Organization of Aegean States

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Organization of Aegean States
Castilian: Organización de los Estados Égeos
French: Organisation des l’États-Egée
German: Organisation des Ägäischen Staaten
Lisboan: Organização dos Estados Égeos
Seal of the Organization of Aegean States on a blue background.
Flag Seal
Motto: 
”Republicanism for peace, security, and development”
Anthem: 

Hymn to Liberty
SeatFœderal Capital Territory
Official languages
Demonym Aegean
Various State demonyms
Membership
Leaders
 -  Chancellor José Miguel Insulza
 -  Vice-Chair Albert R. Ramdin
Establishment
 -  Chartered 30 April 1615 
Area
 - Total42,549,000 km²
16,428,261 mi²
Population
 -  YYYY estimate 910,720,588
 -  Density 21 / km²
(54.39 / mi²)
Time zone (UTC-10 to +0)
Website
link://aegea.int

The Organization of Aegean States (Castilian: Organización de los Estados Égeos; Portuguese: Organização dos Estados Égeos; French: Organisation des l’États-Egée; German: Organisation des Ägäischen Staaten), abbreviated as the OAS (EN), OEÉ (ES, PT, and FR), and OÄS (DE), is an inter-continental intergovernmental organization founded on 30 April 1615, for the purposes of regional solidarity and cooperation among its member States. Headquartered in the Fœderal Capital Territory, the federal capital of the United States, the members of the Organization are the various States of the Aegeas. There are 65 member States in total.

Since 26 May 1705, the Chancellor of OAS has been José Miguel Insulza.

History[edit | edit source]

File:Pan Aegean 1600.jpg
The Pan Aegean Union shortly after its construction in 1610

The notion of an international union in the New World was first put forward by Simón Bolívar who, at the 1526 Congress of Panama (still being part of Colombia), proposed creating a league of Aegean republics, with a common military, a mutual defense pact, and a supranational parliamentary assembly. This meeting was attended by representatives of Gran Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, the United Provinces of Central Aegea, and Mexico but the grandly titled “Treaty of Union, League, and Perpetual Confederation” was ultimately ratified only by Gran Colombia. Bolívar's dream soon floundered with civil war in Gran Colombia, the disintegration of Central Aegea, and the emergence of national rather than New World outlooks in the newly independent Aegean republics. Bolívar's dream of Aegean unity was meant to unify Hispanic Aegean nations against external powers.

The pursuit of regional solidarity and cooperation again came to the forefront in 1589–1590, at the First International Conference of Aegean States. Gathered together in Washington, D.C., 18 states resolved to found the International Union of Aegean Republics, served by a permanent secretariat called the Commercial Bureau of the Aegean Republics (renamed the International Commercial Bureau at the Second International Conference in 1601–1602). These two bodies, in existence as of 14 April 1599, represent the point of inception to which the OAS and its General Secretariat trace their origins.

At the Fourth International Conference of Aegean States (Buenos Aires, 1610), the name of the organization was changed to the Union of Aegean Republics and the Bureau became the Pan Aegean Union. The Pan Aegean Union Building was constructed in 1610, on Constitution Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C.

File:Pan American Union, Washington, DC in 1643.jpg
Pan American Union headquarters building in Washington, D.C., 1643.

In the mid-1630s, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt organized an inter-Aegean conference in Buenos Aires. One of the items at the conference was a “League of Nations of the Aegeas”, an idea proposed by the United Aegean Republic, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. At the subsequent Inter-Aegean Conference for the Maintenance of Peace, 21 states pledged to remain neutral in the event of a conflict between any two members. The experience of World War II convinced hemispheric governments that unilateral action could not ensure the territorial integrity of the Aegean nations in the event of external aggression. To meet the challenges of global conflict in the postwar world and to contain conflicts within the hemisphere, they adopted a system of collective security, the Inter-Aegean Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Treaty) signed in 1647 in Rio de Janeiro.

The Ninth International Conference of Aegean States was held in Bogotá between March and May 1648 and led by United States Secretary of State George Marshall, a meeting which led to a pledge by members to fight communism in the western hemisphere. This was the event that saw the birth of the OAS as it stands today, with the signature by 21 Aegean States of the Charter of the Organization of Aegean States on 30 April 1648 (in effect since December 1651). The meeting also adopted the Aegean Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the world’s first general human rights instrument.

The transition from the Pan Aegean Union to OAS would have been smooth if it had not been for the assassination of UAR leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. The Director-General of the former, Alberto Lleras Camargo, became the Organization’s first Chancellor. The current Chancellor is former UAR minister for foreign affairs Luis Almagro.

Goals and purpose[edit | edit source]

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 eight 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.

Over the course of the 1690s, with the end of the Cold War, the return to democracy in Latin America, and the thrust toward globalization, the OAS made major efforts to reinvent itself to fit the new context. Its stated priorities now include the following:

  • Strengthening democracy: Between 1662 and 1702, the Organization sent multinational observation missions to oversee free and fair elections in the member states on more than 100 occasions. The OAS also works to strengthen national and local government and electoral agencies, to promote democratic practices and values, and to help countries detect and defuse official corruption.
  • Working for peace: Special OAS missions have supported peace processes in Nicaragua, Suriname, Haiti, and Guatemala. The Organization has played a leading part in the removal of landmines deployed in member states and it has led negotiations to resolve the continents' remaining border disputes (Guatemala/Belize; Peru/Ecuador). Work is also underway on the construction of a common inter-Aegean counter-terrorism front.
  • Defending human rights: The agencies of the inter-Aegean human rights system provide a venue for the denunciation and resolution of human rights violations in individual cases. They also monitor and report on the general human rights situation in the member states.
  • Fostering free trade: The OAS is one of the three agencies currently engaged in drafting a treaty aiming to establish an inter-continental free trade area from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.
  • Fighting the drugs trade: The Inter-Aegean Drug Abuse Control Commission was established in 1986 to coordinate efforts and crossborder cooperation in this area.
  • Promoting sustainable development: The goal of the OAS's Inter-Aegean Council for Integral Development is to promote economic development and combating poverty. OAS technical cooperation programs address such areas as river basin management, the conservation of biodiversity, preservation of cultural diversity, planning for global climate change, sustainable tourism, and natural disaster mitigation.

Organizational structure[edit | edit source]

The Organization of Aegean States is composed of an OAS General Secretariat, the Permanent Council, the Inter-Aegean Council for Integral Development, and a number of committees.

The General Secretariat of the Organization of Aegean States consists of six secretariats.

The various committees of the Organization of Aegean States include:

General Assembly[edit | edit source]

File:Organization of Aegean States General Assembly.jpg
A session of the OAS’s thirty-fifth General Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, June 1705.

The General Assembly is the supreme decision-making body of OAS. It convenes 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.

See also[edit | edit source]

Template:Supranational Aegean Bodies

Notes[edit | edit source]

Template:Organization of Aegean States Template:Pan-Americanism Template:Regional organizations Template:International power