PERMANENT COUNCIL OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
GT/CDI-2/01 add. 10

15 August 2001
Original: Spanish

Working Group to study the
Draft Inter-American Charter

COMMENTS AND PROPOSALS BY MEMBER STATES
ON THE DRAFT INTER-AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC CHARTER

El Salvador

San Salvador, 10 August 2001

Excellency:

As instructed by my government, I have the honor to submit herewith the contributions of El Salvador to the Inter-American Democratic Charter, to be considered for adoption in Lima, Peru.

These contributions are the product of a Forum on the Inter-American Democratic Charter, coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the Guillermo Manuel Ungo Foundation, and the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, and held in El Salvador on 9 August 2001 with the participation of Salvadoran citizens and institutions representing all sectors of national life.

I should be grateful if your Excellency would arrange for the circulation of these contributions to the Honorable Permanent Missions for the purposes of consideration by the Permanent Council’s Working Group on the Inter-American Democratic Charter.

 

Accept, Excellency the renewed the assurances of my highest consideration.

 

 

Margarita Escobar

Ambassador, Permanent Representative

 

Ambassador Hernán Castro

Permanent Representative of Costa Rica

Chairman of the Permanent Council

Washington, D.C.

 

Forum on the Inter-American Democratic Charter

EL SALVADOR

CONCLUSIONS OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY WORKING GROUPS

Thursday, 9 August 2001

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Supreme Electoral Tribunal Guillermo Manuel Ungo Foundation Inter-American Institute of Human Rights

EL SALVADOR

 

FORUM ON THE INTER-AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC CHARTER,

CONVENED BY THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, THE SUPREME ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL, THE GUILLERMO MANUEL UNGO FOUNDATION, AND THE INTER-AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

 

CONCLUSIONS OF THE SALVADORAN CIVIL SOCIETY WORKING GROUPS

 

 

I. Substantive gaps found in the Draft Inter-American Democratic Charter

  • Article 1, add the underlined text: "the peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy and the duty to require it."
  • Broaden the wording of article 1 and add: "and it is the obligation of the member states to guarantee and promote it."
  • Article 3, change the text to read as follows: "...free and transparent elections..."
  • Article 3, incorporate a second paragraph: "The American states shall strengthen representative democracy through the effective participation of women in electoral processes and fundamental decision-making on a footing of a real equality with men."
  • Article 4, add the underlined text: "the exercise and strengthening of democracy require transparency, legitimacy, probity, responsibility, and effectiveness in the exercise of public authority, respect for social rights, and freedom of expression and of the press, as well as economic and social development."
  • Article 4, add the underlined text: "...respect for individual and social rights, freedom of the press, as well as economic development and social well-being."
  • Article 5, add the underlined text: "Solidarity and the strengthening of inter-American cooperation for integral development, and especially the fight against extreme poverty and vulnerabilities in the political, economic, and social fields, are fundamental parts... "
  • Article 6, add the underlined text: "Promoting and fostering diverse forms of participation and consultation strengthens democracy."
  • Article 8 only mentions civil, political, social, and cultural rights; third-generation rights, especially the right to a healthy environment, need to be added.
  • Mention of the Belem Do Para Convention should also be incorporated into article 8.
  • Article 9, add the underlined text: "Any person, irrespective of gender, whose human rights have been violated are entitled to present claims ..."
  • Article 10, add the underlined text: "When the democratically elected government of a member state considers that its democratic political institutional process or democratic regime is at risk, it may solicit from the Organization..."
  • Article 11, add the underlined text: "...the Secretary General may, on his own initiative or at the request of the government concerned, undertake visits..."
  • There are no mechanisms to safeguard social rights, rights to freedom (expression, thought, press); democratic freedoms of association, mobilization, organization.
  • Overall, the document in itself fails to establish mechanisms for handling such problems as critical poverty and human, economic, and social development; the term critical poverty extends to academic/scientific and economic poverty and poverty in terms of health, etc.
  • The issues of environmental depredation and the rights of immigrants to vote on foreign soil are not addressed.
  • The issue of migratory protection for citizens on foreign soil (guaranteeing civil, political, and other rights) is not addressed.
  • Cooperation agreements between public and civil society institutions; the performance of a social oversight role.
  • Political reform is required to ensure real citizen participation.
  • The functions of electoral authorities are not defined so as to establish their independence in ensuring representative democracy.
  • The concept of democracy within the document is limited. There is mention only of representative democracy, without reference to the element of citizen participation.
  • The trilogy of freedom, solidarity, and sustainable development should be included within the concept of democracy.
  • The Charter should promote the plebiscite and the referendum (as means of public consultation).
  • Independence to ensure representative democracy.
  • Reference should be incorporated to the issue of corruption and ethical values as vulnerable aspects of representative democracy.

 

 

 

II. Principal strengths of the Draft Inter-American Democratic Charter

 

  • Provides for citizen participation as a fundamental pillar of effective democracy.
  • Provides for preservation and strengthening of human rights and the democratic system.
  • Promotes and provides for the real exercise and international monitoring of the fundamental rights of individuals.
  • Provides support for legitimately elected governments.
  • Includes the gender issue -- equality of conditions.
  • Promotes respect for the democratic institutions of government.
  • Provides for respect, noninterference, nonintervention among states.
  • Reaffirms respect for the conventions and agreements signed among states to guarantee democratic processes and the effective functioning of institutions.
  • Reasserts the need for citizen participation in the effective and legitimate exercise of democracy.
  • Recognizes the need for economic and social improvement.
  • Promotes the principles and practices of civic and democratic activity.
  • Establishes a procedure to be implemented when democratic systems are in danger of interruption. Provides for measures ranging from preventive action to the suspension of member states.
  • Incorporates the OAS Charter, the Protocol of Washington, and Resolution 1080, the Santiago Commitment.
  • Incorporates the principal inter-American human rights instruments.
  • Complements regional instruments for the guarantee and respect of representative democracy, establishing appropriate procedures for its restoration and the corresponding sanctions.
  • Respects the principle of nonintervention and the self-determination of peoples.
  • Provides for the guarantee, respect, and strengthening of democracy and the consolidation of a representative democracy in the Americas.
  • Provides for enhancement of the concept of American solidarity.
  • Provides for the strengthening of electoral institutions in the American states.
  • Establishes that democracy is the system of life founded on freedom and constant improvement in the economic, social, and cultural life of peoples.
  • Promotes the creation of a democratic culture.
  • Provides for increased and representative public participation in political parties to strengthen democratic life.

 

III. Points in the Inter-American Democratic Charter requiring greater precision and further development
  • Link Democracy and human rights more closely.
  • Enhance civil society participation and consultation as a means to strengthen democracy.
  • Incorporate the commitment of states to democratic culture and respect for human rights.
  • Incorporate reference to the role of the OAS.
  • Provide foundation for the right to self-determination of peoples and strengthen the principle of nonintervention and related mechanisms.
  • Develop the concept of representative democracy.
  • Develop the concept of universal observance of human rights.
  • Specify what constitutes an alteration or interference in the democratic order of a state in the hemisphere.

 

IV. Other proposals and comments in respect of the Draft Inter-American Democratic Charter

Proposals

 

  • In article 5, delete the reference to "critical poverty" and refer only to poverty.
  • The Charter's preamble should mention other regional instruments referring to representative democracy and the inter-American system of human rights.
  • Incorporate other mechanisms to ensure citizen participation: consultations, referendums, plebiscites, etc.

 

 

Comments

 

  • There is interest within the inter-American community in the need to strengthen the democratic rule of law.
  • The Charter should include recognition of the right of peoples to insurrection as a guarantee of representative democracy and a deterrent when representative democracy collapses.
  • Democratic institutional integrity is a critically important concept within the Charter.
  • The concept of representative democracy must be more precisely defined and expanded.
  • An appropriate procedure must be established for determining the nature and extent of an institutional alteration or interruption in the democratic order of a state in the hemisphere.
  • The inviolability of the principle of nonintervention should be established in the Charter and in particular in the Democracy Clause.
  • Participation is limited to the political parties; citizen or civil participation through independent mechanisms should be encouraged.
  • The Charter should promote a democratic culture through education and the strengthening of relevant institutions.