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OAS Permanent Council Receives Final Comments on the Effectiveness and Implementation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter

A special meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today discussed the conclusions and final considerations of the various debates held on the effectiveness, implementation and future of the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IDC), on the occasion of its tenth anniversary.

At the session, chaired by the Permanent Representative of Haiti to the OAS, Ambassador Duly Brutus, delegates from member countries valued the strength of the principles of the Charter, and its aim at defending and strengthening democratic values. In that sense, they highlighted the richness of the dialogues held over the past months and marked the limitations of the hemispheric document that commemorated its tenth anniversary last September 11.

OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza congratulated the representatives of the member countries on assigning "such a high relevance to the dialogue on the Charter" as well as on the richness of their contributions. He said that "the Inter-American Democratic Charter has a fundamental political and ethical value," because it is a document that has been a high value by citizens and countries, "positioning it as one of the major foundational texts of the Organization", a fact that he considered as "very significant" as the Charter has only a decade of existence.

In considering the various proposals submitted by countries, the highest representative of the hemispheric organization said that from his perspective there is no need to modify the text of the Charter "because as a declarative document of what is our common understanding of democracy, its different dimensions and the importance we assign to it, this is a document that deserves to stay as it is," and recommended to better focus on ways "to implement the principles contained therein without questioning the value of the text itself. "

In this regard, he emphasized three aspects that he considers as key and interrelated among themselves: to clearly and sufficiently define what is regarded as the fundamental ruptures of the democratic institutions that the Charter seeks to defend; determine the circumstances in which the Organization should act; and give priority to prevention. "The Charter is not a punitive instrument, and its contents and regulations should be the instruments that allow us to strengthen the preventive action," he said.

In their interventions, members of the Permanent Council alluded mostly to the speeches pronounces by the their own foreign ministers during the commemorative event of the 10 anniversary of the IDC and the renewal of the commitment of the Americas to democracy, held in Valparaiso, Chile on September 2-4, 2011. They mentioned that the most pressing challenges for the consolidation and improvement of democracy are: inequality, discrimination, crime and poverty; they recognized that citizen participation is an important element for strengthening democracy and that it exists the need to ensure the separation and independence of powers. Similarly, in the context of the elements that strengthen democracy, they recognized the work of the OAS Electoral Observation Missions, characterizing them as the organization's "letter of presentation" and encouraged to assign greater financial resources to this task.

In terms of recommendations, delegates expressed the importance of strengthening the preventive action through the OAS' work; assigning greater powers to the Secretary General in the context of modern multilateralism; advancing in the strengthening of democracy through concrete actions; and giving priority to the preventive rather than to the punitive aspects of the Charter. They further stressed that the promotion of a democratic culture and education for democracy would help to increase transparency, participation and social inclusion.

The Dialogue on the Inter-American Democratic Charter within the Permanent Council responds to a mandate from the XL OAS General Assembly, which instructs to organize and hold discussions on the Charter and present the results and/or developments. A special session of the Permanent Council will be held on November 30 to provide a space for all sectors of civil society to share their views on how to foster a democratic culture in the Americas. Additional information about the event is available here.

A gallery of photos of the event are available here.

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

Reference: E-968/11