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Secretary General Insulza: “The Importance Accorded to Legislative Power Is What Sets the Quality of Democracy”

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, and the President of the Congress of the Republic of Peru, Luís Alva Castro, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding to support the institutional strengthening and modernization of said institution.

During the event, attended by the Vice Presidents of the Peruvian National Congress, OAS authorities and other special guests, Secretary General Insulza asserted that “having an independent congress with its own authority is what characterizes a democracy” and recalled that the legislative power “is where the fact is assumed of there being various opinions and points of view, and therefore of it being necessary to harmonize these visions and allow all of them to contribute to the development of society. There is no other institution like this one, so unique to democracy.”

Nevertheless, the leader of the regional organization recalled that "the congresses of our region don't always have an easy life, since they must maintain a balance of power with an executive that has many more technical capacities and resources. To be able to have a real balance of power it's important to achieve a much more modern function for the national congress."

For this reason he explained that the OAS assigns great importance to initiatives that contribute to the strength of the parliamentary area "because the importance accorded to legislative power in our countries is what sets the quality of democracy.”

“Through its Department of Effective Public Management, the OAS seeks to support the legislatures of Member States in their efforts to promote dialogue and inter-parliamentary cooperation, and to improve the functioning of the legislative systems in their countries. In this sense, the Memorandum of Understanding we sign today seeks to support the efforts already undertaken by this Congress and our intentions are to contribute to this with practical products that can be useful," explained the Secretary General to his audience.

The Memorandum of Understanding signed today in the headquarters of the Peruvian Congress establishes the foundations of a work plan divided into three areas: the function of representation; the function of political control; and the function of public control, which will generate an Integral Program of Support for Modernization and Strengthening of the Congress of Peru. The agreement also seeks to support the efforts of the congress on issues like the incorporation and use of new technologies of communication and information (“e-Congress”), budgetary treatment, parliamentary control and negotiation, and Legislative-Executive relations.

A photo gallery of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org

Reference: E-224/10