Relations with International Organizations

In 1971, the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted resolution AG/RES. 57 (I-0/71), through which it approved the “Standards on Cooperative Relations between the Organization of American States and the United Nations, Its Specialized Agencies, and Other National and International Organizations."

The mentioned Standards established the norms for cooperative relations between the OAS organs and intergovernmental organizations, governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations.  Specifically, they authorized the OAS General Secretariat to establish cooperation agreements with organizations that pursue goals related to those of the Organization and that may include:

  • Definition of the fields in which the parties have a common interest;

  • Reciprocal consultation on matters of common interest and the exchange of documents, publications, and statistics;

  • The procedure for consultation that shall be followed in the programming process before the directing bodies of each party begin the stage of approval of their respective program-budgets;

  • The right of each party to propose, after such consultations as may be deemed necessary, topics to be included on the agenda of a meeting of the other party; and

  • Reciprocal invitation to send observers to participate in the meetings of the various organs of the other party, in accordance with the standards in effect for each body when these meetings are to consider matters of common interest.

A database of bilateral cooperation agreements signed between the OAS General Secretariat and other intergovernmental, governmental and non-governmental organizations is available here.