Remarks By Ambassador Kindsley C.A. Layne, C.M.G

I bring you greetings and best wishes for a successful General Assembly on behalf of the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), which is the specialised agency representing the interests of women in the Inter-American System.

Since its foundation at the Sixth International Conference of American States, held id Havana in 1928, the CIM has become an increasingly effective voice of the women of all the Americas. It has fought for their rights, guarded their interests, and promoted their progress, in cooperation with noational, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations.

The theme chosen for this General Assemble, "Women, Globalisation and Fair Trade", is very germane at this period of our history. Indeed, terms like globalisation and trade liberalisation reflect the zeitgeist, and their ramifications affect the lives of all people, whether they are active participants in the processes or not. They are pervasive.

In this hemisphere governments are engaged in a historic process, initiated at the 1994 Summit of the Americas in Miami, to establish the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) , stretching from the Yukon in Canada to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, a territory over 40 million square kilometers, 800 million people and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of over US$11 trillion. This is a monumental undertaking aimed at increasing the well being of all the poeple of the hemisphere. Mindful of historical experience, member states of the OAS are taking due precautions in the FTAA process to protect the best interests of the most vulnerable in our societies.

At the First Ministerial Meeting on the Advancement of Women in Member States, April 27 - 28 2000, Washington, D.C. responsible ministers renewed their determination to combat all forms of discrimination and to promote equal rights and opportunities for men and women, for which measures must be taken in the area of gender equality, consonant with the progress made by the Fourth World Conference on Women and the organs of the United Nations. These initiatives constitute and integral and essential part of the Summits of the Americas Follow-up mechanisms.

In June 2000, the OAS General Assembly approved the Inter-American Program on the Promotion of Women’s Human Rights and Gender Equity and Equality. Among other things, this program calls for the 34 OAS member states to promote gender mainstreaming in their policies and programs, and for the OAS Genral Secretaria "to adopt, in coordination with the CIM, the measures need to integrate the gender perspective in the execution of programs and activities by all organs, agencies and entities of the OAS."

The Secretariat will provide all organs of the OAS system with the training to incorporate the gender perspective in their work and to prepare suitable tools for attaining the goal of this program, which is to help ensure that projects and programs funded by the OAS benefit women and men, girls and boys, equally, equitable and appropriately - and that inequality is not perpetuated.

On Wednesday, May 22nd in Washington, D.C. the OAS, through the CIM and the Canadian Agency for International Development (CIDA) , launched a Gender Mainstreaming Project to address these mandates from the General Assembly. At the launching, the Secretary General of the OAS, Cesar Gaviria, declared the project to be "imperative for building stronger, more prosperous democracies in the Americas". He elaborated, "If the woman of the Americas don’t have the same access to opportunities as men, then we are failing in the responsibilities of deomocracy." Initially, 200 OAS professionals at headquarters and 40 abroad, will be trained in the integration of a gender perspective in all phases of OAS projects.

Currently, here in Suriname, as part of its gender mainstreaming activities, the Ministry responsible for women’s affairs, is conducting a series of training programs, through the OAS financed project, "Effective Personal Leadership for Women Managers in Government." This project is aimed at enhancing the confidence, image and performance of qualified women in the workplace.

Ladies and Gentlemen, CAFRA and the CIM are engaged in a common mission to improve the lives of our people.