The Special Group on terrorism that worked during the Third Plenary Meeting of FIPA met at the Chilean National Congress in the City of Valparaiso on April 1 and 2, 2004.

Parliamentarians from Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Suriname and Venezuela attended to the working sessions.

In the first session, the Working Group elected Senator Raymundo Cárdenas, the Mexican representative, as its chair.

Immediately afterwards, the Working Group listened to presentations by Ms Rut Diamint and Mr. Jorge Calderón, who are international experts in this field.

The Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas held the first meeting of the Special Group on Terrorism on May 21, 2003. Following up on decisions made during the last Plenary Meeting, parliamentarians from FIPA member countries met in Mexico City to discuss the issue of terrorism.

16 parliamentarians from 13 countries in the hemisphere attended this first meeting of the group, representing a wide range of political parties. The meeting was opened by Senator Enrique Jackson, Speaker of the Mexican Senate, and was co-chaired by Canadian Senator, Céline Hervieux-Payette, Chair of FIPA, and Senator Silvia Hernández of Mexico. Senator Germán Vargas Lleras of Colombia, author of the proposal to establish the group, also participated in the opening ceremony.

The parliamentarians stressed their commitment to identify concrete actions that can be taken by legislators to combat terrorism in the context of hemispheric security. They also agreed to take steps to promote the ratification of legal instruments relating to security, such as the Inter-American Anti-Terrorism Convention, and contribute to the OAS Special Conference on Security slated for the end of this year.

In its final declaration, the special group condemned the recent terrorist acts in Colombia and once again expressed its solidarity with the victims of terrorism, repudiating the events that have occurred in that country.

This is not the first time that FIPA has taken action on the matter of terrorism. In December 2002 Senator Hervieux-Payette visited Colombia, where she circulated a FIPA resolution supporting the efforts of the Colombian Government to combat terrorism in its territory.

Founded at the inaugural meeting held in Canada in March 2001, the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas (FIPA) is the only organization of national parliaments that brings together all the countries of the hemisphere. FIPA promotes parliamentary participation in the inter-American system and inter-parliamentary dialogue on subjects on the hemispheric agenda. It seeks to establish common positions leading to concrete actions to address problems affecting the countries of the Americas.