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Final Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain, April 2009
Fifth Summit of the Americas
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
April 19, 2009
Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain
Securing Our Citizens’ Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security
and Environmental Sustainability
(Third Meeting of Plenipotentiary Officials of 2009 - April 15, 2009)
- 2 -
Fifth Summit of the Americas
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
April 19, 2009
Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain
Securing Our Citizens’ Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security
and Environmental Sustainability
(Third Meeting of Plenipotentiary Officials of 2009 - April 15, 2009)
Preamble
1. We, the Heads of State and Government of the democratic countries of the Americas, guided by a renewed spirit of cooperation, integration and solidarity, have gathered in Port of Spain at the Fifth Summit of the Americas, with a firm commitment to protect and promote the political and civil liberties and improve the social, economic and cultural well-being of all our peoples by advancing joint solutions to the most pressing challenges facing our Hemisphere. Recognising
the sovereignty and independence of each of our countries, we reiterate our will to strengthen national, regional and hemispheric efforts to create the conditions for justice, prosperity, security and peace for the peoples of the Americas, based on the protection and promotion of and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
2. We reaffirm the principles and values of the Charter of the United Nations, the Charter of the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Democratic Charter, the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development and the Millennium Declaration; and we are determined to intensify our fight against poverty, hunger, social exclusion, discrimination and inequality, and promote social inclusion and cohesion to improve the living conditions of our people to achieve development and social justice.
3. We reaffirm the importance of promoting cooperation among our States on the basis of solidarity in the different spheres of inter-American relations in accordance with the principles and essential purposes of the Charter of the OAS, recognising our social, political and economic diversity.
4. We therefore renew our commitment to all the peoples of the Americas to improve the quality of their lives by strengthening inter-American cooperation and, with the support of the institutions of the United Nations, the inter-American system and other relevant regional institutions, to further complement our efforts to ensure greater opportunities for decent work;
to improve nutrition and access to health, quality education and housing; to promote adequate and sustainable access to energy, food and water; and to manage our environment responsibly.
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5. We affirm that the solutions to the challenges facing our peoples are closely inter-dependent with our efforts to promote sustainable development and social inclusion; build stronger democratic institutions; strengthen governance in our democracies; preserve the rule of law and ensure access to justice for all citizens; protect and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms; prevent and combat violence, crime, terrorism and corruption; fight the global drug
problem and related crimes; and achieve broader civic participation of all citizens of the inter-American community.
6. We recognise the importance of considering the differentiated needs of women and men in promoting and ensuring the integration of the gender perspective as a cross cutting issue in national and hemispheric policies, plans and programmes to be implemented in the political, economic, labour, social and cultural spheres. In this regard, we will continue our efforts to produce regional studies and statistics disaggregated by sex for measuring and monitoring, and for promoting cooperation and the sharing of good practices, experiences and policies among States on gender equality and equity within the context of human prosperity, energy security and environmental sustainability. Promoting Human Prosperity
7. We are committed to addressing the current economic and financial crisis in order to achieve our objectives of promoting human prosperity and securing our citizens’ future. We are determined to enhance our cooperation and work together to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the world’s financial systems.
8. We are aware that, notwithstanding the gains made since the Fourth Summit of the Americas, deep inequalities continue to exist in our countries and in our region. In response, we will continue to develop and implement social protection and inclusion policies and programmes that give priority to those living in conditions of poverty and vulnerability in our societies, and we will continue to promote access to education, health, nutrition, energy, basic social services and to opportunities for dignified and decent work. At the same time, we will stimulate income growth and better income distribution, increase productivity, and protect workers’ rights and the environment.
9. To strengthen our efforts to reduce social disparities and inequality and to halve extreme poverty by the year 2015, we commit to exchange information on policies, experiences, programmes and best practices. We therefore support the establishment of an Inter-American Social Protection Network in order to facilitate this exchange.
10. We instruct our Ministers, in particular those responsible for finance, planning and social development, to initiate or strengthen the review of national social protection, inclusion and poverty eradication programmes, if deemed necessary, in order to increase efficiency and
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effectiveness, reduce duplication, identify gaps at the national level and optimise the use of resources. We also instruct the Ministers to share the experiences and best practices that emanate from these reviews at the Second Meeting of Ministers and high level authorities of Social Development scheduled to take place in Colombia in 2010, with a view to identifying opportunities for increased multilateral cooperation in the area of social development. We call on the OAS, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and other relevant regional and subregional
development and financial institutions to support these efforts within the scope of their mandates.
11. We commit to strengthening the institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, including, where applicable, the Mechanism to Follow Up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women “Convention of Belém do Pará” and its funding. We will encourage the full and equal participation of women in the political life and decision-making structures of our countries at all levels through laws and public policies that promote respect for women’s human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as gender equality, equity and parity.
12. We recognise that there are significant differences in the levels of development and the size of our respective economies. Accordingly, we must continue to make a particular effort to promote sustainable development in small and vulnerable economies of the Hemisphere by enhancing their competitiveness, human and institutional capacity-building, financial and physical infrastructure, as well as the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the development of the business sector and other productive economic sectors, including tourism. We will also continue to support the national development efforts of middleincome countries to achieve the objectives of the Millennium Declaration, emphasising the reduction of poverty and the eradication of extreme poverty. We will work, as appropriate, in coordination with the relevant international institutions and organisations to improve the effectiveness of aid and development cooperation with middle-income countries. In this context, we also recognise the challenges faced by the land-locked countries of the Hemisphere.
13. To reduce poverty and hunger, eradicate extreme poverty, create dignified and decent work, and raise the standard of living of all our people, we must achieve higher levels of business development and sustainable economic growth with equity. Subject to the domestic laws of each country, we will continue to promote diversified economic activity in the energy, transport, tourism, communications, services, financial services and agricultural sectors. We are committed to facilitating investment and public-private partnerships in infrastructure and other relevant sectors in order to promote business development, economic growth and social development with equity. We will continue to promote increased corporate social responsibility and improved competitiveness, to which the Americas Competitiveness Forum in Chile in 2009
will contribute.
14. We recognise the positive contribution of trade among our nations to the promotion of growth, employment and development. We will therefore continue to insist on an open, transparent and rules-based multilateral trading system. We further recognise the need for all our peoples to
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benefit from the increased opportunities and welfare gains that the multilateral trading system generates.
15. Reaffirming our commitment to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, we will continue to promote the creation of more opportunities for decent work in the formal sector. We will enforce our domestic labour laws to provide for acceptable conditions of work and safe and healthy workplaces, free from violence, harassment and discrimination. We will promote continuous training programmes in collaboration with workers’ representatives and the private sector as appropriate, with the goal of generating the necessary technical skills to enable workers to respond to the demands of the labour market. We therefore call upon the Ministers of Labour, within the context of the OAS Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour (IACML), in collaboration with their workers’ and employers’ consultative bodies and with the support of the ILO, as appropriate, to endorse, at the 16th IACML to be held in 2009, a work programme that advances these objectives.
16. We will adopt the necessary policies and regulations with the support of the ILO, IDB, World Bank and other regional bodies as appropriate to facilitate and promote the movement of enterprises and workers from the informal to the formal sector, without adversely affecting the rights of workers.
17. We reaffirm the importance of fully protecting the human rights of migrants, regardless of their immigration status, and observance of the labour laws applicable to them, including the principles and labour rights embodied in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
18. We reiterate our commitment to protect all people, particularly women, children and adolescents, from all forms of trafficking in persons and sexual and economic exploitation, and to provide protection and attention to the victims. We call on Ministers responsible for education, labour, social development, security and justice to adopt coordinated national strategies to prevent and eradicate the worst forms of child labour by 2020 at the latest, in accordance with the Plan of Action of the Fourth Summit in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and in accordance with national legislation, and to develop innovative strategies to bring children and adolescents who are victims back into healthy learning environments. We also reiterate our commitment to eliminate forced labour before 2010.
19. We reiterate our commitment towards families and society to protect the rights of children and adolescents, including the right to education, the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and the entitlement to special care and assistance, in order to promote their social well-being, protection and integral development.
continued....
Final Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain, April 2009
Fifth Summit of the Americas
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
April 19, 2009
Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain
Securing Our Citizens’ Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security
and Environmental Sustainability
(Third Meeting of Plenipotentiary Officials of 2009 - April 15, 2009)
- 2 -
Fifth Summit of the Americas
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
April 19, 2009
Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain
Securing Our Citizens’ Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security
and Environmental Sustainability
(Third Meeting of Plenipotentiary Officials of 2009 - April 15, 2009)
Preamble
1. We, the Heads of State and Government of the democratic countries of the Americas, guided by a renewed spirit of cooperation, integration and solidarity, have gathered in Port of Spain at the Fifth Summit of the Americas, with a firm commitment to protect and promote the political and civil liberties and improve the social, economic and cultural well-being of all our peoples by advancing joint solutions to the most pressing challenges facing our Hemisphere. Recognising
the sovereignty and independence of each of our countries, we reiterate our will to strengthen national, regional and hemispheric efforts to create the conditions for justice, prosperity, security and peace for the peoples of the Americas, based on the protection and promotion of and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
2. We reaffirm the principles and values of the Charter of the United Nations, the Charter of the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Democratic Charter, the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development and the Millennium Declaration; and we are determined to intensify our fight against poverty, hunger, social exclusion, discrimination and inequality, and promote social inclusion and cohesion to improve the living conditions of our people to achieve development and social justice.
3. We reaffirm the importance of promoting cooperation among our States on the basis of solidarity in the different spheres of inter-American relations in accordance with the principles and essential purposes of the Charter of the OAS, recognising our social, political and economic diversity.
4. We therefore renew our commitment to all the peoples of the Americas to improve the quality of their lives by strengthening inter-American cooperation and, with the support of the institutions of the United Nations, the inter-American system and other relevant regional institutions, to further complement our efforts to ensure greater opportunities for decent work;
to improve nutrition and access to health, quality education and housing; to promote adequate and sustainable access to energy, food and water; and to manage our environment responsibly.
- 3 -
5. We affirm that the solutions to the challenges facing our peoples are closely inter-dependent with our efforts to promote sustainable development and social inclusion; build stronger democratic institutions; strengthen governance in our democracies; preserve the rule of law and ensure access to justice for all citizens; protect and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms; prevent and combat violence, crime, terrorism and corruption; fight the global drug
problem and related crimes; and achieve broader civic participation of all citizens of the inter-American community.
6. We recognise the importance of considering the differentiated needs of women and men in promoting and ensuring the integration of the gender perspective as a cross cutting issue in national and hemispheric policies, plans and programmes to be implemented in the political, economic, labour, social and cultural spheres. In this regard, we will continue our efforts to produce regional studies and statistics disaggregated by sex for measuring and monitoring, and for promoting cooperation and the sharing of good practices, experiences and policies among States on gender equality and equity within the context of human prosperity, energy security and environmental sustainability. Promoting Human Prosperity
7. We are committed to addressing the current economic and financial crisis in order to achieve our objectives of promoting human prosperity and securing our citizens’ future. We are determined to enhance our cooperation and work together to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the world’s financial systems.
8. We are aware that, notwithstanding the gains made since the Fourth Summit of the Americas, deep inequalities continue to exist in our countries and in our region. In response, we will continue to develop and implement social protection and inclusion policies and programmes that give priority to those living in conditions of poverty and vulnerability in our societies, and we will continue to promote access to education, health, nutrition, energy, basic social services and to opportunities for dignified and decent work. At the same time, we will stimulate income growth and better income distribution, increase productivity, and protect workers’ rights and the environment.
9. To strengthen our efforts to reduce social disparities and inequality and to halve extreme poverty by the year 2015, we commit to exchange information on policies, experiences, programmes and best practices. We therefore support the establishment of an Inter-American Social Protection Network in order to facilitate this exchange.
10. We instruct our Ministers, in particular those responsible for finance, planning and social development, to initiate or strengthen the review of national social protection, inclusion and poverty eradication programmes, if deemed necessary, in order to increase efficiency and
- 4 -
effectiveness, reduce duplication, identify gaps at the national level and optimise the use of resources. We also instruct the Ministers to share the experiences and best practices that emanate from these reviews at the Second Meeting of Ministers and high level authorities of Social Development scheduled to take place in Colombia in 2010, with a view to identifying opportunities for increased multilateral cooperation in the area of social development. We call on the OAS, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and other relevant regional and subregional
development and financial institutions to support these efforts within the scope of their mandates.
11. We commit to strengthening the institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, including, where applicable, the Mechanism to Follow Up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women “Convention of Belém do Pará” and its funding. We will encourage the full and equal participation of women in the political life and decision-making structures of our countries at all levels through laws and public policies that promote respect for women’s human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as gender equality, equity and parity.
12. We recognise that there are significant differences in the levels of development and the size of our respective economies. Accordingly, we must continue to make a particular effort to promote sustainable development in small and vulnerable economies of the Hemisphere by enhancing their competitiveness, human and institutional capacity-building, financial and physical infrastructure, as well as the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the development of the business sector and other productive economic sectors, including tourism. We will also continue to support the national development efforts of middleincome countries to achieve the objectives of the Millennium Declaration, emphasising the reduction of poverty and the eradication of extreme poverty. We will work, as appropriate, in coordination with the relevant international institutions and organisations to improve the effectiveness of aid and development cooperation with middle-income countries. In this context, we also recognise the challenges faced by the land-locked countries of the Hemisphere.
13. To reduce poverty and hunger, eradicate extreme poverty, create dignified and decent work, and raise the standard of living of all our people, we must achieve higher levels of business development and sustainable economic growth with equity. Subject to the domestic laws of each country, we will continue to promote diversified economic activity in the energy, transport, tourism, communications, services, financial services and agricultural sectors. We are committed to facilitating investment and public-private partnerships in infrastructure and other relevant sectors in order to promote business development, economic growth and social development with equity. We will continue to promote increased corporate social responsibility and improved competitiveness, to which the Americas Competitiveness Forum in Chile in 2009
will contribute.
14. We recognise the positive contribution of trade among our nations to the promotion of growth, employment and development. We will therefore continue to insist on an open, transparent and rules-based multilateral trading system. We further recognise the need for all our peoples to
- 5 -
benefit from the increased opportunities and welfare gains that the multilateral trading system generates.
15. Reaffirming our commitment to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, we will continue to promote the creation of more opportunities for decent work in the formal sector. We will enforce our domestic labour laws to provide for acceptable conditions of work and safe and healthy workplaces, free from violence, harassment and discrimination. We will promote continuous training programmes in collaboration with workers’ representatives and the private sector as appropriate, with the goal of generating the necessary technical skills to enable workers to respond to the demands of the labour market. We therefore call upon the Ministers of Labour, within the context of the OAS Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour (IACML), in collaboration with their workers’ and employers’ consultative bodies and with the support of the ILO, as appropriate, to endorse, at the 16th IACML to be held in 2009, a work programme that advances these objectives.
16. We will adopt the necessary policies and regulations with the support of the ILO, IDB, World Bank and other regional bodies as appropriate to facilitate and promote the movement of enterprises and workers from the informal to the formal sector, without adversely affecting the rights of workers.
17. We reaffirm the importance of fully protecting the human rights of migrants, regardless of their immigration status, and observance of the labour laws applicable to them, including the principles and labour rights embodied in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
18. We reiterate our commitment to protect all people, particularly women, children and adolescents, from all forms of trafficking in persons and sexual and economic exploitation, and to provide protection and attention to the victims. We call on Ministers responsible for education, labour, social development, security and justice to adopt coordinated national strategies to prevent and eradicate the worst forms of child labour by 2020 at the latest, in accordance with the Plan of Action of the Fourth Summit in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and in accordance with national legislation, and to develop innovative strategies to bring children and adolescents who are victims back into healthy learning environments. We also reiterate our commitment to eliminate forced labour before 2010.
19. We reiterate our commitment towards families and society to protect the rights of children and adolescents, including the right to education, the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and the entitlement to special care and assistance, in order to promote their social well-being, protection and integral development.
continued....
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the sustainable management of protected areas and World Heritage Sites;