The Latin American Parliament (''Parlatino'') is a regional, permanent organization composed by the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is a consultative assembly similar to the early European Parliament. Currently the institution is being considered to become the legislative organ of the

Community of Latin American and Caribbean States A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

Origins, mandate, principles and purpose

The Latin American Parliament (''Parlatino'') was created in 1964. Its current mandate is derived from the Treaty of Institutionalization which was ratified on 16 November 1987. Situated in

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

, the ''Parlatino'' has 23 member parliaments, each of which sends to it 12 nominated

plenipotentiaries A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the word ' ...

. The plenipotentiaries must represent the views of their parent parliament, and take into consideration the principles of the Parliament which include the defence of democracy and the further intergeneration of Latin America. The purposes of the ''Parlatino'' are: *To promote, human rights, and economic and social development; *To maintain and foster relations with other "geographic parliaments" (such as the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, as well as international organisations); *To promote self-determination and defence against imperialism and colonialism.

Institutions

The main institutions of the ''Parlatino'' are: *The

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...

Plenary Assembly which meets annually; *The Board of Directors of the Plenary Assembly which is chaired by the President of the Assembly and oversees the work of the ''Parlatino'' between the Assembly's sessions. *In 2009 there were thirteen permanent committees: **Cattle-raising and fisheries; **Citizen safety, combat and prevention of narcotraffic, terrorism and organized crime; **Economic affairs, social debt and regional development; **Education, culture, science, technology and communication; **Energy and mines; **Environment and tourism; **Gender equity, childhood and youth; **Health; **Human rights, justice and prison policies; **Indigenous peoples and ethnic groups; **Labour, social security and legal affairs; **Political, municipal and integration affairs; **Utilities and defence of users and consumers.

Members

As of 2013, the following countries and territories are members of the Latin American Parliament:Informaciones de los Países Miembros
Parlatino.org

Notes

References

* * *

External links

* official site in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...