CP/RES. 1007 (1875/12)

COMMEMORATION OF THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY SINCE
THE FIRST OAS ELECTORAL OBSERVATION MISSION

(Adopted at its session held on October 17, 2012)

THE PERMANENT COUNCIL OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES,

RECALLING that on February 4, 1962, the Pan American Union first sent observers to an election in the Republic of Costa Rica and that on December 20 that year it sent a mission to the Dominican Republic;

MINDFUL that the Inter-American Democratic Charter provides that “the peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy and their governments have an obligation to promote and defend it,” and that “democracy is essential for the social, political, and economic development of the peoples of the Americas”;

MINDFUL ALSO that the Inter-American Democratic Charter reaffirms that “democracy is indispensable for the effective exercise of fundamental freedoms and human rights in their universality, indivisibility and interdependence, embodied in the respective constitutions of states and in inter-American and international human rights instruments”; and

REAFFIRMING that the Inter-American Democratic Charter provides that “member states are responsible for organizing, conducting, and ensuring free and fair electoral processes,” and that “member states, in the exercise of their sovereignty, may request that the Organization of American States provide advisory services or assistance for strengthening and developing their electoral institutions and processes, including sending preliminary missions for that purpose,”

RESOLVES:

1. To declare February 4 of each year “OAS Electoral Observation Day” in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary since the deployment of the first electoral observation mission.

2. To thank the member states and permanent observer countries that have supported them and encourage them to continue to assist in their financing.

3. To commend the General Secretariat for the important work it has done in these 50 years of electoral observation.