Foreign Affairs Minister Paul Chet Greene says the Organisation of American States (OAS), is in need of urgent reform in order to be more relevant and “more capable of dealing with the current challenges”.
Greene, in an address at the plenary session of the 49th General Assembly of the OAS here on Thursday listed Climate Change as one of the urgent issues.
“It affects us all in this hemisphere, but none more so than the small island-states whose very existence it threatens. The OAS fails in its responsibility when it neglects to deal with this deadly danger. It is not sufficient to suggest that the UN Committee on Climate Change handles the issue. Matters of this magnitude merit the attention of the OAS because they are material to the welfare of all of us.We should no longer hide from it. It is here and it is now,” he said.
Greene listed another threat – the phenomena of de-risking and withdrawal of correspondent banking relations from many of our countries.
According to Greene – the rights of people to pursue their economic development has been recognised and codified since 1966 as a fundamental human right by the United Nations.
“In this connection, deprivation of CBRs (Credit Bureau Report) is deprivation of a fundamental human right. Without CBRs, the global financial and trading system would come to a halt, and affected countries will drop into poverty from which recovery will be costly both in time and money, but more importantly in human life.”
Greene said this is a grave threat (that) “ has been hanging over the Caribbean now for almost half a decade; and it shows no sign of abating,” adding that, in many parts of the Caribbean, the majority of banks are reduced to only one correspondent bank, and at an extremely high cost.
“Consequently, the cost of doing business is escalating, even as we try to cope with high debt, incurred largely to recover our countries from disasters.”
He noted that the problem is not only financial , but it is also about the rights of states not to collapse into poverty; not to fall into unemployment; not to descend into overwhelming crime.
“Whenever this issue of de-risking and CBRs has been raised in the OAS, some countries have shunted it aside, claiming that it should be handled in financial institutions,” he said.
The Foreign Affairs Minister said his country is deeply concerned that the long-established process of building consensus in the decision-making of the OAS is now being severely eroded.
“This Organisation of the American States must tackle these challenges in our hemisphere, because it represents our hemisphere.The OAS would be far more relevant to the times in which we live and to the peoples it serves, if we give these pressing needs our urgent attention.”
“We want this Organisation to succeed not for the few, not even for the many, but for all without exception.Therefore, Mr. Chairman, we urge that this downward spiral be arrested, and that we all commit to arresting it now,” Greene said.
