudsman Association and so we follow the practices, and we follow the categories. That is how we report technically. So, out of those nine, these are the categories for the Organization of American States, these are the nine categories that have been repeatedly coming to the Ombuds office and that are important for us to know and important for the Organization to know because we want to make sure that we have a healthy organization and transparent organization, and we try to be productive and so we need to tackle these issues. You can see that most of the issues have to do with evaluative relationships, which means superiors and subordinates, although we do not want to use the word “subordinate”.

The other one is organizational and strategic mission-related and that is about policies, application policies, and that is normal during this crisis because of the pandemic but also it shows that we, as an organization, we need to do better in terms of clarity and strategy and being in sync within the different areas.

Career Progression of course, is an area that is impacted at the Organization and will be impacted particularly because of the lack of resources that we have. That is definitely something that affects personnel and their careers.

Services and Administrative Issues. Same, there is the need for more personnel to be able to be proactive to have the productivity that one would expect but because of the lack of resources of course that is affected.

Legal, regulatory, financial, and compliance also has to do with policies, the lack of clarity in policies, and sometimes the different implementation of a single policy in different areas so that there is no equity in the implementation of a policy accordingly to the entire Organization. That is one issue. Fear to colleagues is normal in every organization.

The Office can offer many services. The issues that I have had as Ombudsperson for the last two years is that there is no capacity to offer all these services. I have been offering services as much as possible and I think that there has been a lot of progress. But I am only one person. I do not have a team of staff supporting the Office permanently and I only work now with one consultant, but I was finally able to get interns a couple of months ago. They are great and I really appreciate their effort and support because without them, it would be impossible. But they are temporary. The Office really needs a team, at least one more person permanently supporting the Office, a technical person who can help with the analysis of things and it is reinforcing training. So, there are many services, as you can see. The ones that people have come to my Office the most are when they do not know if a policy is affecting them, when they do not know if it is harassment. Sometimes they are not sure if something that has happened or is happening is considered harassment and also to get empowered to have their difficult conversations with their peers or supervisors about topics like harassment.

The other important service is just meeting people. Staff personnel in the Organization do not have other activities as they do at other organizations similar to the OAS, such as the World Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations. At these organizations, personnel have other services, they have a mediation office, counseling offices, ethics office. At the OAS we do not have that, so because of that, many people come with situations that are not specifically related or that would otherwise go to other services, but because we do not have those services, they come to the Office of the Ombudsperson because there is no other alternative.

We have people who are afraid because of course during times like this with budgetary concerns, they are afraid for their post and they come to the office because they are of course afraid. There is also a facilitation that the office performs —observations, analysis of trends and systemic issues—, and recommendations to everyone. Recommendations are given both to the areas when the issue first comes to light and then if it escalates and there is no change, there is nothing that is done either to resolve or mitigate the situation, then the Office of the Ombuds escalates the case to be able to do something and brings the yellow flag or the red flag to the next person in the capacity to decide including the Secretary General.

The Office, as I mentioned, was created in 2015 and my predecessors and I have been asking to get this office structured according to the standards. It is very important for the credibility of the office, for the role that the office has and the importance of what is needed for this Organization, again, because there are no other services like this. There are standards that other Ombuds offices have that Ombuds offices in general must have to be able to have the independence both in the structure but also in the way in which the Office functions. In the report last year, January 2019, when I got to the Office, I made an assessment to see how the Office was in terms of the needs to be close to those requirements and we have had some progress, we did have the legal framework passed by the General Assembly, which is a great acknowledgement that I want to give thanks because it has been four years without having a legal framework but now, we do have it, so thank you very much. I know that some delegations worked very hard on this, and on behalf of the Office of the Ombudsperson, I want to thank you for that.

But there are also things that we need to continue working on that have been mentioned and were mentioned in the past reports and we are still planning on achieving those. The independent allocation of a minimum annual budget required for its operation and again, it does not matter what the budget is. It is not about the money in quantity, and I think that all of the oversight bodies, we acknowledge the circumstances that we are going through, and it is not that. It is the independence in the allocation, it is the need for this office to have that budget allocation prior to the discussion internally because of the structure and because of the way these offices operate. That is a request from the General Assembly that is pending to be discussed in one of the working groups and we are working with staff, but I think that it is important for delegations to have that also in perspective.

The next part is the structural operation, independence, and the budget. This refers to the internal operations and how the Office and these offices need to function without any possible interference from the internal structure and that is also very important because we need to be independent in order to function, for the work that we do, for the protection of confidentiality, we cannot disclose information during or prior to handling a case. For example, I could not perhaps say or the Inspector General, we need to do this because we are handling a case related to this area. It is off-the-record; we cannot provide that information. I think that we have to internally make some changes in some of the policies and some of the operations to be able to assure that these offices are truly independent and autonomous in our function. That is the third point, which is the Legal Framework, also.

The fourth point is the Respect for the Office and its Processes. I understand that this office is new at the Organization but at the same time, I have been trying to inform on how these Offices, and particularly this Office work, and I think it is very important to respect the work that it does. It really adds to the transparency and accountability and credibility not only of the Office but of the Organization itself.

In terms of gender, location in contract and type of individuals who came to the Office in 2019, most were women, but we had more males coming, which is good news because they are feeling comfortable coming to bring their issues. Location, we have to improve this, we need to get to the missions and to national offices so that they can trust the Office, they can trust the structure, and be able to communicate. One challenge, of course, is not being in person and of course when there are sensitive issues and people do not necessarily want to communicate those over the telephone or over the Internet, so that is a challenge, and of course now with COVID-19 it is of course a bigger challenge, but it is something that we have to acknowledge in order to be able to go to the root of the problems and to be able to define some paths of action.

The type of contract that most of the people who came to the Office in 2019 were in the mid-ranges, so P-1 to non-managerial. So those are the blue portions of the chart, 60 percent. But they came from all different contracts and from all different rates within the Organization, which is good.

We have made good progress, I think. In the Summary Report, this is the category I mentioned. This is a standardized use of categories by the International Ombudsman Association and this is basically a summary of the whole use of people who came to the office, without names, of course. Everything is percentage. But it shows how Evaluative Relationships is the biggest issue that we have, so that is supervisor and supervisee. There are many issues in that regard. The Organization needs to do something to improve this area, and I have been working and giving recommendations both to the Secretary General and to the different areas that had something to do with this particular issue, Human Resources and Organizational Development, in particular.

The second biggest is organizational, strategic, and mission related. These are things that I have been mentioning to the areas and I will continue talking to the different areas and to the Office of the Secretary General to see how we can improve this.

These are the subcategories. I will send this presentation as well so that the member states can have information about this. This is for you to know how healthy the Organization is or not and what areas are areas of concern. I think it is important which is fine, so I will send it to you after the meeting. It is basically a breakdown of the prior slide.

In 2019, the Office conducted its first Comprehensive Survey. There had not been a survey like this before. This survey was an internal survey and included different areas, which had to do with personnel. So, Staff Association there were questions related to services that other areas can provide because the Office needed to have an understanding of how people were feeling about what they have in place. There were questions about the Staff Association, there were questions about services from Human Resources, there were questions about the Office of the Inspector General, and there were questions about the Office of the Ombudsperson to try to identify how people feel, how resources are being used, and if there is a need to adjust and improve in those areas, and how.

Prior to that, I met with the different offices or representatives of the Staff Association, and we had that survey. There were 287 people who participated in the survey and it is great because it is the first comprehensive survey that we are going to be able to use as a baseline from here on to be able to build on it and to improve. So, I think it is very important and I want to share that with you. There was one question about the information that the missions have about the constraints of personnel and personnel gave their opinion about it and it is also included here.

The Value Added for this office to the Organization. Basically, the Office of the Ombudsperson collaborates with the different stakeholders and it helps managing workplace concerns. It also helps prevent escalation of conflict when there is genuine interest from the parties to be able to talk or to cooperate in understanding the issues so that if they understand it, then they can address them. The Office has a lot of value in bringing. What I see as a challenge, is because the Office is new, there is no clear understanding of how the Office works. I think that is something that in the next few months I am going to be working on trying to explain that it is basically a tool to be able to help.

The different Benefits of the Office. Also, I think that one important benefit that I want to mention is that when there is an issue and when it escalates, it can go to the Tribunal, it can have a huge impact for the Organization, not only reputational, which is huge, but also a financial impact. If things are considered and handled prior to escalation, then the Organization could save a lot in productivity and in cost.

The recommendations for action are very similar to the recommendations for last year. They are related to the legal framework that needs to be adjusted to reflect the mandates of the Office. There is a need to do some internal editing to be able to do that. Then the budget and Human Resources allocation to the Office, at least one permanent position to the Office so that there is some support to handle cases. Also, actions from management, I think that that is also very important for management and for everyone in the Organization to understand that if there is no action taken, if the Office keeps knocking on the door and there is no action to mitigate or to resolve, then the issue is going to continue to be there and it is going to continue to affect more individuals.

This is basically the presentation of the cases. I do want to remind delegations that if at any point you have any questions or you need clarity, you can contact my office and I will be happy to provide the information that I can, always protecting the confidentiality and anonymity of the users who have come to my office, but at the same time, it is my obligation to provide information to the political organs.

I want to thank you very much; thank you, Madam Chair; thank you, delegations; if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer.

La PRESIDENTA: Thank you, Ms. Pérez, for your report.

I now offer the floor to delegations that may wish to comment on this Report.

Canada, the delegation of Canada is recognized, you have the floor.

La REPRESENTANTE ALTERNA DEL CANADÁ: Thank you, Ms. Pérez, for your presentation and for your excellent work over the last year.

Canada sees your Office as pivotal to the effective management and resolution of workplace issues and conflicts at the Organization of American States (OAS). We fully support its contributions to the oversight and accountability we expect from this organization and which is so critically important to a healthy, safe, and professional working environment for everyone.

The independence and autonomy of the Ombudsperson’s Office are of paramount importance to its success. It is for this reason and in keeping with best practices that Canada wishes to express its support for your call for consideration of an independent budget. We look forward to continuing discussions within the Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Affairs (CAAP) on the establishment of an audit committee to facilitate this independence. We also support the suggestion of an exemption for your Office from the 2.5 percent transfer rule that was instituted in last year’s budget as a transparency measure as we know that this affects independence and confidentiality matters.

The work of the Ombudsperson sometimes means identifying informal solutions that requires you to lose staff temporarily, and it makes sense for your Office to enjoy some flexibility to implement these solutions without involving the Secretariat. We call on others to join us in supporting the Ombudsperson and giving the Office the tools that are required to continue to carry out this very, very important work.

Thank you.

La PRESIDENTA: Thank you, delegation of Canada.

I now recognize the delegation of the United States.

El REPRESENTANTE ALTERNO DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS: Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

The United States would also like to express our appreciation to the Ombudsperson for her Report, which was excellent and express our appreciation and support for the Office of the Ombudsperson.

Bodies such as the Office of the Ombudsperson are a critical component for ensuring accountability, ethics, and transparency within international organizations. While the Permanent Council often turns its attention to these issues throughout the region, we must equally ensure that they prevail on the Organization of American States (OAS) itself.

We are pleased that the OAS took the steps in 2015 to establish this Office, thereby providing a dedicated forum for helping management and resolution work-related concerns and conflicts. We are also very pleased with the development of the Office. It was affected by the number of people who brought cases, reflecting their confidence in the Ombudsperson and her Office.

The United States will continue to advocate for respect and independence for the office of the Ombudsperson and other oversight and supervisory bodies of the OAS.

Thank you very much.

La PRESIDENTA: Thank you delegation of the United States.

Now I recognize the delegation of Brazil.

El REPRESENTANTE INTERINO DEL BRASIL: Obrigado, Senhora Presidente, Senhor Secretário-Geral.

O Brasil toma nota da apresentação da Senhora Ombudsperson. Gostaria de manifestar que o Brasil apoia integralmente a independência e imparcialidade da atuação desse órgão, que é um órgão novo e muito importante na Organização.

Concordamos, também, que o escritório, assim como os demais órgãos de controle da Organização dos Estados Americanos (OEA), deve ter a autonomia para executar o orçamento que lhe é atribuído pela Assembleia Geral, sem que haja risco de conflitos de interesses.

O escritório do Ombudsperson bem estruturado e atuante é um dos fatores que podem contribuir para elevar a produtividade da Organização, sobretudo, mediante a promoção do moral e do bem-estar de todo o pessoal da Organização.

Queria, também, cumprimentar a Senhora Neida Pérez pelo excelente trabalho que vem desenvolvendo e queria, também, aproveitar para fazer uma sugestão: que o Relatório apresentado seja um Relatório escrito e se pudesse ser circulado para as delegações antes da sessão do Conselho Permanente em que ele é apresentado. Isto seria excelente para que pudéssemos fazer considerações mais detalhadas sobre as atividades do Escritório e, também, para fazer recomendações, talvez mais pertinentes, sobre as necessidades do Escritório.

Queria reiterar que é fundamental que os Estados membros possam assegurar ao Escritório condições adequadas para a realização de seu trabalho.

Como foi dito, aqui, na apresentação, não obstante os avanços realizados desde a sua criação, ainda há muito a ser feito num processo de fortalecimento da atuação do Escritório.

De maneira equilibrada e sem deixar de considerar o atual contexto de limitações orçamentárias, o Brasil segue disposto e atuante a contribuir para o processo de fortalecimento do Escritório.

Muito obrigado, Senhora Presidente.

La PRESIDENTA: We thank the delegation of Brazil and I would suggest that the Permanent Council take note of the Preliminary Annual Report by the Office of the Ombudsperson and thank Ms. Neida Perez for her presentation. Thank you again, Ms. Perez.

If there are no objections…

El SECRETARIO GENERAL ADJUNTO: Ambassador, we have Mexico requesting the floor.

La PRESIDENTA: We now recognize that Mexico has requested the floor. Mexico, you have the floor.

La REPRESENTANTE PERMANENTE DE MÉXICO: Muchas gracias, señora Presidenta.

Mi Delegación aprovecha esta oportunidad para expresar todo su apoyo a la labor como Presidenta del Consejo Permanente de la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA). Le desea mucho éxito durante su gestión.

México reconoce el importante papel que desempeñan los órganos de supervisión para el buen funcionamiento de la OEA. Por ello, mi Delegación considera que para un mejor análisis de éste y de otros informes de actividades, es importante contar con la debida antelación con el texto de los informes que se presentan en este Consejo Permanente para que los estados estén en posibilidad de hacer los comentarios correspondientes. En el caso particular de hoy, relativo al Informe Anual de Actividades 2019 de la Oficina de la Ombudsperson, el texto no fue circulado, lo cual hace improcedente su presentación para fines de cualquier comentario serio. Asimismo, tampoco se recibió el Plan de Trabajo correspondiente al año en curso, a principios de 2020, conforme lo estipula el artículo 70 de las Normas Generales para el funcionamiento de la Secretaría General de la Organización. Dada la creación de esta Oficina en 2015, y que se trata de una figura que se ha venido consolidando a través de la adopción de sus objetivos establecidos en las Normas Generales, mi Delegación desea reiterar la importancia de su trabajo, siempre que sea en apego a las atribuciones de mediación, resolución de conflictos y promoción de los derechos del personal.

Conviene destacar que la Oficina de la Ombudsperson no lleva a cabo investigaciones formales, que su trabajo es informar y hacer procesos de verificación, y todo este ejercicio debe efectuarse bajo estrictos criterios de confidencialidad de acuerdo con el artículo 68 de las Normas Generales de la Organización. La figura de la Ombudsperson debe recaer en un profesional independiente, reservado, informal y neutral que brinda asistencia para atender inquietudes y resolver conflictos relacionados con el lugar de trabajo y no aboga por una persona en particular, sino por procesos justos. En el mismo artículo se destaca que la Secretaría General no recibirá aviso de las comunicaciones dirigidas a la Oficina del Ombudsperson, situación que, en el caso reciente de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH), fue vulnerada.

La Ombudsperson, viendo más allá de cualquier facultad y competencia que le otorgan estas Normas, realizó investigaciones, formó expedientes y apoyó la determinación de responsabilidades sobre la Oficina del Secretario Ejecutivo de la CIDH. La Ombudsperson decidió, de manera unilateral, iniciar procesos y determinar responsabilidades a la persona que ocupó este cargo afectando no sólo las normas que la rigen, sino los principios y derechos humanos del debido proceso y garantía de audiencia; la presunción de inocencia es esencial y no se respetó.

Recordamos que la Ombudsperson, vulnerando sus deberes de no poder conservar expedientes y deber de proteger la identidad, privacidad y confidencialidad de los usuarios, de no poder actuar como testigo ni participar en ningún proceso formal dentro o fuera de la Secretaría General que esté relacionado con el contacto con los usuarios que hayan establecido con esa funcionaria, hizo público un supuesto proceso en contra de este funcionario.

Nos preguntamos si este tratamiento también se va a dar a otros órganos de la OEA y si se procederá así con otros funcionarios usando la información confidencial de la Ombudsperson. Es muy importante, señora Ombudsperson, que nos explique su actuación en este caso. La labor del Ombudsperson debe centrarse en la mediación de conflictos más que en investigaciones formales reservadas al Inspector General y a otros órganos de supervisión. En este sentido y dada la tardanza en la recepción de este informe, México lo analizará para emitir, en su caso, las consideraciones que estime convenientes.

Exhortamos a la señora Ombudsperson a realizar las funciones de mediación guardando la debida confidencialidad para cumplir con el encargo para lo que fue contratada.

Muchas gracias, señora Presidenta.

La PRESIDENTA: We thank the delegation of Mexico and I will now offer the floor to Ms. Pérez for a response.

La OMBUDSPERSON DE LA OEA: Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Yes, I will respond.

Thank you very much to the delegation of Canada and to the delegation of the United States and Brazil for their comments about the work of the Office and their support to the Office of the Ombudsperson, which is very important for us. You have very well mentioned the oversight: a healthy, transparent, and accountable Organization is very important and regarding the transfer, yes, there was a need and there has been a need for transfers sometimes when there is no other alternative, an employee can be transferred to another area because sometimes that is the only option to be able to resolve a situation.

To the delegation of Brazil and to the delegation of Mexico, yes, as I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation, I am very sorry that I have not been able to provide this document before. As all of you delegations know, I have no team. I have no support and we have been, during the pandemic and even before, it has been very tough, as it was for my predecessor to be alone in this Office to be able to provide all the work and services as well as the regular administrative operational things that need to be done. I have no support and of course I have to see cases, analyze cases, and also do the other things and there has been this pandemic, so that really took a lot of effort and unfortunately, I was working late nights to be able to send it to you. So, unfortunately, yes, I acknowledge that it is not the ideal circumstances to have received the Report at this time and I will make sure that that is corrected that we figure out a way to do a better job next year. I think that the deadline for the January 31 should also be modified if that is something that delegations could take into account if the presentation should be done maybe in March. And of course, we are hoping we are not going to have another pandemic.

To respond to the delegation of Mexico, I think there is a need for clarity, and I understand that, again, this Office is new in the Organization, but again, the Office is not there only for mediations. The responsibility of the Office, even by this body when the Office was created, and I will again read. This is the mandate which created the Office and with this mandate, this is the umbrella. It is under this mandate that any other policy would go, but this is the main mandate of the Office. It reads, and again, I think it is very important. It is important because it is different from other organizations in that it is something that I request delegations take into account.

The Organization of American States (OAS) should provide its staff with an institutional mechanism that guarantees –it does use the word “guarantees” – and promotes the rights and discreetly processes complaints about possible violations of those rights. Hence the establishment of the Office of the Ombudsperson, which will be responsible for ensuring observance of the rights of the Organization’s human resources. Said office will work autonomously and report to the Permanent Council on its activities. So, that is the obligation of the Office, and when there is a case or where there is a systemic case in particular, the Office cannot simply be quiet or cannot simply say, “Oh well, I tried mediation.” In many cases, mediation does not work. The principle of mediation is that the parties go to the table voluntarily and with genuine intentions. If there is not genuine intention, if one side does not want to sit at the table, mediation cannot be accomplished. Ombuds offices do not only go to mediation. Mediation is only one service in the list of services that I presented in the slides. There are many other services and mediation is only one and on various occasions, it is the service that people choose to do.

I will go to the Standards of Practice. The Standards of Practice of the International Ombudsman Association mention several things that I think are very important and I want to make a clarification about something. The Office of the Inspector General does the formal investigation, but the Office of the Ombudsperson does informal investigations. There is a need to verify information. One party can come to the Office and say something and if I do not verify the information that could be not true, that the information is misguided. So, the Ombudsman has the obligation to make sure that the information that they are taking into account when they are addressing a case is information that is true. So, they have to go through a process of verification of information. That is an informal investigation. It is informal because it is not going to be in a report that in any possible way would inform about the names of individuals. There is no file that is taken to the Office and that someone could refer to later on. When the case ends, that information has to be destroyed because that is the goal written up, the Office being an off-the-record Office. It is very important to remember that.

The Office has not mentioned anything about individuals outside or including inside. The only ones who have had knowledge about this information about the different cases because they need to have access to the information because it is required for them to be able to make decisions to have the proper information is the Secretary General and the areas that relate to the specific situation. For instance, if there is a situation in a particular Secretariat, then what the Ombudsperson would probably try to do, and it is at the sole discretion of the Ombudsperson in any office in any organization, it is at the sole discretion of the Ombudsperson, what the Ombudsperson would try to see how the problem could be resolved within that area, meaning it would probably go to the director of the area if the team is a big team and the individuals cannot be easily identified. If not, then the Ombudsperson would go to the Executive Secretary to say, there is an issue, and my recommendations are based on that. They do not have to take the recommendations, but based on the mandate, they should do something to fix the issue. Even if it is not the specific recommendation that the Ombudsperson has given, they should responsibly do something to resolve the issue or to mitigate the issue or to prevent more issues to happen.

The decision maker authority must have some information to be able to act and that is why the confidentiality remains to this Office and not to anyone else, so when the information is provided to the decision maker, the findings need to be provided. I need to say, so and so had an issue in sexual harassment because if I cannot say that it is sexual harassment that someone with a name did, then no action can be taken and then this simply would not work. There could not be then accountability and transparency. So, I think it is important to mention and to clarify that anonymity and the protection of the information is always there, but when there is an issue like that, then the decision maker, that one person, needs to know the findings so that decisions can be made. The decisions are not the decisions of the Office of the Ombudsperson.

The Office of the Ombudsperson can only recommend. The decisions are decisions made by decision makers, whether it is that director, that Executive Secretary, whether it is the Secretary General or the Assistant Secretary General or the Chief of Staff, the person who is at that point in the capacity to make a decision needs to make a decision, hopefully, to fix the problem or to prevent more issues from happening and they need to know the information. What they cannot know, and what I will never provide, are the names of the individuals who come into my Office. Those names are always protected. So, I think that I hope it is clarified, but again, I am absolutely happy at any point in time to provide more clarification to member states because I know it is different how this office works, and I think it is important for all members to understand to know and to have this Office as a resource.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

La PRESIDENTA: Thank you. I suggest that the Permanent Council take note.

El SECRETARIO GENERAL ADJUNTO: Excuse me, Madam Chair. Mexico is asking for the floor again.

La PRESIDENTA: We recognize and give the floor to the delegation of Mexico.

La REPRESENTANTE PERMANENTE DE MÉXICO: Muchas gracias, señora Ombudsperson, gracias por su contestación.

Nos parece que es importante, solamente que nos reitere: ¿tiene usted facultades para hacer investigaciones informales? Si es tan amable. Es mi única consulta.

La PRESIDENTA: We thank the delegation of Mexico and will give the floor to Ms. Perez for a response and ask if she could make her response a bit faster.

La OMBUDSPERSON DE LA OEA: Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the delegation of Mexico for your question.

Yes, the Office of the Ombudsperson has the authority to make informal investigations. It does not have the authority to make formal investigations, but the Office has the authority to make informal investigations, verification of data, and in fact has access to every single information in the Organization to be able to do this. Yes. It is part of the possibilities.

La PRESIDENTA: Thank you, Ms. Perez.

There are no other requests for the floor, so I suggest that the Permanent Council take note of the Preliminary Annual Report by the Office of the Ombudsperson and also of the comments by the delegations to ask for this report to be presented beforehand for the next meeting that we will review this report, and we also note the constraints of the Office and will ask the Secretariat to make special consideration to making the Office be able to operate more efficiently. Again, we thank Ms. Neida Perez for her presentation. If there are no objections, it is so agreed.

Invitaciones a organizaciones de la sociedad civil, de trabajadores, del sector privado y de otros actores sociales al quincuagésimo período ordinario de sesiones de la Asamblea General que requieren autorización del Consejo Permanente (Informe de la Secretaría General y proyecto de resolución)

La PRESIDENTA: We now move to item 3. The next item in the order of business refers to the Consideration and approval of the invitations to civil society organizations, workers, the private sector, and other social actors to the fiftieth regular session of the General Assembly, for which authorization by the Permanent Council is required per document CP/doc.5630/20, add.1, rev.1, which includes the Report of the General Secretariat and a draft resolution.

I ask delegations if we are in a position to approve this draft resolution.

If there are no objections, we may approve the draft resolution. Approved.

Adopción de las siguientes actas de sesiones del Consejo Permanente:

La PRESIDENTA: We will now move to item 4. We will now proceed to the adoption of the following Permanent Council meeting minutes:

- CP/ACTA 2229, regular meeting of the Permanent Council of May 15, 2019;

- CP/ACTA 2230, special meeting of the Permanent Council of May 21, 2019;

- CP/ACTA 2231, special meeting of the Permanent Council of May 21, 2019;

- CP/ACTA 2232, regular meeting of the Permanent Council of May 22, 2019;

- CP/ACTA 2232, regular meeting of the Permanent Council of May 28, 2018.

If there are no comments, we will proceed to its approval. It is approved.

Otros asuntos

La PRESIDENTA: Distinguished representatives, we will now proceed to the next item on the agenda, “Other Business.” Through document CP/INF8758/20, the Secretary General referred to resolution CP/RES.1121 (2209/19) Strategic Planning of the Organization, approved on March 13, 2019, and requested an extension in the deadline for the delivery of the Report of the GS/OAS provided for in the operative paragraphs (5) and (6) until November 6, of this year. In that sense, this report will be presented after that date.

The floor is open to representatives who may wish to refer to any “Other Business.”

I see that there are no requests for the floor.

There being no further business to consider, this meeting is adjourned.

[Se levanta la sesión a las 12:36 p.m.]

AC03673T01

CP44325T01

ISBN 978-0-8270-7269-5