General_Assembly_of_the_Organization_of_American_States

General Assembly of the Organization of American States

General Assembly of the Organization of American States

Add article description


The General Assembly is the supreme decision-making body of the Organization of American States (OAS).

XXXVIII Regular Meeting – Medellín, 2008.

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.

Regular sessions

More information Rank, Host city ...

See also


References

  1. Palencia, Gustavo (May 28, 2009). "Big quake off Honduras kills 6, crumbles houses". Reuters. Retrieved 2009-05-30. The 39th General Assembly of the Organization of American States(OAS) will be held the week following a 7.3 Mw 2009 Honduras earthquake

Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article General_Assembly_of_the_Organization_of_American_States, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.