The General Assembly is the supreme decision-making body of the Organization of American States (OAS).
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 Meeting | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | San José, Costa Rica | 14–23 April 1971 |
| 2nd | Washington, D.C., USA | 11–21 April 1972 |
| 3rd | Washington, D.C., USA | 4–15 April 1973 |
| 4th | Atlanta, Georgia, USA | 19 April – 1 May 1974 |
| 5th | Washington, D.C., USA | 8–19 May 1975 |
| 6th | Santiago, Chile | 4–18 June 1976 |
| 7th | St. George's, Grenada | 14–22 June 1977 |
| 8th | Washington, D.C., USA | 21 June – 1 July 1978 |
| 9th | La Paz, Bolivia | 22–31 October 1979 |
| 10th | Washington, D.C., USA | 19–26 November 1980 |
| 11th | Castries, Saint Lucia | 2–11 December 1981 |
| 12th | Washington, D.C., USA | 15–21 December 1982 |
| 13th | Washington, D.C., USA | 14–18 November 1983 |
| 14th | Brasília, Brazil | 12–17 November 1984 |
| 15th | Cartagena, Colombia | 5–9 December 1985 |
| 16th | Guatemala City, Guatemala | 11–15 November 1986 |
| 17th | Washington, D.C., USA | 9–14 November 1987 |
| 18th | San Salvador, El Salvador | 14–19 November 1988 |
| 19th | Washington, D.C., USA | 13–18 November 1989 |
| 20th | Asunción, Paraguay | 4–8 June 1990 |
| 21st | Santiago, Chile | 3–8 June 1991 |
| 22nd | Nassau, Bahamas | 18–23 May 1992 |
| 23rd | Managua, Nicaragua | 7–11 June 1993 |
| 24th | Belém do Pará, Brazil | 6–10 June 1994 |
| 25th | Montrouis, Haiti | 5–9 June 1995 |
| 26th | Panama City, Panama | 3–7 June 1996 |
| 27th | Lima, Peru | 1–5 June 1997 |
| 28th | Caracas, Venezuela | 1–3 June 1998 |
| 29th | Guatemala City, Guatemala | 6–8 June 1999 |
| 30th | Windsor, Ontario, Canada | 4–6 June 2000 |
| 31st | San José, Costa Rica | 3–5 June 2001 |
| 32nd | Bridgetown, Barbados | 2–4 June 2002 |
| 33rd | Santiago, Chile | 8–10 June 2003 |
| 34th | Quito, Ecuador | 6–8 June 2004 |
| 35th | Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA | 5–7 June 2005 |
| 36th | Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic | 4–6 June 2006 |
| 37th | Panama City, Panama | 3–5 June 2007 |
| 38th | Medellín, Colombia | 1–3 June 2008 |
| 39th | San Pedro Sula, Honduras | 2–3 June 2009 |
| 40th | Lima, Peru | 6–8 June 2010 |
| 41st | San Salvador, El Salvador | 5–7 June 2011 |
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“If men would avoid that general language and general manner in which they strive to hide all that is peculiar and would say only what was uppermost in their own minds after their own individual manner, every man would be interesting.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There is a sacred horror about everything grand. It is easy to admire mediocrity and hills; but whatever is too lofty, a genius as well as a mountain, an assembly as well as a masterpiece, seen too near, is appalling.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“The methods by which a trade union can alone act, are necessarily destructive; its organization is necessarily tyrannical.”
—Henry George (1839–1897)
“We talked about and that has always been a puzzle to me
why American men think that success is everything
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if they are not why do they not keep on being
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—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Mr. Christian, it is about time for many people to begin to come to the White House to discuss different phases of the coal strike. When anybody comes, if his special problem concerns the state, refer him to the governor of Pennsylvania. If his problem has a national phase, refer him to the United States Coal Commission. In no event bring him to me.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)