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Active Democracy at the General Assembly of the OAS

The ACTIVE DEMOCRACY NETWORK plays a leading role at the General Assembly of the OAS

The Hemispheric Coordinators of the ACTIVE DEMOCRACY Network, Deborah Van Berkel of the Venezuelan Institute of Social and Political Research (INVESP, for its Spanish acronym) and Maria Inés De Ferari, of the Corporación PARTICIPA, Chile; together with the National Coordinators Ramiro Orias of Citizens Working for Justice of Bolivia and Leslie Burns of FOCAL, Canada, participated in Lima from June 4-6 of 2010 in the 40th Session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), which on this occasion centered on the issue of: “Peace, Security and Cooperation in the Americas”.

General Assembly of the OAS

Conversation between the Secretary General of the OAS

Civil Society Workshop

Dialogue with delegation chiefs

Coordinators M. Inés de Ferrari and Deborah Van Berkel

Civil Society prepares for the official OAS activities in Lima

On Saturday, June 5, 2010, civil society had its own space to debate and generate its proposals and observations regarding the General Assembly of the OAS. This work represented the continuity of the meeting organized by the Department of International Affairs of the OAS in Washington DC, which was held at the beginning of May of this year.

Active Democracy promotes the declaration and calls on other networwks and SCOs to fight for the rights of participation and against the veto

One of the main proposals that the Active Democracy Network brought to the agenda of the 40th session of the General Assembly of the OAS was the need to call for the passage of the RENEWED STRATEGY OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION (SCO) PARTICIAPTION IN OAS ACTIVITIES, created by the Department of International Affairs of the OAS, in a participative process together with several actors. This concern was solidified in the creation of a Declaration in which the Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy, and the Democratic Change network also participated. The signatures of over 60 national and international civil society organizations present in Lima were added to this declaration. The declaration was presented to the Secretary General of the OAS during the informal Dialogue that was held with civil society on Saturday, June 5, and to all the representatives of the governments that participated in the General Assembly on Sunday, June 6.

Download here the Declaration in PDF Format.

Coordinated by

Supported by

Participating Organizations

Prepared by Corporación Participa

Contact: María Inés de Ferrari - mideferrari@participa.cl / Catalina Delpiano - cdelpiano@participa.cl

More information at www.democraciaactiva.org