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OAS Secretary General Presents Vision to Strengthen Hemispheric Democracy

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, analyzed the role fulfilled by the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IADC) in strengthening democracy in the continent during the past decade, and reiterated his conviction that, without it being necessary to modify its foundational 2001 text, it is important to complement it in three areas on which he formulated proposals: to specify what constitutes serious violations to democratic constitutionality; to increase the preventive mechanisms in defense of the Charter; and to seek instruments of evaluation of democracy in the region. His statements were given today during his intervention at the Second Latin American Democracy Forum, held in Mexico City from December 6 to 8.

During the keynote lecture on the forum’s third day, Secretary General Insulza recalled the hemispheric and global climate in the midst of which the Inter-American Democratic Charter was created in 2001, and highlighted the virtues and singularities of the document. Calling it “the program of the democratic republic,” he noted that with its adoption the concept of democracy was expanded at the regional level. “During the discussion on what is democracy, only one form of government or one form of complete organization of society based on determined rights that are considered universal and permanent, the Charter clearly opts for the second alternative and defines democracy as a right of all peoples,” he said.

Concluding that he is not in favor of modifying the text of the IADC, Insulza said some shortcomings in the text can be overcome with complementary definitions in three areas: that relative to the rupture of democracy, the installation of preventive mechanisms, and the creation of non-invasive instruments of evaluation of democracy.

Upon developing his first proposal to complement the Charter, the leader of the hemispheric institution explained the need to expand the reference to “the grave violations to democratic institutions” mentioned in the IADC, which go beyond the overthrow of a legitimately constituted government. In this sense, he opened the debate by formulating four examples: the arbitrary closing of the State power; the massive violation of the rights to liberty contained in the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights; a serious and observed fraud that alters popular will in an electoral process; and a situation of generalized chaos that creates a non-governable society.

Regarding the preventive mechanisms in defense of the Charter, the Secretary General alluded to the need to be able to act providently and respecting national sovereignty when a clear threat appears against the stability of some country, which means expanding the attributions of the Secretary General to allow his involvement before a crisis unfolds. “The Charter has been more difficult to invoke during a delayed response,” he explained.

Before a varied audience of experts and politicians at the Forum, the head of the hemispheric Organization thirdly advocated for the identification of instruments of evaluation of democracy that would not be invasive for the States, and suggested following the example of those already existing in other areas of the OAS, such as those used - “inter pares” – in the following of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption, and in the evaluation of the situation of violence against women.

Secretary General Insulza summarized his formulation of alternatives to complement the IADC by asserting that the challenges it faces refer to its implementation, not its contents. That is why, he concluded, it is not necessary to change it, but to improve its application in order to better confront the current challenges to democracy in the region that threaten to slow down its development.

During the keynote conference dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Democratic Charter, the Secretary General presented his vision of the situation of democracy in Latin America. “Beyond the problems that exist, the continent has lived nearly ten years with few exceptions with governments elected democratically. This had never happened before in the region,” he said. That allows the assertion, he continued, that from the point of view of elections and the creation of governments, America is, with Europe, the other democratic continent in the world.
The head of the OAS nevertheless warned that, despite the successes, democracy in the region is still weak and threatened by problems such as inequality and poverty. “Inequality not only is evident in the distribution of income, but also in the discrimination that more greatly affects minorities, such as indigenous peoples, African Americans, and women heads of household,” he said. “There is no real democracy where there are caste systems and inequality to the extent we have in the Americas,” he added, a problem that has become worse with time.

Another serious threat to the democratic system, in Insulza’s opinion, is crime. “With difficulty can we have full democracy when there are groups in society that threaten the democratic order, act according to their own rules and constitute criminal societies,” he warned. As a third challenge for the incipient democracy in the region, in addition to inequality and crime, he mentioned defects in social institutions such as the lack of separation and independence of powers, corruption and threats to freedom of expression.

In conclusion, Secretary General Insulza said it is necessary to continue on the same road: “We are at the beginning of a process of modernization of the continent; we are better than ten years ago when the Charter was signed, from the point of view of the exercise of democracy as well as the stability of its governments; nevertheless, we must focus on the problems here described,” he said.

The Second Democracy Forum, which concluded today at the headquarters of the “Antiguo Colegio de San Idelfonso” in Mexico City was coorganized by the Organization of American States (OAS), Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), and International IDEA.

The full agenda for the meeting is posted here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-1003/11