The Ibero-American leaders, including President Alberto Fernández, pledged during the Summit held in Santo Domingo to work for peace in the world, although without specifically mentioning the conflict in Ukraine, while also expressing their commitment to democracy, the rule of law and the United Nations Charter.
“We will work for complete, just and lasting peace throughout the world based on the principles of the United Nations Charter, including the principles of sovereign equality and territorial integrity of states”, reads the Declaration of Santo Domingo agreed after two days of summit in the capital of the Dominican Republic.
Said peace, they added, will contribute to “putting an end to the adverse effects of wars, including the loss of human life, food, financial, energy and environmental security crises.”
The text of the final declaration does not mention Ukraine or the war that this country is carrying out against Russia, an invading country, since its approval requires the unanimity of the 22 countries of the Ibero-American Community and some members, such as Venezuela or Nicaragua. They support the Kremlin.
In line with this, in the first point of the declaration, the 22 countries reaffirmed their commitment “to the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter and International Law, support for multilateralism, solidarity, dialogue and international cooperation ”.
They also showed their commitment “to democracy, the rule of law, strict respect for the Charter of the United Nations and International Law, including the principles of sovereignty, non-intervention in internal affairs of States and legal equality” of the same.
Likewise, they committed to “the right of each people to freely choose and build, in peace, stability and justice, their political, economic and social system and their institutions, as well as access to information, justice and respect for due process”.
secure migration
On the other hand, the 22 countries of the Ibero-American community also spoke “in favor of safe, orderly and regular migration” that respects the rights of migrants.
To this end, they opted for “the joint search for mechanisms that guarantee adequate management of migratory flows” as well as “agile and accessible migration regularization processes” together with the socioeconomic integration of migrants and support for host communities.
Along these lines, they also committed to “the coordinated fight against transnational organized crime and human trafficking and migrant smuggling networks” and expressed their willingness to work to “erradicate the multidimensional causes of irregular migration.”
For all this, the Ibero-American leaders considered that “the dialogue on migration governance must be open, inclusive and transparent, upholding the principles of non-selectivity, inclusion, solidarity, regional and international cooperation and the shared responsibilities of the states.”
Other documents
The leaders gave the green light at this 27th summit to the Ibero-American Environmental Charter, as a common reference to face global environmental challenges that have a particularly hard impact on Ibero-America such as climate change, the loss of biodiversity, pollution, soil degradation, the scarcity of water resources, among others.
Likewise, they adopted the so-called “Critical Path to achieve an Inclusive and Sustainable Food Security in Ibero-America”, which proposes actions to face the great impact of the current crises on the agri-food systems to avoid the intensification of hunger in the region and guarantee the right to adequate food for all people.
To this end, among other things, it is committed to strengthening open, free and non-discriminatory trade, developing inclusive and resilient agri-food supply chains and consolidating family farming, among other measures.