A/HRC/27/57 (iii) Provide for a mechanism to coordinate efforts and promote collaboration among the organizations of the inter-American system, regional intergovernmental organizations, international organizations, donors, financial institutions and national agencies responsible for the coordination of natural disasters management; (iv) Support the follow-up and implementation of the decisions of the InterAmerican Committee on Natural Disaster Reduction; (v) Coordinate the implementation, monitoring and periodic revision of the InterAmerican Strategic Plan for Policy on Vulnerability Reduction, Risk Management and Disaster Response;29 (b) The Working Group on Risk, Emergency and Disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean, within the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which is based on the framework of General Assembly resolution 46/182 and has functioned in Panama since 2003, providing a platform for regional coordination on humanitarian issues.30 In addition, there is the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency;31 (c) The Meeting on Emergency Response Mechanisms to Natural Disasters within the Ibero-American General Secretariat. The Ibero-American General Secretariat is an association of free, sovereign and equal nations, capable of helping build a future based on democracy and development while maintaining a shared ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity. The Ibero-American General Secretariat is composed of 22 Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula;32 (d) The Central American Coordination Center for Natural Disaster Prevention (CEPREDENAC), which has a programme to support the implementation of the Central American Policy for Comprehensive Risk Management and to strengthen national risk management systems in Central America. The member States of CEPREDENAC are Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. The Dominican Republic is in the process of joining the organization. H. National humanitarian aid: legal frameworks and mechanisms 40. State obligations regarding humanitarian assistance remain the same as far as human rights are concerned: to respect, protect and fulfil. Since governments are responsible for public administration, they are therefore also responsible for meeting those obligations and should not use humanitarian assistance for political purposes. Likewise, political parties should not take advantage of the need generated by emergencies to attempt to gain popularity among the public. Political patronage should be avoided in post-disaster and post-conflict situations because, as noted above, the affected populations, like any other individual or community, continue to have rights, including the right to be impartial consumers and the right to vote. 41. The following paragraphs reflect some of the information sent by Member States in response to the questionnaires, with regard to their internal legal frameworks and mechanisms for responding from a rights-based approach to emergencies resulting from disasters and conflicts. 29 30 31 32 See www.oas.org/dsd/Nat-Dis-Proj/Natdesproject/IADM.htm. See www.redhum.org/asuntos_redlac. See www.cdema.org/. See http://segib.org/. 13