TOPICS:

• Haiti
• The Summit of the Americas
• Instruments of Cooperation
• Preserving the Peace
• Liaison with other Organizations
• Outlook

I am pleased to submit to the Permanent Council and to the General Assembly the Annual Report to which articles 90 and 117 of the OAS Charter refer.

The period covered by the Report, March 1, 1994 to February 28, 1995, was a period of change in the General Secretariat. Ambassador Joăo Clemente Baena Soares headed up the Secretariat until June 20, 1994, the date on which his term of office ended. Thereafter, the Assistant Secretary General, Ambassador Christopher R. Thomas, served as Acting Secretary General until September 15, 1994 the date on which I assumed the office to which the member States elected me.

The principal activities and programs of the Organization are summarized in the various sections of this Report. It thus not only offers an overview of the Organization's initiatives and accomplishments, but also supplements the informative texts that a number of the agencies and organizations whose activities it describes will themselves present to the governing bodies of the OAS.

This Report, then, recounts events in which the OAS participated during the final months of the General Secretariat's previous administration, during the transition period, and since the start of the present administration. In the same way, it also describes the principal activities relevant to the Organization's fundamental purposes: promoting and consolidating democracy; monitoring the observance of human rights; strengthening peace and security in the hemisphere, and encouraging cooperation for development.

I would also like to explain briefly my view of certain significant developments that will have a pronounced influence on the future direction of the OAS, and offer some general suggestions on what I believe might be an appropriate response to these new developments.

Haiti

When I assumed the office of Secretary General, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was about to return to his country to resume the constitutional authorities that its citizens had elected him to discharge.

The OAS was the first international organization to come out in solidarity with the Haitian people in their effort to restore democracy. It persevered in its commitment to Haitian democracy through the continuous work of the Ad Hoc Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, and its support of the international community's initiative in the form of the resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council, which, after three years of effort, ultimately brought about President Aristide's return in October 1994.

The process of defending representative democracy in Haiti, a process in which the OAS participated based on resolution AG/RES.1080 adopted by the General Assembly in 1991, some three months before the coup d'etat, has left behind some important lessons. The first is the Organization's commitment to that country's institutional, economic and social reconstruction. Poverty and inequality do not provide adequate groundwork for democratic governments to grow stronger. And of all the countries of the Americas, Haiti is the one most in need of international cooperation if it is to put down those roots of development with equity that must sustain its democratic future.

When President Aristide visited the Organization headquarters shortly before his return to his country, I had an opportunity to renew the commitment to make Haiti's reconstruction a reality, a commitment undertaken by the countries of the hemisphere that came to President Aristide's side in the struggle to affirm the legitimate authority that the Haitian people has invested in him. In that spirit of solidarity with the revindicated will of the Haitian people and of determination to assist Haiti's social and economic rehabilitation, I also had the privilege of accompanying the Haitian Head of State on his return to Port-au-Prince. The OAS has maintained its presence in Haiti, together with the United Nations, through the International Civilian Mission. Following a temporary removal to the Dominican Republic, the Mission returned to the country once the obstacles that necessitated that move had been cleared away. While it must still monitor for the observance of human rights, it is now called upon to support the country's institutional strengthening and development.

Together with the United Nations, represented for this purpose in the person of its Special Envoy for Haiti, Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, in early December, I issued an appeal, echoed simultaneously from Port-au-Prince, for the international community to contribute 77 million dollars to finance emergency projects and humanitarian aid while the national reconstruction program headed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) gets under way.

In Port-au-Prince some days later, I presented the Government with an OAS proposal to provide immediate assistance to the country. That program involves a number of short- and medium-term measures in areas where the Organization has had successful experience. The proposed initiatives, which are already on their way to implementation, are geared toward strengthening the democratic institutions in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government; making elections transparent; promoting respect for human rights and ascertaining the truth of the human rights violations that have taken place in the last three years; building up the social structure through literacy, civic education and public information campaigns, and supporting preparation of a partnership plan.

The OAS will continue to be a presence in Haiti, ready and willing to lend its cooperation so that the democracy that was restored at such great sacrifice, will endure and serve all Haitian people. The proposal to provide immediate support to the Government of Haiti is an acknowledgement to the fact that the job of defending democracy is not simply a matter of reacting to events that disrupt the exercise of democratic government and violate its standards. To the contrary, in order to promote and consolidate democracy, which are Charter-mandated objectives of the Organization, it is incumbent upon this Organization to undertake activities to assist State reform and modernization in those countries that seek that support and to increase the technical cooperation it provides to the process of development, which must be achieved if democratic systems are to flourish.

On the whole, the OAS' interaction with institutions in the member States has traditionally been confined to those in the executive branch of government. However, effective Organization action in the area of democracy means the need to look for more cooperative and supportive relationships with the judicial and legislative branches of government, regional and local authorities, nongovernmental organizations and the communities themselves. A number of recent cooperation agreements concluded with parliamentarian organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean could serve as the launch pad for a program to cooperate with the legislative branch of government. The Inter-American Conference of Mayors, sponsored by the OAS and other organizations, offers a starting point for extending the Organization's reach into the realm of local government, and also for enlisting community participation.

The Summit of the Americas

Held at the invitation of United States President Bill Clinton, the historic meeting of the democratically elected Heads of State and of Government of the American nations decided, at the highest level, the priorities for collective hemispheric action in the years ahead and gave the OAS a paramount role on a number of issues of vital importance.

The Declaration of Principles of the Summit of the Americas was a pledge to preserve and strengthen the community of democracies of the Americas, to promote prosperity through economic integration and free trade, to achieve a balanced development model that takes into account the need to wipe out poverty and discrimination, and to work toward sustainable development that preserves the environment for future generations. In short, the Presidents decided to create a "Partnership for Development and Prosperity in the Americas", based on a commitment "to democratic practices, economic integration and social justice."

The Plan of Action that the Heads of State and of Government adopted at the Miami Summit spells out the strategies and measures that will have to be implemented and the timetable and order in which they must be carried out if the commitments undertaken in that Declaration are to be fulfilled.

That Plan of Action singles out the OAS as the principal hemispheric body for the defense of democratic values and institutions and urges it to direct more of its efforts toward promoting democratic practices and values and toward the social and economic strengthening of already-established democracies in the hemisphere. In the context of defending and consolidating democracy, it calls for stepped-up efforts to ensure the full observance of human rights by strengthening the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The Plan gives the Organization specific responsibilities vis-ŕ-vis the problem of corruption; it anticipates convocation of a special OAS conference on the prevention of terrorism; it gives the Organization a role in identifying and adopting mutual confidence-building measures and asks that the OAS' plans and programs that facilitate cultural exchanges and the flow of cultural and historical information be reinforced.

The central objective of the Plan of Action in the area of integration and trade is to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas. One way to accomplish that objective is to bring together existing subregional integration arrangements. Under the Plan, therefore, the OAS' Special Committee on Trade, with the support of other institutions, especially the IDB and ECLAC, is asked to assist in the systematization of data in the region and to continue its work on studying economic integration arrangements in the hemisphere. The OAS is also asked to lend the host country its assistance in arranging and holding the meetings of ministers of trade, scheduled to begin in July 1995. The Organization is expected to help prepare and execute a program to improve telecommunications and to provide support to a meeting of senior telecommunications officials, which should take place in 1996 and be coordinated by the Inter-American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL).

Apart from the pivotal role that the Plan of Action gives to the OAS as a regional organization for cooperating with the governments in the areas of democracy and trade, the Plan also stipulates that the Organization will have a role to play on the question of drug trafficking and related crimes; cooperation in science and technology, which includes the Common Market for Scientific and Technological Knowledge; strengthening the role of women in society, and in the Partnership for Pollution Prevention. The Plan reasserts the presidents' support for the strategies set forth in the "Commitment on a Partnership for Development and Struggle to Overcome Extreme Poverty," which the OAS General Assembly adopted at its twentieth special session, as tools with which to conquer discrimination and poverty.

At the Summit of the Americas the OAS received specific guidelines directly from its member States' highest level of government. Taken together, those guidelines form the new agenda that will steer the Organization's future activities. The priorities decided by the Heads of State and of Government will demarcate the area in which the Organization will operate and necessitate a review of the General Secretariat's human and financial resources so as to accommodate the structures that will enable the Organization to discharge the assigned missions. However, those priorities will also necessitate changes in the instruments through which the OAS performs its functions, in order to adapt them to the new reality.

With due respect for the legal mandates by which the affairs of the OAS are governed, the decisions emanating out of the Summit of the Americas will mean forging a new OAS, one capable of contributing what is expected of it toward implementation of the "Partnership for Development and Prosperity in the Americas."

Instruments of Cooperation

The fora of the Organization that are active in the priority areas singled out by the American presidents will have to be reinforced to enable them to provide more sophisticated technical support in a wider range of areas. In my opinion, therefore, the legal area of the General Secretariat will have some new functions in matters relating to inter-American trade, in order to assist the Special Committee on Trade (CEC) with the harmonization and eventual convergence of the existing integration arrangements. It is equally important to upgrade the technical support provided by the Secretariat of the Committee on trade-related issues, economic issues and the like. To that end, measures are now being taken to create a Trade Unit to assist the CEC with its work.

To strengthen the OAS' work in the area of human rights, the Inter-American Commission and Court should be given the resources that will enable them to discharge the functions stipulated in the American Convention and other instruments governing their affairs. The process under way to determine when and whether amendments should be introduced in the Convention should be pursued; above all else, however, is the need to continue to urge member States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Convention to do so.

Salient among the areas of the General Secretariat in need of new direction and additional resources is the Unit for the Promotion of Democracy, whose programs must be able to respond to the decisions adopted at the Summit of the Americas. Its early accomplishments have furthered the process of democratic normalization in the hemisphere. Now is the time to give the Unit greater dimension and added depth.

The OAS will also have to make operational contributions to the environmental conservation policy that the governments of the member States have adopted. With that end in mind, I have announced a proposal to create an Environment Unit, equipped with the necessary human and technical resources and under the supervision of the General Secretariat.

The priorities that the Heads of State and of Government agreed upon should correct one characteristic of OAS technical cooperation, which is its tendency to overspread itself. If the guidelines received are followed, the cooperation should be realized through projects that, though far fewer in number, are not as narrow as the traditional projects. Having analyzed the issue of OAS technical cooperation, I am persuaded that the system for its provision must be reformed.

In my view, the scant resources available for technical cooperation programs should be directed at the countries that need it most. This means that one group of countries would, on balance, be net donors, which in itself would embody that spirit of hemispheric partnership and solidarity. The horizontal cooperation provided by the stronger developing countries of the region is indicative of the kind of results I am suggesting. I would like to highlight the contributions made in this area by Argentina, Mexico and, more recently, Brazil.

Priorities should be identified so that resources may be earmarked to finance them. It is also advisable to identify some funds within the budget that can be transferred to finance, at least partially, those priorities. One example in this context is the offices of the OAS General Secretariat in the member States, which may have outlived their justification and may be absorbing funds that would be better used elsewhere. The Permanent Council has been studying this matter carefully.

The thrust of some activities in the area of cooperation might be revised. Perhaps the time has come to increase assistance to national institutions and activities, retaining national experts for that purpose. Some thought should be given to the idea of adding to the projects resources from the country that is receiving the cooperation and to exploring new ways of operating, such as hiring consultants to reinforce the work of the staff of the General Secretariat.

Then, too, there should be a tighter relationship between the fellowship programs and technical cooperation projects than is currently the case. Fellowships should be granted for the Organization's priority fields of activity and should be awarded according to a set of clear, rational criteria as to adjudication, geographic distribution, and the rights and obligations they involve. A fellowship program that is smaller in terms of the programs and beneficiary countries but more clearly focused on priority disciplines would be more effective and more responsive to the interests of the countries, which have demonstrated their support of training activities.

Preserving the Peace

Hemispheric relations have undergone a profound change in recent years. The spirit that led to the Miami Summit would not have been possible had there not been a community of democratic nations committed to the exercise of civic, economic and social freedom, capable of identifying common objectives and shared interests and of agreeing upon the means to achieve those objectives and to further those interests. Collective action in defense of Haitian democracy would not have been possible without the sense of democratic solidarity now characteristic of the American nations.

Strengthening peace and friendship among the States of this hemisphere is the OAS' essential purpose and a condition sine qua non for building progress and spreading well-being among the peoples of the Americas.

When I learned of the tensions that surfaced in early 1995 along the border between Ecuador and Peru, I went to the region and appealed to both sides to use dialogue to ease the tensions between them.

In Quito, I met with the President of Ecuador, Sixto Durán Ballén, and in Lima I met with Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. Mine was a good will mission intended to find mechanisms conducive to bring the border tensions to an end and institute the kind of dialogue that would lead to a lasting solution to the differences between the two countries.

I also emphasized the importance of the role of the guarantors of the 1942 Protocol of Rio de Janeiro -Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the United States - as a critical factor in finding a peaceful solution to the situation.

Liaison with other Organizations

I attach great significance to the General Secretariat's liaison with other subregional, regional and international organizations. When the Organization coordinates and cooperates with other organizations, its work is enriched and enhanced, thereby making its services to the member States that much more efficient.

The Summit of the Americas regarded coordination and cooperation among the organizations of the hemisphere as an important issue. The Plan of Action spelled out the fields in which it hopes for the support of the principal organizations of the inter-American system, often working in concert or jointly.

The avenues that the Presidents suggested that the major organizations of the inter-American system pursue open up new opportunities for collaboration among them and make it necessary to find more flexible procedures that allow the organizations to take full advantage of those opportunities.

One of my first activities as Secretary General was to visit the Inter-American Development Bank, having been invited by its President to address the IDB staff. The General Secretariat has had frequent working contacts with the IDB. As a result of the reinstatement of the OAS/IDB/ECLAC tripartite group, two documents were prepared for the Summit of the Americas: "Toward Free Trade in the Hemisphere" and "The Fight against Poverty on the Hemispheric Agenda". I also participated in the Conference on Society, Violence and Health, organized and held by the Pan American Health Organization in November 1994.

In response to an invitation from the United Nations Secretary-General, the General Secretariat participated in the first meeting of the heads of the regional organizations which he convoked. The General Secretariat has remained in constant contact with the United Nations and worked closely with it, especially in connection with the Haitian situation.

It is my intention to make the work done jointly with other international organizations, especially those in the inter-American and United Nations systems, much more intensive and ongoing.

Outlook

The last quarter of 1994 witnessed, on the one hand, the successful culmination of efforts to restore democracy in Haiti and, on the other, the momentous meeting where the heads of state of the hemisphere rededicated themselves to democracy as a system of government, free trade, integration and sustainable development as the bases of prosperity and social justice as the standard for co- existence. These are the ideals shared by the peoples of the Americas from whom the heads of state and of government who gathered for the Summit of the Americas derive their lawful authority.

President Aristide's return to Haiti vindicated the OAS' stubborn determination to see the crisis settled in accordance with international law. The Summit of the Americas infused new life into the OAS by acknowledging it as the hemispheric political institution charged with assisting the efforts of the American nations on issues of tremendous import.

It is up to us now to react to these auspicious developments by tailoring not just the structure of the OAS but also its modi operandi to fit a new reality that demands efficient, dynamic and modern responses. The Organization's ability to adapt to changing circumstances without forsaking its basic principles and purposes is once again being tested. Its future relevance will depend on how it responds to the demands of the present.

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