Salutations:
Madame President, Hon. Jacqui Quinn-Leandro, President of CIM
Distinguished Ambassadors,
Distinguished Delegates,
Executive Secretary of CIM, Carmen Lomellin
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the Inaugural Meeting of the CIM Executive Committee of the biennium 2006-2008. I am pleased to have the opportunity to greet the new Executive Committee and share this moment with this body that is so relevant to this organization.

Madame President, allow me to congratulate you on your assumption of this important office. As the fifth President from the Caribbean Region, you also come to this office replete with ground-breaking firsts. You are the first woman to be elected into Government in your country; and also Antigua and Barbuda’s first President of CIM. I also wish to commend you for your visit of February 20-23, 2007, as you made yourself available for a three-day visit to the OAS.

To Vice President Marta Vazquez from Colombia, and the newly installed Executive Committee of the CIM from Brazil, Guatemala, Haiti, Peru and Uruguay, I wish you well as you strive to drive the work for this biennium. I am confident that this able team will continue to fulfill the mandates which have been entrusted to - and engendered by - this august body.

I pledge the full support of my Office to the activities of the Executive Committee and the CIM, not only because this is part of the responsibilities I carry in my portfolio, but also because I firmly believe by addressing gender issues in a holistic manner we can contribute to the further development of our societies.

As we begin this new period, I applaud the CIM for continuing to take the lead on topics of great importance to this hemisphere.

It was the CIM with its widow’s mite of resources which pioneered the vital work on Trafficking in Women and Children at the OAS. The CIM continues to demonstrate its visionary role as it tackles the new, challenging topic of HIV/AIDS and its interface with gender-based violence in this biennium.

The work that the CIM has undertaken on gender, conflict and peace-building, has been equally visionary and shown excellent results in two subregions, Andean and Central America. Hopefully, this initiative can be extended to other countries and regions willing to receive our support on this issue.

I also wish to commend the CIM for addressing the issue of ‘Gender and Natural Disasters’ as part of its work plan, and urge the CIM to continue working on this mandate to mainstream gender into the work of the Inter-American Committee on Natural Disasters.

I look forward during this biennium to the successful completion of the first evaluation round of the Follow-up Mechanism to Implementation of the Convention of Belém do Pará, MESECVI, and the beginning of the second round. The CIM is to be congratulated on its work in putting into practice this important mechanism. I have no doubt that the MESECVI will prove to be a formidable tool to measure national and hemispheric progress in attaining the objectives of the Convention, and an excellent means to share and replicate successful initiatives. We can be very proud that our region is the only one in the world that has only binding legal instrument on gender-based violence, but also a follow-up mechanism to promote its implementation.

I urge the CIM to strengthen the collaboration within the OAS with other departments to create wider synergies, like with the Columbus Memorial Library and the Art Museum of the Americas. There is space to increase collaboration within the inter-American system, with PAHO, IIAC and IDB. I urge you to work towards an inter-American partnership on gender issues, so that we can create a hemispheric strategy.

The OAS remains in concert with the rest of international arena, as we strive to assure that gender equity and equality is situated at the heart of our multidimensional agenda of democracy, security and development. In this connection, the CIM’s growing influence within the General Secretariat to on topics that are not traditionally considered as women’s issues is a source of satisfaction for the General Secretariat. The 37th General Assembly, with its vitally relevant theme of ‘Energy for Sustainable Development’ will provide a new opportunity to focus on the importance of integrating a gender perspective in policies and programs in promoting development and addressing poverty alleviation.

I would like to underscore the significance of gender equality and gender equity being all-inclusive - where the perspectives of men, women, boys and girls are equitably represented at the bargaining table. The voice of the CIM challenges us to address the glaring deficits in gender balance and forces us to acknowledge that genuine partnership is the key ingredient for any real and lasting societal transformation. I fully endorse that view for no sustainable partnership can occur; if women and men remain compartmentalized and that our progress depends on the full and equal participation of all members of society.

All what we do in our personal and professional life should be aimed at further strengthening peace in society and creating sustainable economies. This is not an easy task and we have many challenges to address in this regard.

Before I continue, allow me to share some thoughts which go to the heart of our ability to achieve the changes we foresee. I believe that we cannot build sustainable economies, if we do not realize the realities of our hemisphere.

A couple of days ago I reminded myself of some of the very vivid realities in our hemisphere. While we all arrived under safe circumstances, we had a good meal last night, went to bed safely, had a good night rest in a comfortable bed, got up this morning and took a refreshing bath followed by a decent breakfast, we have to realize that this is only one reality in the Americas. There is also another reality for almost 220 million Americans that is quite different: many millions went to bed, last night, without a proper meal, many of them without a roof above their head, not having a good night rest because of the unsafe environment in which they have to live, got up this morning in the same clothes and could not have a bath because of the lack of access to water, left their sleeping places on an empty stomach to find ways to survive from this day to tomorrow.

Without understanding and internalizing these realities in our psyche, it will be difficult to achieve the changes we all want, that is create opportunities in an equitable manner for all.

Sustainable development requires us also to take a good look at our own behavior and consumption patterns. The fundamental individual question is then: are we as individuals ready and willing to make fundamental choices that will help in alleviating some of the inequalities in our societies?

Therefore, building peaceful and sustainable societies starts with us, as individuals. Change does not happen just like that, it is an end result of principally individual efforts, and these changes for the good can only take place if we understand and are aware of the deficiencies in our societies, in this case about the role of women in society, about the potential of our youth, etc.

I urge CIM to focus on this matter by providing more information about the role of women and youth in our societies, to increase the awareness and understanding that we need to embark on fundamental changes in our perceptions about as well as future perspectives in our societies. It is important to use media and other channels for this purpose on a structural basis.

I repeat my call for a new paradigm on development, one that is more holistic, more human and more pragmatic, because in the end it is not about democracy, human rights, rule of law, etc, it is about real improvement in the lives of the People of the Americas. Therefore, we need to empower women and youth in our societies and mitigate the potential of conflict early on.

In closing, I eagerly look forward to the outcomes of your fruitful deliberations as the catalyst for providing cogent guidelines to advancing the objectives of the CIM. I also wish to add that my involvement with the CIM goes beyond the fact that it falls under my portfolio. Wherever I go, I actively promote the CIM because of my commitment to furthering its invaluable work. However, I am fully cognizant of the fact that for gender equity and equality to be realized, we have to be prepared at the OAS to move beyond a cosmetic commitment. Being fully seized of the need to accord full and equal status to the CIM with that of other entities of the OAS, we must urgently respond to its call for a significant increase in human and financial resources.

I thank you.