Each year the OAS Secretary General publishes a proposed Program-Budget for the coming calendar year. The OAS General Assembly meets in a Special Session to approve the Program-Budget. Find these documents from 1998-2013 here.
Each year in April, the OAS Board of External Auditors publishes a report covering the previous calendar year’s financial results. Reports covering 1996-2016 may be found here.
Approximately six weeks after the end of each semester, the OAS publishes a Semiannual Management and Performance Report, which since 2013 includes reporting on programmatic results. The full texts may be found here.
Here you will find data on the Human Resources of the OAS, including its organizational structure, each organizational unit’s staffing, vacant posts, and performance contracts.
The OAS executes a variety of projects funded by donors. Evaluation reports are commissioned by donors. Reports of these evaluations may be found here.
The Inspector General provides the Secretary General with reports on the audits, investigations, and inspections conducted. These reports are made available to the Permanent Council. More information may be found here.
The OAS has discussed for several years the real estate issue, the funding required for maintenance and repairs, as well as the deferred maintenance of its historic buildings. The General Secretariat has provided a series of options for funding it. The most recent document, reflecting the current status of the Strategy, is CP/CAAP-3211/13 rev. 4.
Here you will find information related to the GS/OAS Procurement Operations, including a list of procurement notices for formal bids, links to the performance contract and travel control measure reports, the applicable procurement rules and regulations, and the training and qualifications of its staff.
The OAS Treasurer certifies the financial statements of all funds managed or administered by the GS/OAS. Here you will find the latest general purpose financial reports for the main OAS funds, as well as OAS Quarterly Financial Reports (QFRs).
Every year the GS/OAS publishes the annual operating plans for all areas of the Organization, used to aid in the formulation of the annual budget and as a way to provide follow-up on institutional mandates.
Here you will find information related to the OAS Strategic Plan 2016-2020, including its design, preparation and approval.
Message from OAS Secretary General on International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
June 26, 2018
Three decades have passed since the international community has approved the judiciary principles for the protection against torture and other inhumane and degrading cruelties.
The American continent did so even before, in 1985, after emerging from one of its darkest, most violent and painful times in its history.
The countries decided to prevent and sanction torture, acknowledging it as the worst crime to human dignity and the negation of the principles and values embodied in Charters of the OAS and the United Nations.
Times change and unfortunately, this abhorrent practice continues to occur in the Americas and the world.
In the Convention we specifically stated that torture is never justifiable, including in the following cases:
“The fact of having acted under orders of a superior shall not provide exemption from the corresponding criminal liability.
The existence of circumstances such as a state of war, threat of war, state of siege or of emergency, domestic disturbance or strife, suspension of constitutional guarantees, domestic political instability, or other public emergencies or disasters shall not be invoked or admitted as justification for the crime of torture.
Neither the dangerous character of the detainee or prisoner, nor the lack of security of the prison establishment or penitentiary shall justify torture”.
In spite of this, there are people who continue to suffer under the worst forms of physical and psychological abuse in our Hemisphere. People who survived and who will be forever marked for being victims of what is unjustifiable. Families that suffered during and after these aberrations.
The loss of respect to human dignity, to human suffering, proves that whoever is infringing it, has lost his or her essence, his or her humanity and ability to be an interlocutor. He or she has lost all legitimacy to exercise power.
Our hemispheric community should not tolerate these practices. To remain silent in front of torture is to be an accomplice to it.
We are all responsible for combating this unfortunate practice. And the only way of doing so is by denouncing and listening to the victims and their families, to their truth, and holding those responsible accountable.
It is the only way to be able to say Never Again consistently.