Organisation of American States (OAS) - Charter of the Organisation of American States

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Organisation of American States (OAS) - Charter of the Organisation of American States

The Charter sets out the nature and purpose of the OAS as (Article 1):

" the international organisation that they [American States] have developed to achieve 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. Within the United Nations, the Organisation of American States is a regional agency."In particular, the OAS proclaims the following essential purposes (Art. 2):

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.

Chapter II concerns fundamental principles of the OAS and commits American States to the resolution of disputes through peaceful means with social justice as the lasting basis of peace, economic cooperation, freedom and peace. In particular, Article 3 (l) stipulates that " The American States proclaim the fundamental rights of the individual without distinction as to, inter alia, sex".

Updated by IC. Approved by GT. Last update: 5 November 2002.