We are hurt and concerned by the current global context. Today we must say that the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) has peace as its fundamental objective and, in that sense, the daily work of the Organization is promoting dialogue and political construction in democracy in a plural and diverse framework, to find solutions to the permanently complex political agenda of this Hemisphere. In that sense, we also work for peace on the ground, in missions such as the Office in the Belize-Guatemala Adjacency Zone and in the Mission to Support the Peace Process (MAPP) in Colombia, often micro-managing peace, because peace is built from the most basic right of each people, of each person.
In a Hemisphere in which we still have millions of people at risk of severe hunger or without access to drinking water, in which we still have rich countries and poor people, it is essential that every human right, no matter how elementary it may seem, be fundamental.
But it is also essential to eradicate every crime against humanity that still exists in the region, so that there are no tortured people, no political prisoners, no missing persons, no extrajudicial executions. We also work on a daily basis denouncing each crime against humanity of each dictatorship, because that is the essence of peace. Because to achieve this, it is necessary that, one day, we finally have a region free of crimes against humanity. I wish we had the mandate to carry this out in every corner of the world.
We all need peace. Peace is necessary for people like the oxygen they breathe or the water they drink or the freedom they should have. Those attacked are always victims of the loss of peace, not the aggressor who causes it. And recognizing that the people of the aggressor country are often the first victims of the aggressor, the attacked people need peace more than the aggressor who takes it away from them, who takes it away from all of us, that is why we have condemned every aggression, regardless of the perpetrator. Iran now, Russia before. We are hurt by each victim; we are worried that any current conflict will escalate and the victims will multiply. We must always ensure that peace is the only possible path.
The OAS General Secretariat is an instrument of peace, and this work is constant. In each commitment that is assumed with the OAS Charter, the Inter-American Democratic Charter and the Human Rights Conventions.
Reference: E-025/24
