AG/RES. 1745 (XXX-O/00): Support for Action Against Mines in Peru and Ecuador

(Resolution adopted at the first plenary session, held on June 5, 2000)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

HAVING SEEN the Annual Report of the Permanent Council (AG/doc.3848/00), in particular the section referring to the Report of the Chair of the Committee on Hemispheric Security (CP/CSH-307/00);

RECALLING:

Its resolutions AG/RES. 1411 (XXVI-O/96), AG/RES. 1496 (XXVII-O/97), and AG/RES. 1569 (XXVIII-O/98); and

Its resolution AG/RES. 1644 (XXIX-O/99), operative paragraph 12 of which urges the OAS member states and permanent observers to provide assistance for the national mine-clearing programs being carried out by Ecuador and Peru in their territories; and

RECOGNIZING:

The mine-clearing operations being carried out by the Governments of Peru and Ecuador in their respective areas of their shared border and the support offered by Canada, the United States, and others for the mine-clearing programs they will conduct in a number of areas within their territories during 2000;

That a Specific Fund to Support Mine-Clearing in Peru and Ecuador has been established within the framework of the OAS, under the auspices of Canada, and administered by the Unit for the Promotion of Democracy, and that the member states and permanent observers are urged to provide support, through that fund, to the two countries for the execution of their national programs for integral action against antipersonnel mines; and

That both Ecuador and Peru, separately but with the same objective, are negotiating framework cooperation agreements under which the OAS would conduct comprehensive assistance programs for combating antipersonnel mines in the territories of the two countries,

RESOLVES:

1. To urge the General Secretariat to pursue negotiations with the Governments of Ecuador and Peru with a view to the earliest possible conclusion of the framework agreements for the initiation of assistance programs for integral action against antipersonnel mines in Ecuador and Peru.

2. To instruct the General Secretariat to continue, through the Unit for the Promotion of Democracy, to provide assistance and obtain contributions from countries and organizations to the specific fund for the mine-clearing programs and programs for integral action against antipersonnel mines carried out by Peru and Ecuador in their respective territories, for the common purpose of making the Western Hemisphere an antipersonnel-land-mine-free zone.