By Donna Ortega,
News Editor
LEADERS OF the 34 democratically elected nations of the hemisphere meet later this week in Quebec City, Canada, to discuss significant issues affecting the region in the Third Summit of the Americas.
Strengthening of democracy and economic integration are the so-called twin pillars of the Summit process as recognised in the two previous Summits in 1994 and 1998.
The 2001 Summit of the Americas is expected to reflect the results of an increasingly intense level of hemispheric consultation and co-operation at many levels and across many sectors.
Last week, John Robinson, Canadian High Commissioner to Jamaica, speaking to businessmen in Kingston, stressed that "This is an event about people and for people, and this is why I think it deserves attention from all segments of civil society". He said the summit was a landmark in Canada's hemispheric policy, for traditionally, Canada has had close relations with the USA and the Caribbean region. In-depth involvement in the rest of the Americas was a recent development dating from the decision in the late '80s to join the Organisation of American States.
He stressed too that the summit was a process, "not an end in itself". The Summit Implem-entation Review Group (SIRG) is a permanent body made up of senior representatives from all country participants. Jamaica and other Caribbean representatives have contributed actively and constructively in the process.
Various Ministerial Meetings provide impetus to the process, such as the Environment (March 29-30 in Montreal), Finance (April 3-4 in Toronto, Trade (April 6-7 in Buenos Aires), focusing on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The FTAA has nine negotiating groups on market access, agriculture, services, intellectual property rights, investment, subsidies, anti-dumping and countervailing duties, competition policy, government procurement and dispute settlement.
Three non-negotiating groups focus on smaller economies, electronic commerce and civil society.
The first Parliamentary Forum of the Americas was created recently. A meeting held in Ottawa during March saw representatives of 28 countries, including Jamaica, agreeing to create the forum to discuss a wide range of parliamentary issues. High Commissioner Robinson, in response to a question, said it was "early days yet" to comment on the impact of the forum. Its next meeting is scheduled to be held in another 18 months.
Political impetus
A Political Declaration and a Plan of Action are the two main documents which are expected to come out of the Summit.
As Mr. Robinson observed, the summit will give the political impetus to the various components of the Action Plan, but it will be individual governments, supported by their societies and various multilateral arrangements (FTAA, Inter-American Development Bank and the Organisation of American States (OAS)) "which will need to act to give life to summit undertakings."
In June 2000 in Windsor, the OAS General Assembly agreed on three main themes for the Quebec City Summit. They are "Strengthening Democracy", "Creating Prosperity" and "Realising Human Potential". A further theme which is seen as cutting across all of these, is an enabling theme - "Connectivity (or How to Prevent a Digital Divide)".
Mr. Robinson confirmed from a paper prepared by Canada, that in keeping with the summit agenda issue of gender equality, Canada would be seeking to encourage the integration of a gender perspective into legislation and public policy and the revision of national laws where this was applicable.
He said the Summit would examine the strategies that have been implemented to advance universal access to primary education and 75 per cent access to secondary education by 2010.
The summit would deal with health issues including the fostering of prevention and health promotion programmes, the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the safety of blood supplies as well as tobacco control.
