Latin American and Caribbean Group

Official logo of the GRULAC

The Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC: Group of Latin America and Caribbean Countries) is a United Nations Regional Group comprising all the independent countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (17% of all UN members). It is one of the five UN regional groups, the others being the African Group, the Asia-Pacific Group, the Eastern European Group, and the Western European and Others Group (WEOG). It is a non-binding dialogue group where subjects concerning regional and international matter are discussed and its objective is to reach consensus.^[1][2] The president of GRULAC is elected for a two years mandate. Since April 2016, the presidency is held by Ramón Custodio from Honduras.^[3]

Meetings

The regular meetings of GRULAC take place in Geneva. The goals of these meetings are to:^[4]

• Share documents on topics of common interest
• Discuss current topics in relation with international affairs and international organizations
• Build consensus and common positions
• Discuss which candidates will be presented for different international positions

The Ambassadors meeting is the most important of the meetings, though it is not a regular meeting and only occurs according to the needs of the moment, such as if important decisions are needed to be taken in other organizations or forums.^[5]

The different offices

The most regular topics discussed by the group in general are human rights, environment, WIPO, ILO, UNCTAD and ITU.

The GRULAC has several offices:

• Two in Rome. One focuses primarily on bilateral issues, while the other concentrates on multilateral issues, in particular those of the UN agencies in Rome.
• One in Vienna which deals with candidate memberships to the group, and on topics of interest to the local organizations: UNOV, IAEA, CTBTO, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs^[6] and UNIDO. GRULAC also has local discussions with other groups as the G77 + China and the Non-Aligned Movement.
• One in New York City where it deals with candidacy issues and other general topics.^[7]

List of member states

GRULAC comprises the 33 countries listed below:^[8]

Others

GRULAC, in 2006, formalized its support to Hunger-Free Latin America and the Caribbean Initiative.^[9]

References