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G E N E R A L      S E C R E T A R I A T

EXECUTIVE ORDER No. 01-3
SUBJECT:  PUBLICATIONS BOARD AND POLICY

 

THE SECRETARY GENERAL,

  In exercise of the authority conferred upon him under Articles 109 and 113 of the Charter of the Organization of American States ("OAS") and Articles 4, 8, and 12 of the General Standards to Govern the Operation of the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States ("General Standards"),

CONSIDERING:

  That by Resolution AG/RES. 492 (X-O/80), the General Assembly adopted a publications policy for the Organization, instructed the General Secretariat to formulate standards and procedures for the implementation of that policy, and identified the Publications Board as the entity responsible for that implementation;

  That by Executive Order 92-2 and 98-4, the Secretary General issued guidelines for the composition and functioning of the Publications Board under the Office of the Assistant Secretary General, and by Executive Order 92-3, he issued Regulations applicable to all publications under the Board's jurisdiction;

  That the by Executive Order 98-4, the Secretary General entrusted to the then Publications, Operations, and Technical Support Division ("POTS") of SEDI responsibility for implementing secretariat-wide publications policies and coordinating related activities under the supervision of the Publications Board;

  That the reorganization of SEDI under Executive Orders 01-1 and 99-4 eliminated POTS;

  That the Office of the Assistant Secretary General has indicated that it is no longer able to continue presiding over the Publications Board and publications policies of the Organization because of its increased involvement in other priority areas of the Organization;

  That in a survey conducted last year, the dependencies of the Secretariat unanimously indicated that they are not willing to support with their resources a unit within the Secretariat for providing services and advice in the areas of publishing, distribution, fulfillment and marketing -- similar to those which POTS had been designed to provide;

  That a number of subscribers to OAS publications are owed monies for subscriptions paid but not fulfilled by the General Secretariat;

RESOLVES:

I. DEFINITION OF OAS PUBLICATIONS

A. For purposes of this Executive Order, OAS publications are technical materials paid for from funds administered by the General Secretariat of the OAS ("GS/OAS") which: (a) represent the organization to a largely external audience; and (b) bear the Organization's name and/or logo. OAS publications may be official, informational, or promotional describing the organization's programs, activities and policies, and may be prepared, printed or produced as books, booklets, magazines, brochures, posters, pamphlets, leaflets, flyers, or in electronic format.

B. For purposes of this Executive Order, the term "publication" does not include:

    1. Inter-departmental memoranda and business correspondence prepared by the dependencies of the General Secretariat;

    2. Individual press releases or other urgent notices issued by the Department of Public Information, the Office of the Secretary General, the Office of the Assistant Secretary General; or the political bodies;

    3. Official documents produced for distribution to or by the deliberative organs of the OAS that are characterized as part of the official records series and which are classified by the OAS Documents Unit of the Columbus Memorial Library;

    4. Original art works held by the Art Museum of the Americas; and

    5. Publications funded by resources other than those administered by the General Secretariat.

II. THE PUBLICATIONS BOARD

A. Structure of the Board of Publications

    1. The Board of Publications includes four permanent members and two temporary members.

a. The four permanent members are: the Assistant Secretary for Management; the Director of the Columbus Memorial Library; the Director of Legal Services; and either the Director of Public Information or the Director of External Relations, as designated by the Assistant Secretary for Management.

b. The two Temporary Members shall be chosen by the Assistant Secretary for Management to serve annual terms on a rotational basis from among those dependencies of the General Secretariat at the Departmental level that produce serial publications and/or significant publications funded by the Regular Fund.

c. The Inspector General may attend all meetings of the Board as an Observer.

    2. The Chairman of the Board is the Assistant Secretary for Management.

    3. The Chairman of the Board may call upon Directors and specialists from any area of the Secretariat to assist the Board in its deliberations and in the execution of its functions.

B. Functions and responsibilities

    The Publications Board shall have the following functions and responsibilities:

    1. To exercise general jurisdiction over all publications produced by the General Secretariat with funds directly administered by the General Secretariat and to oversee and coordinate implementation of the general publications policy approved by the General Assembly;

    2. To recommend to the Secretary General the adoption of rules and regulations for the implementation of the publications policy of the Organization adopted by the General Assembly;

    3. To issue guidelines, criteria, instructions, and procedures for managing the production, reproduction, marketing, warehousing, and distribution of publications consistent with the corresponding rules and regulations of the General Secretariat and publications policy of the Organization;

    4. To approve requests for appropriations from any Secretariat-wide Specific Fund established to fund publications for the entire Secretariat (but not the specific funds established by each dependency to support its publications);

    5. To perform all other functions assigned to the Board under the publications policy adopted under Resolution AG/RES. 492 (X-O/80), as amended;

    6. To adopt any procedural rules it deems necessary for its own meetings; and

    7. To hold at least one Regular Meeting each quarter for the purpose of performing the foregoing functions and attending to related matters.

III. RESPONSIBILITIES OF OTHER DEPENDENCIES

A. Contents, Style, and Format

    Within the guidelines established under Resolution AG/RES. 492 (X-O/80), other resolutions of the General Assembly, and subject to rules, regulations, and guidelines established by the Publications Board, each dependency shall be responsible for the contents, format, and style of materials it publishes.

B. Publishing, Marketing, Distribution, Fulfillment and Storage

    Subject to rules, regulations, and guidelines established by the Publications Board, each dependency is responsible for publishing, marketing, distributing, fulfillment (including subscriptions), and storing its publications, and for bearing all the costs of those functions from its regular fund budget and such other specific funds it might have for that purpose.

C. Intellectual Property

    1. The Director or Officer otherwise in charge of each dependency of the General Secretariat that issues publications is responsible for obtaining all necessary licenses of intellectual property rights from the contributing authors to those publications, and the costs of those licenses, if any, shall be borne by that dependency.

    2. The General Secretariat is the owner of the copyright and any other intellectual property rights in any work:

a. Created by its employees pursuant to their official duties; and

b. Created by its independent contractors pursuant to contract with the General Secretariat, absent any specific written agreement to the contrary.

    3. The following works are considered to be works in the public domain and may be published without a copyright license from the General Secretariat:

a. Inter-American Treaties and Conventions;

b. The proceedings of the political bodies, including resolutions, minutes, and committee reports.

    4. As provided under Executive Order 96-4, the Department of Legal Services is responsible for responding to requests for and granting licenses to use copyrights and other intellectual property rights owned by the General Secretariat and the Organization. In issuing those licenses, the Department shall take into account the interest of the General Secretariat in seeing that its works and the content of those works are widely disseminated throughout the hemisphere.

IV. TRANSITORY PROVISIONS

    1. Pending the issuance of new policies on package (omnibus or general) subscriptions to all OAS Publications, the solicitation, contracting, and renewal of those subscriptions shall cease, and the Department of Financial Services shall return any money received for those subscriptions to the sender. Persons requesting publications shall be referred to the dependencies of the Secretariat responsible for them.

    2. The Director of the Department of Financial Services shall apply the Revolving Fund and any other resources derived from unfulfilled subscriptions to pay the demonstrated claims of persons requesting a refund of amounts paid for subscriptions to OAS publications paid for but not received.

    3. Within ninety days of the publication of this Executive Order, the Publications Board shall recommend to the Assistant Secretary for Management a plan for identifying subscribers who have not received the publications they paid for and for refunding to them any amounts owed.

    4. The Director of the Department of Social Development and Education shall assign a professional-level staff member who is familiar with the unfulfilled subscriptions to a journal formerly published by the former Office of Cultural Affairs to provide all necessary information to the Director of Financial Services for refunding any monies owed as a result of those subscriptions, and any revenues received from the sale of those subscriptions, if still available, shall be used to refund the unfulfilled balance of those subscriptions to the corresponding subscribers.

V. AMENDMENTS AND REPEALS

    This Executive Order specifically repeals Executive Orders 98-4 and 92-3, Section II(B)(2)(b) of Executive Order 97-2, and all prior inconsistent administrative issuances. It does not, however, repeal administrative Memorandum No. 88, "Removal and Disposal of Surplus Publications."

VI. ENTRY INTO FORCE

    This Executive Order shall enter in to force on the date it is signed.

 

 

Date: April 30, 2001

Original: English