LibGuides: International Human Rights by Siomara Umaña: Organization of American States

THE OAS AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE INTER-AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM (the Charter)

"The OAS is an international organization created by the States of the Americas[1] to achieve a regional order of peace and justice, promote solidarity, and defend their sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence (Article 1 of the OAS Charter).[2]

Since the creation of the OAS, the States of the Americas have adopted a series of international instruments that have become the normative basis of the regional system for the promotion and protection of human rights, through the recognition of these rights, the establishment of obligations aimed at their promotion and protection, and the creation of organs to oversee their observance.

The current system formally started with the adoption of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man at the Ninth International Conference of American States, held in Bogotá in 1948, during which the Charter of the OAS (hereinafter “the Charter”) was adopted, promoting the "fundamental rights of the individual" as one of the principles on which the Organization is founded.[3]

The Charter was amended in 1967 at the Third Special Inter-American Conference held in Buenos Aires and in 1985 by means of the "Protocol of Cartagena de Indias", signed during the 14^th special session of the Organization’s General Assembly. The Protocol of Washington (1992) made additional changes and established that one of the fundamental purposes of the OAS is to promote, through cooperative action, the economic, social and cultural development of the Member States and to help eradicate extreme poverty in the hemisphere.

Full respect for human rights is enshrined in various sections of the Charter, reaffirming the importance that the Member States attribute to it. Accordingly, the Charter emphasizes that "the true significance of American solidarity and good neighborliness can only mean the consolidation on this continent, within the framework of democratic institutions, of a system of individual liberty and social justice based on respect for the essential rights of man." The Charter establishes that the IACHR is a principal organ of the OAS, whose function is to promote the observance and protection of human rights and to serve as a consultative organ of the OAS in human rights matters."

"[1] The Member States of the OAS are Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

[2] The OAS is a regional organization as per Article 52 of the United Nations Charter, and in keeping with Article53 of its Charter, it performs functions through the following organs: the General Assembly, the Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Permanent Council, the Inter-American Council for Integral Development, the Inter-American Juridical Committee, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the General Secretariat, the Inter-American Specialized Conferences, and the Inter-American Specialized Organizations. In order to put into practice the principles on which it is founded and to fulfill its regional obligations under the Charter of the United Nations, the OAS has established the following as its essential purposes: (a) to strengthen the peace and security of the continent; (b) to promote and consolidate representative democracy, with due respect for the principle of nonintervention; (c) to prevent possible causes of difficulties and to ensure the pacific settlement of disputes that may arise among the member States; (d) to provide for common action on the part of those States in the event of aggression; (e) to seek the solution of political, juridical, and economic problems that may arise among them; (f) to promote, by cooperative action, their economic, social, and cultural development; (g) to eradicate extreme poverty, which constitutes an obstacle to full democratic development; and (h) to achieve an effective limitation of conventional weapons that will make it possible to devote the largest amount of resources to the economic and social development of the Member States (Article 2 of the Charter).

[3] In addition, several resolutions on human rights were adopted, among them some on the civil and political rights of women and the economic status of working women. In addition, the “Inter-American Charter of Social Guarantees” was adopted; in it the governments of the Americas proclaim “the fundamental principles that must protect workers of all kinds” and that constitute “the minimum rights workers must enjoy in the American states, without prejudice to the fact that the laws of each state may extend such rights or recognize others that are more favorable,” since “the state attains its goals not only by recognizing the rights of citizens alone, but also by concerning itself with the fortunes of men and women, considered not only as citizens but also as human beings," and consequently must guarantee at the same time "respect for political and spiritual freedoms, together with the realization of the postulates of social justice." See the texts of both conventions in International Conferences of American States, Second Supplement, 1945-1954, Washington, D.C., Pan American Union, 1956, pp. 172, 173, 192, 195-203."