Organization Of American States (OAS) Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

The Organization of American States (OAS) is the intergovernmental organization of the thirty-five independent states of the Western Hemisphere. Founded at the Ninth International Conference of American States, held in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1948, the antecedents of the OAS date back to the First International Conference of the American States convened in Washington, D.C., in 1889. The founding members of the OAS were the eighteen Spanish-speaking republics of South and Central America and the Caribbean, Brazil, Haiti, and the United States. Canada joined the OAS in 1989, and the former British, French, and Dutch colonies in the region came into the organization after they gained their independence. While formally a member, Cuba has been suspended from participation in the organization since 1962.The OAS is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

The OAS’s institutional structure includes a general assembly that convenes annually, a permanent council made up of ambassadors from each member that meets regularly throughout the year, a general secretariat that runs the organization, foreign ministers’ meetings called at the request of any member, a council for integral development promoting cooperation on economic development, a juridical committee coordinating the development of international law in the hemisphere, a human rights commission, and a human rights court. The OAS also has specialized agencies to address issues related to children, women, indigenous peoples, agriculture, and health.

From its origins until the mid 1960s, the OAS, following the leadership of the United States, emphasized mutual security concerns. In 1954, the organization adopted the Declaration of Solidarity for the Preservation of the Political Integrity of the American States against the Intervention of International Communism. The subsequent 1962 suspension of Cuba took place in the context of Cuba’s closer relations with the Soviet Union. In 1964, the OAS applied sanctions against Cuba, although Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay voted against the measure. The U.S. emphasis on mutual security against intervention from outside the hemisphere ran into resistance as the Latin American members stressed the principle of nonintervention in the domestic affairs of sovereign states, especially from 1965 onward in response to the U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic and its interference in Chilean politics in the early 1970s.

In the 1970s, the OAS turned to human rights issues, and in the 1990s to democracy assistance. Resolution 1080, passed by the OAS General Assembly in 1991, states that representative democracy is the only acceptable political regime in the Americas and sets forth defense and promotion of democracy as an OAS responsibility. While the OAS has established means to mediate during political crises in member countries, its most common way to promote democracy has been electoral observation. The OAS has sent teams to observe nearly one hundred elections in the Caribbean and Central and South America since 1990. As the result of this commitment to promoting democracy, the OAS—seemingly moribund in the 1980s when the United States ignored it while interfering in Central American civil wars—has found a new purpose and risen to new prominence in the hemisphere.

Bibliography:

Adams, Francis. Deepening Democracy: Global Governance and Political Reform in Latin America. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003.
Cooper, Andrew F., and Thomas Legler. Intervention without Intervening? The OAS Defense and Promotion of Democracy in the Americas. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
Shaw, Carolyn M. Cooperation, Conflict, and Consensus in the Organization of American States. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

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