Organization of American States (OAS)

The Organization of American States(OAS)is an International Organization
founded on April 30,1948, for the purposes of regional solidarity and cooperation among its member states with its head quarters in Washington D.C,USA

The Members of the OAS are the 35 independent states of the Americas


All 35 independent nations of the Americas are members of the OAS. Upon foundation on 5 May 1948, there were 21 members:

•  Argentina
•  Bolivia
•  Brazil
•  Chile
•  Colombia
•  Costa Rica
•  Cuba^{[Note 1]}
•  Dominican Republic
•  Ecuador
•  El Salvador
•  Guatemala
•  Haiti
•  Honduras^{[Note 2]}
•  Mexico
•  Nicaragua
•  Panama
•  Paraguay
•  Peru
•  United States
•  Uruguay
•  Venezuela

The later expansion of the OAS included Canada and the newly independent nations of the Caribbean. Members with later admission dates (sorted chronologically):

•  Barbados (member since 1967)
•  Trinidad and Tobago (1967)
•  Jamaica (1969)
•  Grenada (1975)
•  Suriname (1977)
•  Dominica (1979)
•  Saint Lucia (1979)
•  Antigua and Barbuda (1981)
•  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1981)
•  Bahamas (1982)

Goals and purpose

In the words of Article 1 of the Charter, the goal of the member nations in creating the OAS was "to achieve an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence."

Article 2 then defines 8 essential purposes:

• To strengthen the peace and security of the continent.
• To promote and consolidate representative democracy, with due respect for the principle of nonintervention.
• To prevent possible causes of difficulties and to ensure the pacific 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, judicial, and economic problems that may arise among them.
• To promote, by cooperative action, their economic, social, and cultural development.
• To eradicate extreme poverty, which constitutes an obstacle to the full democratic development of the peoples of the hemisphere.
• 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.

Significant milestones in the history of the OAS since the signing of the Charter have included the following:

• 1959: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights created.
• 1959: Inter-American Development Bank created.
• 1961: Charter of Punta del Este signed, launching the Alliance for Progress.
• 1962: OAS suspends Cuba.
• 1969: American Convention on Human Rights signed (in force since 1978).
• 1970: OAS General Assembly established as the Organization's supreme decision-making body.
• 1979: Inter-American Court of Human Rights created.
• 1991: Adoption of Resolution 1080, which requires the Secretary General to convene the Permanent Council within ten days of a coup d'état in any member country.
• 1994: First Summit of the Americas (Miami), which resolved to establish a Free Trade Area of the Americas by 2005.
• 2001: Inter-American Democratic Charter adopted.
• 2009: OAS revokes 1962 suspension of Cuba.
• 2009: OAS suspends Honduras due to the coup which ousted president Manuel Zelaya.
• 2011: OAS lifts the suspension of Honduras with the return of Manuel Zelaya from exile.

General Assembly

The General Assembly is the supreme decision-making body of OAS which convenes once every year in a regular session