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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 The Organization of American States (OAS or OEA; ; ; ) is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, the OAS is ...
, held in
Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...
,
Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
. It is an inter-American instrument with the central aim of strengthening and upholding democratic institutions in the nations of the
Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...
. 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.


Background

Beginning in the 1980s, and especially after the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
, as international interest in multilateral action in support of human rights and democracy resulted in several conventions and treaties at the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
and other regional organizations of states, the Organization of American States held a series of diplomatic conferences on the issue of democracy. Democracy is one of the foundational principles of the OAS, and it was enshrined in its charter from the beginning. In 1985, the Protocol of Cartagena de Indias strengthened the charter's original language on democracy by asserting that "representative democracy is an indispensable condition for the stability, peace and development of the region" and " e solidarity of the American States and the high aims which are sought through it require the political organization of those States on the basis of the effective exercise of representative democracy". However, the charter also exhorts the organization to promote democracy "with due respect for the principle of nonintervention," and lacks any mechanism for collective action among the states in defense of democracy. The Carter Center's Americas Program advised the
Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS or OEA; ; ; ) is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, the OAS is ...
on the development of the document. The General Assembly special session in Lima at which the Democratic Charter was adopted was the reason why United States Secretary of State
Colin Powell Colin Luther Powell ( ; – ) was an Americans, American diplomat, and army officer who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American to hold the office. He was the 15th National Security ...
was absent from his country during the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001; he cut short his participation at the meeting and departed Lima for Washington, D.C., shortly after midday.


Provisions

Article 1 frames the purpose and goal of the Charter: :"The peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy and their governments have an obligation to promote and defend it." Title IV establishes how the Organization is to react following "an unconstitutional interruption of the democratic order or an unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that seriously impairs the democratic order in a member state." Article 19 states that such an interruption or alteration constitutes "an insurmountable obstacle to its government's participation in sessions of the General Assembly, the Meeting of Consultation, the Councils of the Organization, the specialized conferences, the commissions, working groups, and other bodies of the Organization." Consequently, Article 20 provides that following such a breakdown in a member state's constitutional regime, any other member state or the Secretary General may request the immediate convocation of the Organization's Permanent Council to undertake a collective assessment of the situation and to take such decisions as it deems appropriate. Should the Permanent Council's diplomatic efforts prove fruitless in re-establishing the constitutional order, or if the situation is deemed particularly urgent, a special session of the General Assembly may be convened to address the matter. That special session may then resolve, by a two-thirds vote of the member states, to suspend the membership of the state in question. Once the situation that led to suspension has been resolved, the suspended member may be re-instated by a two-thirds vote of the General Assembly. The Charter contains additional provisions dealing with actions to be adopted by member states to promote a culture of democracy within their countries, and it sets a framework for the conduction of the OAS's electoral observation missions in the member states.


Applications


Venezuela, 2002

The Inter-American Democratic Charter was formally invoked for the first time in April 2002 on the occasion of the attempted coup d'état in Venezuela that temporarily removed President Hugo Chávez from office on 11 April. The
Heads of State A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...
of 19 Rio Group nations were holding a summit in San José, Costa Rica, when news of the coup broke and were able to issue a joint statement on 12 April condemning the attempted takeover and calling for a special session of the General Assembly to be held. One of the leaders who issued an immediate call for a special session was Mexican President Vicente Fox – himself no supporter of Chávez's policies and who would three years later recall his country's ambassador from
Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...
after Chávez called his Mexican counterpart a "puppy dog of the
Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
". As it transpired, Chávez was returned to power before any further steps could be taken to convene the General Assembly.


Honduras, 2009

The Inter-American Democratic Charter was not invoked again until the coup d'état in Honduras in June 2009. U.S. President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
referred to the Charter in his statement regarding the coup. Obama stated he believed that the coup was in violation of the Charter.


Venezuela, 2014

On the one-month anniversary of continued protests and political unrest in Venezuela, the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, said in a hearing before the House of Representatives that the United States was prepared to invoke the Democratic Charter on Venezuela if necessary.


Venezuela, 2016

On 19 May, the National Assembly of Venezuela formally asked Organization of American States Secretary General Luis Almagro to apply the Inter-American Democratic Charter in view of the country's economic and political situation, including the economic crisis, the de facto control by President Maduro of the judicial and electoral branches of government, a decree of "state of exception and economic emergency" passed without parliamentary approval, and threats made by President Maduro to close down the National Assembly and prevent a recall referendum promoted by the opposition. On 31 May, despite considerable criticism from left-wing countries, Almagro called an emergency meeting that could have potentially resulted in Venezuela's expulsion from the OAS.


Peru, 2023

Due to concerns with the Congress of Peru consolidating power of Peru's institutions regarding the restructuring of the National Board of Justice (JNJ), the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), Due Process of Law Foundation, Fundación Construir, Fundación para la Justicia y el Estado Democrático de Derecho (FJEDD),
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...
, the International Commission of Jurists, Observatorio Derechos y Justicia (ODJ), Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and the Washington Office on Latin America, demanded the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.


See also

* African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance * Ushuaia Protocol


References


External links


Inter-American Democratic Charter
(full text)

{{Authority control Democracy Organization of American States 2001 documents