“Every day it becomes clearer how the Summit process has radically transformed the dynamic and the very nature of the political dialogue in our hemisphere.”

—OAS Secretary General César Gaviria

The 34 presidents and prime ministers who met in Quebec City, Canada, for the Third Summit of the Americas underscored the importance of the Organization of American States in carrying out the goals shared by the hemisphere’s democracies. At the close of the April 2001 Summit, the leaders entrusted the OAS with a number of priority mandates, including the enhancement of the hemisphere’s human rights system and the development of an Inter-American Democratic Charter to reinforce the ability to defend democracy against threats. They also designated the OAS as the technical secretariat of the Summit process, handing over many responsibilities that previously were carried out by the Summit host country. 

“The OAS has a central role in the implementation of the decisions of the Summits of the Americas,” the leaders said in their April 22 Declaration of Quebec City. “We instruct our Foreign Ministers, at the next General Assembly, to advance and deepen the process of reform in the OAS, supported by appropriate resources, to improve its functioning and to enable the Organization to better implement our Summit mandates.” 

Since the end of the Cold War, the leaders of the Western Hemisphere have held three general Summits of the Americas—first in Miami in 1994, then in Santiago, Chile, four years later, followed by the latest meeting in Quebec City. A specialized Summit of the Americas on Sustainable Development took place in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, in 1996.  

As this process has developed, the hemisphere’s leaders have assigned an increasing number of mandates to the OAS. The detailed Plan of Action that came out of Quebec City provides direction for the Organization on issues as diverse as promoting indigenous rights, improving the hemisphere’s telecommunications infrastructure, mitigating natural disasters, strengthening freedom of expression and promoting gender equity. The OAS also has responsibility for convening hemispheric ministerial meetings in key areas, such as education, justice, labor, commerce and sustainable development.  

The complete text of the Quebec City Plan of Action is available on the Internet
(www.summit-americas.org). Following are some highlights:  

Democracy—The OAS should help countries strengthen their electoral systems, increase the exchange of ideas among parliamentarians, and promote greater citizen participation in government. It should also establish a mechanism to implement the Inter-American Convention against Corruption and increase civil society participation in anti-corruption initiatives. 

Human Rights—The inter-American human rights system needs to work toward universal adherence to its instruments, greater citizen access to its protections, and full compliance with recommendations and judgments. The OAS should study the possibility of making the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and  Commission on Human Rights full-time bodies. The human rights of particular groups—including women, migrant workers and children—must be fully incorporated into the human rights agenda. 

Drugs—The Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission should strengthen and review the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism and implement its recommendations. The Plan of Action also recommends a series of anti-drug measures, including the creation of financial intelligence units and the development of a system to estimate the social, human and economic costs of the drug problem in the Americas.  

Hemispheric security—The OAS should continue to give priority to conflict prevention and the peaceful resolution of disputes; address the special security concerns of small developing states in the Caribbean; and work toward making the Western Hemisphere free of landmines. The OAS will lay the groundwork for the Special Conference on Security in 2004. 

Trade—In addition to continuing to support negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the OAS should analyze corporate social responsibility in the trade process, convening a meeting on the issue in early 2002. It should also conduct ongoing and growing consultations with civil society on trade. 

Office of Summit Follow-Up 

The responsibility for convening the Summits of the Americas and implementing the resulting mandates rests directly with the hemisphere’s governments, through the Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG). In 1998, Secretary General Gaviria created the OAS Office of Summit Follow-Up to support this effort.  

With the recent designation of the OAS as technical secretariat of the Summit process, this office will take on expanded responsibilities, such as convening the SIRG meetings, preparing and translating documents, and handling many other logistics between Summits. It will also deepen its outreach to civil society, developing proposals on how non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, think tanks and other groups can contribute to monitoring and implementing Summit initiatives. In addition to coordinating implementation of the mandates assigned to the OAS General Secretariat, the Office of Summit Follow-Up will play a key role in coordinating Summit-related activities among several major institutions: the OAS, the Inter-American Development Bank, (IDB) the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the World Bank. 

As the institutional memory of the process, the OAS Office of Summit Follow-up also collects, organizes and disseminates information on Summit activities and maintains the Summit of the Americas Information System (www.summit-americas.org). This site contains comprehensive, up-to-date information about the status of implementation of the mandates and official documents of the Summits, the SIRG and the OAS Special Committee on Inter-American Summits Management, as well as other related information and research tools.

For more information: Jaime Aparicio, 
Director, OAS Office of Summit Follow-Up
Tel: (202) 458-3127

Fax: (202) 458-3665

japaricio@oas.org

Last updated: September 2001