Dionne Jackson Miller

KINGSTON, Jun 8 2005 (IPS) — The Organisation of American States (OAS) is one of the few international groupings in which the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom) is a significant player, given the one country, one vote philosophy that governs the OAS.

And although the Caribbean’s most recent efforts to urge the OAS to act in the interests of democracy led nowhere, officials maintain that the organisation still has an important role to play.

Last year, Caricom urged the OAS to look into the controversial departure of former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide, but the call went unheeded. Nevertheless, fresh from the 35th General Assembly of the OAS, which ended on Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Caricom representatives are upbeat about the OAS’s significance to the region.

"It is working in the sense that this remains a multilateral forum where the voice of Caricom member states can be heard and where there is influence," Bahamian Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell told reporters at the assembly. As proof of that influence, he pointed to the recent election of Chilean Minister Jose Miguel Insulza, a Caricom-backed candidate, for the post of OAS secretary general.

"Clearly there’s always a disproportionate weight for countries that have more wealth and power, but this is the forum which allows the moral suasion of smaller countries to be felt on an equal basis with the bigger countries," Mitchell said.

Jamaica’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Delano Franklin also maintains that the OAS is important to the Caribbean grouping, and believes that Caricom is now likely to see more of its concerns taken on board, with the election at the assembly of another Caricom-backed candidate for the post of assistant secretary general, Surinamese diplomat Albert Ramdin. Ramdin is a former assistant secretary general of Caricom.

"There is an emerging new leadership in the OAS, and we are of the view that this secretary general will bring a different perspective to development in the Americas including hearing and not only listening to, but responding to the voice of the Caribbean," Franklin told IPS.

"With this emerging leadership, we are of the view that the sensibilities and sensitivities of the Caribbean will be further taken on board."

He also insists that Caricom has an important say in OAS affairs.

"Despite the fact that there may be a perception (that) Caricom views in the past might not have been recognised the way they ought to, I can state that the importance of Caricom to the overall development of the OAS isn’t underestimated nor is it being ignored, because there is a recognition that of the 34 countries forming the OAS, Caricom constitutes a bloc of 15," he said.

"I believe that what is absolutely important from the standpoint of Caricom is that we are as united as we can whenever we are putting any issue or issues on the table," Franklin told IPS.

But the same mechanism which gives each country a vote of equal weight within the OAS may also be contributing to some of its woes.

At the opening session of the 35th General Assembly, Assistant Secretary General Luigi Einaudi likened the OAS to a "great ship" with "no maintenance for its engines and nothing more for sails than patchwork rags fit for an aging catamaran."

That dilemma may well be due to the system which requires larger, wealthier countries to provide proportionately more of the budget than smaller countries, but gives them the same say in OAS decisions, according to Carl Cira, director of the Summit of the Americas Centre at Florida International University.

"The problem of financing is tied very closely to the issue of government by consensus. If I contribute a million, and someone contributes one thousand, and we both have the same voice and the same vote, my tendency is to contribute a thousand and still go to the party," he said.

The issue of Haiti is another one that continues to dog the OAS, with violence in that country escalating ahead of elections scheduled for November. The United States-backed Gerard Latortue administration is not yet officially recognised by Caricom, which has so far refused to allow Haitian representatives back into the inner circles of the group.

At a press briefing with Caribbean and Latin American reporters this week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she wished to see Caricom being "more helpful and active" with regard to Haiti.

But Mitchell says there are some shared views.

"I think most people tend to think about the situation in Haiti last year with the forced departure of Pres. Aristide, but everyone agrees the common ground on that issue was that there has to be engagement of some kind," he said. "There’s a Caricom assessment team on the ground now looking at how we can engage in the electoral process."

The OAS has been promising to give more of a voice to civil society, a concept welcomed by Jean Lafortune, chairman of the Miami-based Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition. Lafortune was the only group representing Caribbean interests to speak before OAS foreign ministers in its dialogue with civil society prior to the start of the assembly.

He believes that the OAS needs to take more interest in the doings of member countries, specifically, the repatriation of Haitian refugees by countries to which they have fled.

"The OAS has not done a very good job in terms of the Haitian migrations, reporting those members that are dealing with Haitian refugees, and that’s the reason that we can see (in) all those countries where Haitian refugees seek safe haven, there are barriers being put against those refugees," he told IPS.

"The OAS needs to step up in terms of being more involved. I think by opening the door to civil society groups this is a very first step, but we are hoping that it is not just good intentions, we are hoping that the OAS can accompany its good intentions with good deeds."

"That will require strong leadership at the level of the secretary general to persuade member states to be more engaging in dealing with migrations in the region," he said.