Organization of American States OEA Summit of the Americas

Course summary (Organization of American States OAS):

The Organization of American States (OAS) is the world’s oldest regional organization, dating back to the First international Conference of American States, which was held in Washington, D.C. from October 1889 to April 1890. At that conference, the establishment of the international Union of American Republics was approved and the stage was set for the weaving together of a web of provisions and institutions that came to be known as the inter-American system, the oldest of the international institutional systems.

Example of the course Organization of American States (OAS):

The following 21 member states met in Bogota, Colombia, in 1948 to sign the OAS Charter: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, United States of America, Uruguay, and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of).

Subsequently, the following 14 member states joined: Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago (1967); Jamaica (1969); Grenada (1975); Suriname (1977); Dominica (Commonwealth of), Saint Lucia (1979); Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1981); The Bahamas (Commonwealth of) (1982); St. Kitts & Nevis (1984); Canada (1990); Belize and Guyana (1991).

The OAS was established to achieve among its member states, as stated in Article 1 of its Charter, "an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence". Today it comprises the 35 independent states of the Americas and has granted permanent observer status to 63 states, as well as to the European Union. The Organization of American States constitutes the principal political, juridical, and social governmental forum in the Hemisphere.

The OAS uses a four-pronged approach to effectively implement its essential purposes, based on its pillars: democracy, human rights, security, and development.

Purposes:

- To strengthen the peace and security of the continent;

- To promote and consolidate representative democracy, with due respect for the principle of nonintervention;

- To prevent possible causes of difficulties and to ensure the pacific settlement of disputes that may arise among the member states;

- To provide for common action on the part of those states in the event of aggression;

- To seek the solution of political, juridical, and economic problems that may arise among them;

- To promote, by cooperative action, their economic, social, and cultural development;

- To eradicate extreme poverty, which constitutes an obstacle to the full democratic development of the peoples of the hemisphere; and

- 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."

Free trade area of the Americas (FTAA) - area de Libre Comercio de las Américas.

The effort to unite the economies of the Americas into a single free trade area began at the Summit of the Americas, which was held in December 1994 in Miami, U.S.A. The Heads of State and Government of the 34 democracies in the region agreed to construct a Free trade area of the Americas, or FTAA, in which barriers to trade and investment will be progressively eliminated.

The FTAA negotiations were formally launched in April 1998 at the Second Summit of the Americas in Santiago, Chile. The Heads of State and Government participating in the Second Summit of the Americas agreed that the FTAA Agreement will be balanced, comprehensive, WTO-consistent, and will constitute a single undertaking.

They also agreed that the negotiating process will be transparent and take into account the differences in the levels of development and size of the economies in the Americas in order to facilitate full participation by all countries.

Furthermore, they agreed that the negotiations should proceed in order to contribute to raising living standards, improving working conditions of all people in the Americas, and better protecting the environment.

Organization, States, American, OEA, Summits, Americas, agreements, trade, America, SICE, System, Information, foreign trade, United States, Argentina, Brazil