The Thirtieth Session of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) ended on Friday 2 July with the approval of 17 resolutions on the range of issues dealt with at the meeting, held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. ECLAC Executive Secretary, José Luis Machinea, and the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, José Miguel Izquierdo Encarnación, presided over the session's closing meeting.
The resolutions approved include a motion supporting a United Nations' Stabilization Mission (UNSM) in Haiti. Participants also asked the ECLAC executive secretary's office, in cooperation with Haiti's transitional government and the UNSM itself, to support a combined effort by the region's countries to optimize all actions within the latter's attributes to aid that country. At the same time, they requested that the ECLAC Executive Secretary and these same bodies evaluate the timing and the forms this cooperation should take.
Delegates approved the creation of a regional inter-governmental forum, as part of ECLAC's activities, to monitor decisions made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002.
They asked that ECLAC coordinate a regional preparatory meeting to define objectives and proposals for the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, to be held in Tunisia in November 2005. They also asked that it prepare the country's regions for the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society.
On the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America, recently held in Mexico, another resolution approved the Mexico Consensus, as the region's contribution to the UN Commission on the Status of Women's 49th session, to be held in March of next year. ECLAC's member and associate countries also decided to hold the next session in Uruguay en 2006.
In other resolutions, those present at ECLAC's Thirtieth Session approved a programme of work for the ECLAC system (2006-2007), as well as the activities to be carried out jointly by ECLAC and UNESCO to help the region to promote and meet its educational goals. Moreover, they approved the proposals in ECLAC's study, Productive Development in Open Economies, and decided to conduct further studies in this area.
The ECLAC Session is this regional United Nations Commission's most important meeting. Held every two years, it offers member States the opportunity to examine progress during the previous two years and approve the work plan for the next two. Moreover, it is the main instance in which countries analyze relevant developmental issues in the region.
ECLAC's Thirtieth Session was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico on 28 June to 2 July 2004, with participation from more than 900 delegates from 41 member and seven associate States, along with representatives from specialized UN bodies, non-governmental organizations and special guests. Official delegations included ministers of education, the economy, labour, planning and foreign relations, along with other authorities from the different countries.
