The General Assembly is the supreme decision-making body of the Organization of American States (OAS).
The General Assembly came into being as a part of the restructuring of the OAS that took place following adoption of the Protocol of Buenos Aires (signed 27 February 1967; in force as of 12 March 1970), which contained extensive amendments to the Organization's Charter. Prior to these changes, the OAS's top body was the Inter-American Conference, which in turn was the successor to the International Conference of American States.
The Charter requires that the General Assembly convene once every year in a regular session. In special circumstances, and with the approval of two-thirds of the member states, the Permanent Council can convene special sessions.
The Organization's member states take turns hosting the General Assembly on a rotating basis. The states are represented at its sessions by their chosen delegates: generally, their ministers of foreign affairs, or their appointed deputies. Each state has one vote, and most matters – except for those for which the Charter or the General Assembly's own rules of procedure specifically require a two-thirds majority – are settled by a simple majority vote.
The General Assembly's powers include setting the OAS's general course and policies by means of resolutions and declarations; approving its budget and determining the contributions payable by the member states; approving the reports and previous year's actions of the OAS's specialized agencies; and electing members to serve on those agencies.
Rank | Host city | Host country | Date |
---|---|---|---|
1st | San José | Costa Rica | 14–23 April 1971 |
2nd | Washington, D.C. | United States | 11–21 April 1972 |
3rd | Washington, D.C. | United States | 4–15 April 1973 |
4th | Atlanta | United States | 19 April – 1 May 1974 |
5th | Washington, D.C. | United States | 8–19 May 1975 |
6th | Santiago | Chile | 4–18 June 1976 |
7th | St. George's | Grenada | 14–22 June 1977 |
8th | Washington, D.C. | United States | 21 June – 1 July 1978 |
9th | La Paz | Bolivia | 22–31 October 1979 |
10th | Washington, D.C. | United States | 19–26 November 1980 |
11th | Castries | Saint Lucia | 2–11 December 1981 |
12th | Washington, D.C. | United States | 15–21 December 1982 |
13th | Washington, D.C. | United States | 14–18 November 1983 |
14th | Brasília | Brazil | 12–17 November 1984 |
15th | Cartagena | Colombia | 5–9 December 1985 |
16th | Guatemala City | Guatemala | 11–15 November 1986 |
17th | Washington, D.C. | United States | 9–14 November 1987 |
18th | San Salvador | El Salvador | 14–19 November 1988 |
19th | Washington, D.C. | United States | 13–18 November 1989 |
20th | Asunción | Paraguay | 4–8 June 1990 |
21st | Santiago | Chile | 3–8 June 1991 |
22nd | Nassau | Bahamas | 18–23 May 1992 |
23rd | Managua | Nicaragua | 7–11 June 1993 |
24th | Belém | Brazil | 6–10 June 1994 |
25th | Montrouis | Haiti | 5–9 June 1995 |
26th | Panama City | Panama | 3–7 June 1996 |
27th | Lima | Peru | 1–5 June 1997 |
28th | Caracas | Venezuela | 1–3 June 1998 |
29th | Guatemala City | Guatemala | 6–8 June 1999 |
30th | Windsor, Ontario | Canada | 4–6 June 2000 |
31st | San José | Costa Rica | 3–5 June 2001 |
32nd | Bridgetown | Barbados | 2–4 June 2002 |
33rd | Santiago | Chile | 8–10 June 2003 |
34th | Quito | Ecuador | 6–8 June 2004 |
35th | Fort Lauderdale | United States | 5–7 June 2005 |
36th | Santo Domingo | Dominican Republic | 4–6 June 2006 |
37th | Panama City | Panama | 3–5 June 2007 |
38th | Medellín | Colombia | 1–3 June 2008 |
39th | San Pedro Sula | Honduras | 2–3 June 2009 [1] |
40th | Lima | Peru | 6–8 June 2010 |
41st | San Salvador | El Salvador | 5–7 June 2011 |
42nd | Cochabamba | Bolivia | 3–5 June 2012 [2] |
43rd | La Antigua | Guatemala | 4–6 June 2013 [3] |
44th | Asunción | Paraguay | 3–5 June 2014 [4] |
45th | Washington, D.C. | United States | 15–16 June 2015 [5] |
46th | Santo Domingo | Dominican Republic | 13–15 June 2016 [6] |
47th | Cancún | Mexico | 18–21 June 2017 [7] |
48th | Washington, D.C. | United States | 4–5 June 2018 [8] |
49th | Medellín | Colombia | 26–28 June 2019 [9] |
50th | Washington, D.C. | United States | 20–21 October 2020 [10] |
51st | Guatemala City (Virtual) | Guatemala | 10–12 November 2021 [11] |
52nd | Lima | Peru | 5–7 October 2022 [12] |
53rd | Washington, D.C. | United States | 21–23 June 2023 [13] |
The Organization of American States is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas.
The United Nations General Assembly is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its 79th session, its powers, composition, functions, and procedures are set out in Chapter IV of the United Nations Charter.
The foreign relations of Venezuela had since the early twentieth century been particularly strong with the United States. However, since the election of Hugo Chávez as President of Venezuela in 1998, Venezuela's foreign policy differed substantially from that of previous Venezuelan governments. This change in foreign policy direction continues under the current president Nicolás Maduro.
José Miguel Insulza Salinas is a Chilean politician, lawyer, and academic serving as a senator for the Arica y Parinacota Region since 2018. He previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1999 and Minister Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1999 to 2000 under president Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, as Minister of the Interior from 2000 to 2005 under president Ricardo Lagos, and as Secretary General of the Organization of American States from 2005 to 2015.
The Organization of American States Secretary General election was a series of special sessions of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) held during 2005 in Washington, D.C., United States to elect a new Secretary General. The first special session, held on 11 April 2005 at the OAS headquarters, ended in a tie between Chile's Interior Minister José Miguel Insulza and Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, and forced the Organization to schedule a second round of elections for 2 May 2005 to end the unprecedented stalemate. On 29 April 2005, Mexico withdrew its candidate, which allowed Chile's Insulza to be elected in the next special session as Secretary General, with 31 votes, two abstentions and one vote left blank.
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 377 A, the "Uniting for Peace" resolution, states that in any cases where the Security Council, because of a lack of unanimity among its five permanent members (P5), fails to act as required to maintain international security and peace, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately and may issue appropriate recommendations to UN members for collective measures, including the use of armed force when necessary, in order to maintain or restore international security and peace. It was adopted 3 November 1950, after fourteen days of Assembly discussions, by a vote of 52 to 5, with 2 abstentions. The resolution was designed to provide the UN with an alternative avenue for action when at least one P5 member uses its veto to obstruct the Security Council from carrying out its functions mandated by the UN Charter.
Amateur radio international reciprocal operating agreements permit amateur radio operators (hams) from one country to operate a station whilst traveling in another without the need to obtain additional licenses or permits.
The Inter-American Democratic Charter was adopted on 11 September 2001 by a special session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, held in Lima, Peru. It is an inter-American instrument with the central aim of strengthening and upholding democratic institutions in the nations of the Americas. The Charter, which is binding on all 34 of the currently active OAS member states, spells out what democracy entails and specifies how it should be defended when it is under threat.
María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés is an Ecuadorian linguist, poet, politician, and diplomat. She served as an advisor on biodiversity and indigenous peoples (1999-2005) and was the regional director for South America (2005-2007) at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Espinosa Garcés was Ecuador's Minister of Foreign Affairs twice, from 2007 to 2008 and then from 2017 to 2018. She also served as ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in New York (2008-2009) and Geneva (2014-2017), and as Ecuador's Minister of National Defense (2012-2014). In June 2018, she was elected President of the United Nations General Assembly for the 73rd session by a two-thirds vote of the member states. Espinosa Garcés became the fourth woman in the seventy-three-year history of the United Nations to be elected President of the General Assembly. Besides her political career, she is also a poet and essayist.
The Political Constitution of the Republic of Honduras was approved on 11 January 1982, published on 20 January 1982, amended by the National Congress of Honduras 26 times from 1984 to 2005, and 10 interpretations by Congress were made from 1982 to 2005. It is Honduras' twelfth constitution since independence in 1838. Previous charters were adopted in 1839, 1848, 1865, 1873, 1880, 1894, 1906, 1924, 1936, 1957 and 1965.
33 independent nations of the Americas are member states of the Organization of American States (OAS); Cuba and Nicaragua are the only exceptions, although they were both formerly member states.
Luis Leonardo Almagro Lemes is a Uruguayan lawyer, diplomat, and politician who currently serves as the 10th Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) since 2015. A former member of the Broad Front, Almagro served as Minister of Foreign Relations of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015 under president José Mujica.
Jaime Aparicio Otero is the Bolivian Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States and was Bolivian Agent to the International Court of Justice, in the Hague, in the process against Chile related to the Silala waters. Ambassador Aparicio is a career diplomat, lawyer, journalist and a Washington-based legal and political advisor. He was also a political analyst working in international public and corporate affairs in Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, and Europe. He has a Law Degree from the Higher University of San Andrés of La Paz, the Bolivian Diplomatic Academy and the Institute d’Etudes Politiques commonly referred as Sciences Po de Paris.
The secretariat for multidimensional security of the Organization of American States is a part of the General Secretariat, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. The Secretariat for Multidimensional Security has a mandate to promote cooperation between Organization's Member States, Inter-American and international organizations, as well as with entities such as the United Nations and its subsidiaries, in order to analyze, prevent, confront and respond to security threats.
Sir Ronald Michael Sanders is an Antiguan Barbudan diplomat, academic, former broadcast-journalist, and the current Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States and to the Organization of American States (OAS) since 2015. He holds the unique distinction of being the first person, since the OAS enlarged its membership in 1962, to serve as Chairman of the Permanent Council of the OAS for an unprecedented three terms. He completed his highly successful third term on December 31, 2023, having played a widely recognized role in guiding the work of the Permanent Council in the peaceful transition of government in Guatemala on 14 January 2024.
Since Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia, international recognition of Kosovo has been mixed, and the international community continues to be divided on the issue. The Republic of Kosovo is member of some international intergovernmental and international non-governmental organisations.
Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres is a Honduran social activist of Lenca descent. She is the daughter of social leader Berta Cáceres, murdered in 2016. Soon after assuming her mother's role of general coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) in May 2017, Zúñiga Cáceres survived an attempt on her own life.
Margarette May Macaulay is the Jamaican Commissioner and some time President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (OAS).
A Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly, or UNGASS, occurs when the United Nations General Assembly meets in order to discuss an important wide-ranging topic.
Elisa Mercedes Ruiz Díaz Bareiro was a Paraguayan lawyer and diplomat. She was the Permanent Representative of Paraguay to the Organization of American States (OAS) from 2013 until her death. She served as the Chair of the OAS Permanent Council from 6 April 2021 to 19 May 2021.