OEA/Ser.P
AG/RES. 1645 (XXIX-O/99)
7 June 1999
Original: Spanish

SUPPORT FOR THE COMMITTEE ON HEMISPHERIC SECURITY

(Adopted at the first plenary session, held on June 7, 1999,
and pending review by the Style Committee)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

HAVING SEEN, the Annual Report of the Permanent Council (AG/doc.3830/99), and in particular, the section dealing with the Report of the Committee on Hemispheric Security (CP/CSH- 214/99), which includes the topic "Support for the Committee on Hemispheric Security";

BEARING IN MIND that, pursuant to Article 112 of the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), one of the functions of the General Secretariat is to advise the other organs, when appropriate;

CONSIDERING:

That resolution AG/RES. 1566 (XXVIII-O/98), "Confidence- and Security-Building in the Hemisphere" resolves "to instruct the Permanent Council, working through the Committee on Hemispheric Security, to: (a) "Follow-up on and expand topics related to the strengthening of confidence- and security-building measures"; (b) "Analyze the meaning, scope, and implications of international security concepts in the Hemisphere, with a view to developing the most appropriate common approaches by which to manage their various aspects, including disarmament and arms control"; and (c) "Identify ways to revitalize and strengthen agencies of the inter-American system related to the various aspects of hemispheric security";

That the aforementioned resolution instructs the Secretary General to:

a. Receive information from the member states on the application of confidence- and security-building measures, so as to facilitate, in particular, the preparation of the complete and systematic inventory of these measures, in light of the provisions of the Declarations of San Salvador and Santiago and the pertinent resolutions;

b. Receive information submitted by the member states for the preparation of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms and the United Nations Standardized International Reporting of Military Expenditures; and

c. Update each year, on the basis of information submitted by the member states, the roster of experts on confidence- and security-building measures, and to circulate it to the member states each year by the month of June; and

That the aforementioned resolution also instructs the Secretary General to provide, "specialized support to the Committee on Hemispheric Security, within existing budgetary resources, and to strengthen that of a technical-administrative nature which currently exists, so that the Committee may fulfill the mandates entrusted to it by the General Assembly and the Second Summit of the Americas";

NOTING the role of the General Secretariat as Depositary of the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials, and in particular, in relation to the support which it should provide to the Consultative Committee established by said Convention, as well as, in the future, its role with respect to the tasks assigned to the Depositary by the Inter-American Convention on Transparency in the Acquisition of Conventional Weapons;

REITERATING ITS SATISFACTION that the Permanent Council, through resolution CP/RES. 724 (1162/98), established a Register of Antipersonnel Land Mines and asked the General Secretariat "to keep the Permanent Council informed of all updated information presented by the member states";

CONVINCED of the necessity of providing support to the Committee on Hemispheric Security (the Committee) to implement and fulfill the mandates of the General Assembly, particularly those mentioned above;

NOTING the efforts of the OAS to deal with the special security concerns of small island states defined in the Conclusions and Recommendations of the High-Level Meeting on the Special Security Concerns of Small Island States (1998) and in the Declaration of San Salvador on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures (1998);

NOTING WITH SATISFACTION the support by the Secretary General for the work of the Committee in compliance with the above cited resolution AG/RES. 1566 (XXVIII-O/98); and

NOTING ALSO the opening of a Documentation Center for the Committee, which, under the supervision of the General Secretariat Coordinator for Hemispheric Security Affairs, contains the documentation relevant to this topic, and the information submitted by the member states, and all information which might be of interest to the work of the Committee; also, the creation and design of an Internet page for the Committee, for the purpose of disseminating the documents, resolutions, and reports produced by the OAS in the field of hemispheric security, including the principal documents and bilateral and multilateral agreements involving the inter-American system with respect to the different aspects of hemispheric security;

RESOLVES:

1. To take note of the Annual Report of the Permanent Council in so far as it relates to the activities of the Committee on Hemispheric Security (the Committee).
2. To instruct the Secretary General to consider further enhancing the professional, technical, and administrative support currently provided by the General Secretariat, through any means that he deems necessary to comply with the mandates entrusted to the General Secretariat by the General Assembly.

3. To request the General Secretariat to compile, organize, and update files and databases on confidence- and security-building measures in the Hemisphere, taking into account the inventory of confidence- and security-building measures of a military nature requested of the Inter-American Defense Board (IADB), in order to make them available to member states in accordance with resolution AG/RES. 1566 (XXVIII-O/98). To request also that the General Secretariat study and disseminate in a timely manner various aspects and studies related to these topics.

4. Further, to request that the Secretary General, in coordination with the Chair of the Committee:

a. facilitate the Committee's exchange of experiences and cooperation with international organizations, such as the United Nations (UN) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which are working in areas related to confidence- and security-building;

b. strengthen, in the framework of the cooperation agreements between the Organization of American States (OAS) and the UN, the Committee's exchanges with the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs, and in particular, with the UN Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean;

c. compile the documents arising from subregional and national governmental meetings, as well as those of an academic nature on international security, and report to the member states on their availability; and

d. continue to incorporate into the Internet page information on official OAS documents on the topic and on its work program, as well as the principal documents and bilateral and multilateral agreements involving the inter-American system with respect to the different aspects of hemispheric security.

5. To request that the Secretary General carry out the mandates set forth in this resolution, within existing budgetary resources of the Organization and other resources.