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PERMANENT COUNCIL OF THE OEA/Ser.G
ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES CP/CSH/SA-229/15
11 May 2015
COMMITTEE ON HEMISPHERIC SECURITY Original: Spanish
Summary of the meeting of May 7, 2015
The Chair of the Committee on Hemispheric Security (CSH), Ambassador Andrés González Díaz, Permanent Representative of Colombia to the OAS, chaired this regular meeting of the Committee.
The statutory quorum was established with the presence of representatives from Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
The audio recording of the meeting can be found at the following link:
http://scm.oas.org/Audios/2015/CP_CSH_1659_05-07-2015.MP3
1. Adoption of the order of business
The order of business, document CP/CSH-1659/15, was adopted by the Committee without any changes.
2. Follow-up to the mandate in operative paragraph 10 of resolution AG/RES. 2866 (XLIV-O/14)[1]/
i. Participation of the American Police Community (AMERIPOL)
a. Consideration of this matter began with a presentation (link) by the President of AMERIPOL, Commissioner Juan José Andrade Morales, who was present in the Simón Bolívar Room at OAS headquarters for this meeting.
b. Then, the Committee was addressed by District General Milton Zárate Barreiros on behalf of the Executive Secretariat of AMERIPOL, who, speaking via videoconference from Quito, also delivered a presentation (link).
c. Subsequently, the member state delegations present in the room thanked the President and the Secretariat of AMERIPOL for their presentations. The delegations highlighted and expressed gratitude for this Community’s contributions and achievements that had strengthened and unified countries’ police institutions. They also made clear their appreciation for its coordination and cooperation with OAS efforts in this area. In addition to the above remarks, member states made comments and asked questions, which included the following:
1. This first numbered paragraph only includes questions by CARICOM (formally submitted to the Chair of the CSH on April 29). Paragraphs 2 to 5 summarize questions and comments of the other delegations:
· What is the content of the MOU between the OAS and AMERIPOL?
· What are the benefits to member states if AMERIPOL is incorporated into the OAS?
· How will this differ from the current arrangement under the MOU?
· What are the expectations and or obligations for member states if AMERIPOL is incorporated?
· Is AMERIPOL considering expanding its current mandates beyond training and capacity building to possibly intelligence-gathering/sharing?
· Is AMERIPOL contemplating formalizing itself as an entity outside of the proposed incorporation into the OAS?
2. Budgetary questions
· What is the annual budget of AMERIPOL?
· What are its sources of financing?
· Would AMERIPOL seek subsidies from the OAS?
· What budgetary implications would its amalgamation to the OAS have?
3. Questions of an institutional nature
· How does AMERIPOL see its incorporation into the OAS as possibly materializing?
Ø Would it be another secretariat within the General Secretariat of the OAS?
Ø Would it be a “satellite” intergovernmental agency?
· What would be the process for AMERIPOL’s integration in the OAS?
· What changes would it hope to see in terms of the current relationship/situation between the two institutions?
· They asked for further detail on the subject of subordination to, and supervision by, the OAS. Does this refer to subordination to and supervision by a multilateral public authority? How do they think this would be applied? Why the need for its subordination and what would be its extent? What problems does AMERIPOL have that prompt it to join the OAS?
· To whom would AMERIPOL be accountable? To its civilian authority? To the OAS? It would appear not to need to join the OAS since, as things stand, the relationship is a good one and there is effective cooperation with the OAS, as far as can be deduced from the memorandum of understanding. To whom would AMERIPOL report and who supervises whom in technical activities?
· What is AMERIPOL’s current relationship with the OAS? They understand it to be one of cooperation with the Department of Public Security. Is there a difference between cooperation with member states (individually) and cooperation with the OAS (as a multilateral organization)?
· They asked for clarity on AMERIPOL’s legal incorporation, its standing as a legal entity, etc.
· They requested that the memorandum of understanding between AMERIPOL and the OAS be distributed among the member states.
4. Questions on technical cooperation
· What concrete contributions would it make to the OAS?
· What added value does AMERIPOL hope will obtain from joining the OAS?
· Will the OAS and AMERIPOL start handling information jointly?
· Under the current structure, how could AMERIPOL expand its cooperation with the OAS? What can it contribute right now?
· What are AMERIPOL’s current needs?
5. AMERIPOL plans
· Is AMERIPOL working toward becoming an international organization such as INTERPOL, or an intergovernmental agency? Or would it continue to be an umbrella community of police forces in the Hemisphere?
· What are AMERIPOL’s future plans—for example, over the next five years?
d. The AMERIPOL officers then addressed the room again to offer preliminary responses to some of the questions and observations raised by the member state delegations, with a formal document to be submitted by the institution early the following week.
1. Remarks by the President of AMERIPOL, Commissioner Juan José Andrade Morales
· AMERIPOL is not promoting any specific kind of incorporation into the OAS. It is putting its work at the service of the OAS. We approached the system with respect so that you could decide how you might wish to take advantage of our experience and expertise. AMERIPOL will gladly occupy whatever role that the General Assembly and member states consider appropriate in working with the OAS. Police forces are always subordinate to the political authorities.
· It is a question of comprehensive responses to far-reaching problems. The police are a link in the chain with technical capabilities. A problem without borders necessitates a response without borders.
· AMERIPOL’s intentions were misinterpreted. We are mindful that in this multilateral forum, the representatives of member states make multilateral decisions. Here in this forum, we are at your disposal for whatever you wish; for us to be incorporated into the OAS or to strengthen ties to this organization.
· Budget: We are subsidized by contributions from national police institutions. We have not requested a special budget. Each country supports its representative. We are not requesting a special budget for AMERIPOL. In the spirit of good faith that governs relations among the police forces of our countries, those with more, offer/share more, and support from countries is appreciated. AMERIPOL does not receive additional funding and it is not asking for any.
· As AMERIPOL matures, it envisions integrating all police institutions to confront the problem of international crime in a coordinated fashion and according to similar standards for the benefit of citizen security. Prevention should be addressed from an international perspective. It is better to combine all of our capacities to tackle crime. Hence the importance of training and exchanges of best practices and experience. It is that capability that we offer governments. It is an initiative that could be monitored and should be supervised. Our interest is for all police forces to benefit based on their individual needs. Several countries have yet to be integrated.
· At eight summits we have shared information and reached agreements, which we would like to share with this multilateral forum. Through this forum, AMERIPOL’s technical operations could have a greater impact in each country.
· He mentioned the activities that AMERIPOL is carrying out for the benefit of police forces, in which the point of view of the police is taken into account: exchanges of best practices are an economical way to avoid repeating problems when dealing with challenges that some countries have already faced and others are experiencing at present.
· He offered to send documentation on AMERIPOL’s work and achievements since its inception eight years ago.
2. Remarks by District General Milton Zárate Barreiros on behalf of the Executive Secretariat of AMERIPOL
· He said that AMERIPOL had noted the delegations’ questions and concerns.
· He explained that AMERIPOL was an autonomous organization but that the police institutions in each country were not.
· He mentioned AMERIPOL’s bylaws, since they describe the particulars of its incorporation.
· He stressed that violence and crime respect no borders, and that, therefore, they had to exchange practices and experience at the hemispheric level.
e. Lastly, the Chair of the CSH, Ambassador Andrés González Díaz, Permanent Representative of Colombia to the OAS, reiterated his gratitude for AMERIPOL’s willingness to contribute to the dialogue between member states on the issue, as evinced by both the visit by AMERIPOL’s president and the information presented via videoconference from Quito. He applauded the work of the Community, and reiterated that this was just one of many occasions on which member states would receive information enabling them to reach consensus leading to the adoption of measures to strengthen hemispheric efforts to prevent violence and fight against domestic and international crime. He added that despite efforts being made at all levels, much still remained to be done, among other things, to lower the daily death toll from violence in our countries (approximately 300).
ii. Presentation by the Director of the Department of Public Security, Dr. Paulina Duarte, on work being done by her Department with respect to technical cooperation in the area of police management.
The Director of the Department of Public Security, Dr. Paulina Duarte briefed the delegations about the work that her department was carrying out in this regard: CP/CSH/INF.422/15 rev. 1.
As time ran out before delegations had a chance to comment on the presentation, the meeting agreed to begin the next meeting of the CSH with this topic.
3. Other business
· There being insufficient time to take up any further business, the Chair adjourned the meeting.
[1]. Operative paragraph 10 of resolution AG/RES. 2866 (XLIV-O/14)
10. Bearing in mind the decision of MISPA IV concerning the “Instruction to the Secretary General of the Organization of American States regarding Cooperation with the American Police Community (AMERIPOL),” to request the Secretariat to report on the matter and to include additional aspects to be borne in mind, so that the member states can evaluate, within the framework of the CSH, possible options for an OAS technical cooperation mechanism or program on police matters.
Decision of MISPA IV
Within the framework of MISPA IV, the General Secretariat of the OAS is instructed to carry out a legal, technical, and budgetary review in order to chart and define a roadmap for the American Police Community (AMERIPOL) to become part of the inter-American system, and so strengthen its current activities in the area of police management and cooperation.