WASHINGTON, USA – The general secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) renews its call for the participation of citizens, government officials, civil society and other groups in its Portal for Consultations, Forums and Repository on the world during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Portal is designed to be:
- A forum in which to propose ideas and initiatives that can later become real projects to be implemented with a priority objective: to guarantee more rights for all people, beyond the pandemic. Visit the Consultations section.
- A place to listen to opinions, debates and reflections, in order to improve the service provided to citizens. To this end, the OAS general secretariat is organizing a series of webinars and virtual round tables on COVID-19 and the four pillars of the OAS: democracy, human rights, multidimensional security and integral development. Visit the virtual forums section, which already has 27 events available on video on demand.
- A repository that already houses more than one hundred of the main initiatives that are being taken to support the people of the hemisphere in the fight against COVID-19:
- The initiatives that the OAS is taking
- Public policies of the Member States
- Public policies of Observer Countries
- Academic and research studies
- Publications of other international and regional organizations
- Some of the topics covered in consultations, forums and in public policies of member states and observer states in times of pandemic are the following:
- Protection of the population in situations of vulnerability, especially migrants, ethnic groups and people with disabilities
- Differentiated gender impacts for emergency legislation
- New Cybersecurity challenges
- Conflicts in telework
- Protection in social networks
- Privacy and digital rights
- Action of organized crime during the pandemic
- Emergency Services and preparation for natural disasters
- Protection of infrastructure and digital assets
- Democratic governance
- Open government and open data as a tool against corruption
- Tourist security, port protection and border security
- Challenges for inter-American law and strengthening of legal institutions
- Access to public information
- Impact of the pandemic on drug treatment, mental health, and substance use programs.
Participation in the Portal is completely open. The OAS thanks and acknowledges the people who have sent their comments, opinions, and documents to enrich the democratic and inclusive debate that these issues deserve, and invites them to continue participating.
