The Organization of American States and the Democratic Charter. (Legislation and Policy)

[The following are excerpts of the speech presented to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, May 3, 2002.]

If there is anyone out there who has followed my public remarks since becoming Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), you will know that I tend to talk a lot about a particular document -- The Inter-American Democratic Charter. I talk about it a lot because it's an important document, and, in fact, has become the focal point of the most serious work that the OAS is called upon to perform. That is: Maintaining, supporting, strengthening, and defending democracy in the Western Hemisphere.

The Democratic Charter

Adopted by the Inter-American Community on September 11 in the immediate wake of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon the hemispheric consensus represented that day was a significant, historic event in its own right. It was historic because it was the first time in the history of the Western Hemisphere that the representatives of our community the Inter-American Community sat down at a table together to agree on an expression of political values with such clarity and reach; the political values that are the building blocks of democratic life. The document defines the "essential elements" of "representative democracy" that is to say, the "democratic order" in very specific and inclusive terms, including:

Power in accordance with the rule of law, the holding of periodic, free, and fair elections based on secret balloting and universal suffrage ... pluralistic system of political parties and organizations; ... separation of powers and independence of the branches of government;...freedom of expression and of the press;...constitutional subordination of all state institutions to the legally constituted civilian authority.

A simple recognition of these values would have been a monumental event in and of itself. But, rather than stopping there, they took it a bit further. The Inter-American Community laid out a series of actions to be taken to maintain, support, strengthen, and defend democracy in the region in the event that one of its members should fall to uphold the essential elements of democratic life. The document allows any member state or the Secretary General to trigger a response by the Organization of American States, calling for the "immediate convocation" of a meeting of the Permanent Council to consider the facts, deploy diplomatic efforts, or use other political mediation. …

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