Global Courant
The General Assembly is the highest decision-making body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the main and indispensable multilateral political/diplomatic forum of the Americas, founded in 1948. The foreign ministers of its members meet annually in the Assembly to dialogue, negotiate and decide how to cooperate to address the great common challenges they face.
The promotion and collective defense of representative democracy is one of those challenges, as well as being one of its fundamental purposes. Although some “left” governments (Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua) discredit and try to relegate the OAS as “interventionist”, its Assembly in Washington, DC (June 22-23) approved an increase in its budget and resolved to move forward in strengthening democracy on the continent. Unfortunately, their decisions did not receive more media coverage.
The decision that did have international resonance was the call by the foreign ministers to the Nicaraguan government (it should have condemned the dictatorship) to “cease the violation of human rights and respect civil and political rights… and the rule of law…” ; that it “refrain” from harassing “journalists, the media, religious communities and non-governmental organizations…”; that “immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners…”; that it “refrain from repressing and arbitrarily detaining leaders of the Catholic Church and (report) on the health… of Bishop Rolando Álvarez…”; and that it repeal “the norms that arbitrarily (deprive) citizens of their nationality…”, violating the right to property.
The foreign ministers also reiterated to the Working Group for Haiti, to all the members of the OAS, the Permanent Observers, and the General Secretariat, the imperative and urgent need to support the government of Haiti to face the violence and humanitarian crisis that the country is suffering. , as well as to protect human rights, strengthen democratic institutions and organize free and fair elections that allow moving towards a full democracy.
On the other hand, a majority of Member States managed to stop the attempt by Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico to reduce (nonsense) the independence of the Secretary General to organize Electoral Observation Missions (EOMs), due to their alleged interference against Evo Morales, who he had tried electoral fraud in 2019 to stay in power.
They also resolved to encourage the OAS Permanent Council (CP) to form a Voluntary Working Group to identify good practices for strengthening democracy and ways to invigorate the Inter-American Democratic Charter, the main instrument for the collective defense and promotion of democracy. In addition, they instructed the General Secretariat to prepare a work plan for the promotion of democratic values and practices (democratic culture). A plan that should rescue the work carried out but abandoned with the Ministries of Education Likewise, and “recognizing the essential role that legislators play in the exercise of representative democracy in the Americas,” they entrusted the PC to foster interparliamentary cooperation. A greater knowledge of them about the agreements adopted in the OAS and in the Summits of Heads of State related to the great challenges facing the hemisphere, would facilitate the required regulatory internalization and budgetary approval of contributions to the Organization.
Greater knowledge of the Democratic Charter by legislators would favor its incorporation into national legislation, as several countries have done with the American Convention on Human Rights. The members also reaffirmed their commitment to the protection of human rights and the fight against corruption.
The Assembly also reiterated that integral development and partnership for development continue to be priorities of the OAS; instructed the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development (SEDI) to support members in the implementation of the mandates, which include the “areas of education, competitiveness, small and medium-sized enterprises, work, culture, science and technology, resource management, renewable energy, tourism, sustainable development and port development.” (ambitious schedule!).
To “implement” them, SEDI has the Office of the Executive Secretary, the Department of Human Development, Education and Employment, the Department of Economic Development and the Department of Sustainable Development, and the Secretariat of Ports, with which it executes programs, projects and advisory, technical assistance and training activities in the aforementioned areas.
No one doubts the interdependence between integral development and democracy. But does SEDI have the financial and human resources to contribute significantly to the integral development of its members? Its budget is a meager 9 million US dollars, to cover such an agenda. However, the 14 Caribbean States vehemently insist on their continuity as a “pillar” of the OAS. The strategic thing would be to facilitate the sectoral dialogue at the ministerial level to identify areas of cooperation among the members, but not carry out technical cooperation; Technical assistance requests would be forwarded to the IDB, CAF, the Central American Bank, or European development agencies or the US or Canada, for financing and execution. The resources saved with this strategic change would go on to reinforce the Secretariat for Strengthening Democracy, which has only USD 4 million for its operation. A nonsense. The change would strengthen the role of the OAS in the promotion and defense of democracy, its raison d’être today.
