THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
The Organization of American States (OAS) is the worlds oldest
regional organization, dating back to the First International Conference of American
States, held in Washington, D.C., from October 1889 to April 1890. At that meeting the
establishment of the International Union of American Republics was approved. The Charter
of the OAS was signed in Bogotá in 1948 and entered into force in December 1951. The
Charter was subsequently amended by the Protocol of Buenos Aires, signed in 1967, which
entered into force in February 1970; by the Protocol of Cartagena de Indias, signed in
1985, which entered into force in November 1988; by the Protocol of Managua, signed in
1993, which entered into force on January 29, 1996; and by the Protocol of Washington,
signed in 1992, which entered into force on September 25, 1997. The OAS currently has 35
member states. In addition, the Organization has granted permanent observer status to over
45 states, as well as to the European Union.
The essential purposes of the OAS are: to strengthen peace and security
in the Hemisphere; to promote and consolidate representative democracy, with due respect
for the principle of nonintervention; to prevent possible causes of difficulties and to
ensure peaceful settlement of disputes that may arise among the member states; to provide
for common action on the part of those states in the event of aggression; to seek the
solution of political, juridical, and economic problems that may arise among them; to
promote, by cooperative action, their economic, social, and cultural development; and to
achieve an effective limitation of conventional weapons that will make it possible to
devote the largest amount of resources to the economic and social development of the
member states.
MEMBER STATES: Antigua and Barbuda,
Argentina, The Bahamas (Commonwealth of), Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil,
Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica (Commonwealth of), Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica,
Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent
and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela.
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SPECIAL RECOGNITION
The OAS General Secretariat wishes to acknowledge with deep appreciation the
funding provided by the City Council of Mérida, in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. Without
this funding, the convocation of the Gabriela Mistral Prize competition for the
year 2000 would not have been possible.
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GABRIELA
MISTRAL
INTER-AMERICAN PRIZE
FOR CULTURE LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY 2000
COMPETITION ANNOUNCEMENT
General Secretariat
Organization of American States
Washington, D.C.
2000 |