(E-093/01)
April 24, 2001
URUGUAYAN FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS OAS IS
IN TUNE WITH REGION'S POLITICAL REALITY
Uruguay's Foreign Minister, Didier Opertti, said today that the agenda of the Organization of American States "has changed substantively," in the present context of international relations.
Mr. Opertti told a protocolary session of the Permanent Council, chaired by Colombia's ambassador Humberto de la Calle, that over the past 20 years the OAS has been positioning itself "to be in tune always with the political reality of the Hemisphere," citing the Organization's expertise in certifying democratic systems. He argued that "it would be hard to imagine the democracy clause adopted at the Summit of the Americas, had we not been able to have recourse under Resolution 1080, the Santiago Commitment and the Washington Protocol."
The Foreign Minister noted that today the OAS' commitment involves jealously guarding and actively helping to preserve the inherent political values of the democratic system. Mr. Opertti also made mention of the OAS "defense resources" and its "accomplishments," including its involvement in the defense of democratic systems, in election monitoring, and in seeking ways to "act without intervening."
As regards the question of civil society, the Uruguayan minister declared that democratic systems can only be preserved and kept transparent to the extent that the agents of civil society are themselves transparent. "We are all part of the civil society fabric," he maintained, "Whoever said you cease to be part of civil society simply because you hold public office?" He further suggested that "we stop this dichotomy between civil society and political society because it imposes an antagonistic--rather than representational--relationship. "We ought to relate to that kind of civil society in a civilized, organic and open manner."
Broaching the subject of humanitarian interventions, the Uruguayan Foreign Minister noted that under the United Nations Charter the use of force is permitted only in legitimate instances of defense, and in the Security Council's authorization for peace-keeping and security operations to stave off threats. He said "this is an area we believe needs to be covered in any Inter-American Democracy Charter, which should take into account assumptions that the democratic system must be protected and the extent to which it should be protected."
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