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.
OAS Secretary General Emphasizes that to Strengthen Inter-American Commission on Human Rights “Its Decisions Must Be Respected”
March 17, 2010
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, today emphasized that to strengthen the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) “its decisions must be respected.” During the inaugural ceremony of the Commission’s 138th Regular Session, which took place in Washington, D.C., the Secretary General also underlined the Commission’s “independence and autonomy” and emphasized that it is the main body of the Organization in matters of Human Rights: “There is no Human Rights body in the OAS that is above the IACHR.”
“The Commission has made enormous progress, but unfortunately we do not have in our Americas a universal system in which all countries would be members both of the Commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. This places some of the inhabitants of our region at a disadvantage. I am convinced we must proclaim the capital importance for democracy and freedom in the Americas of all of us being part of the same system,” Insulza said.
Likewise, he called on the countries of the continent to strengthen the IACHR: “Countries can protect it by becoming members and ratifying the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights, since we want a universal system for all member states.”
“It is very important that we don’t look at the bodies within the system as antagonistic from the States, but that we seek the possibility of having a permanent dialogue with the Commission that would allow the countries to improve their internal procedures, their public policies and fix their mistakes.”
“Strengthening democracy is our fundamental task and the obligation of this Commission is to demand more each time from our member states, never be satisfied, always find room for improvement.”
Secretary General Insulza stressed the fact that for the first time the IACHR has three women among its commissioners. “I am sure this Commission will continue to have a fundamental role in the defense of women and human rights in the continent,” he concluded.
For his part, the President of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the OAS, Ambassador José Enrique Castillo Barrantes, asserted the importance of the IACHR as a body of the OAS “and the enduring commitment of the member states to the inter-American system of promoting and protecting human rights.”
Finally, IACHR Chair Felipe González said about the Commission: “In these five decades it has contributed to important advances, which themselves have strengthened Human Rights in the region.”