Mexico City, November 7, 2019. On November 7, 2019, the XXVI Session of the General Conference of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL) was held. The General Conference was chaired by the Ambassador of Peru in Mexico, Mr. Julio Garro Gálvez.
16 resolutions were adopted, among which stands out: the election, by acclamation, of Ambassador Flavio Roberto Bonzanini (Brazil) as the next Secretary General of OPANAL, as of January 1, 2020; the election of three Member States of the Council to Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua, for a period of four years, from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2023; and the election of Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay as members of the Committee on Quotas and Administrative and Budgetary Affairs (CCAAP), for the same period.
Among other topics that were discussed during the General Conference were:
- Interpretative Declarations made by States Parties to Additional Protocols I and II to the Treaty of Tlatelolco
- Disarmament and non-proliferation education
- Control System of the Treaty of Tlatelolco
- OPANAL Coordinations in Geneva, New York and Vienna
- Budget and scale of contributions for the financial year 2020
The General Conference is the supreme body of OPANAL and, therefore, it is the one that makes the most important decisions for the Organization. It is made up of all the Contracting Parties to the Treaty of Tlatelolco, that is, all the 33 States of Latin America and the Caribbean, and holds ordinary meetings every two years, and may also hold extraordinary meetings whenever so provided for in the Treaty of Tlatelolco, or when circumstances warrant it in the opinion of the Council.