Inter-American Democratic Charter - Background

Background

Beginning in the 1980s, and especially after the Cold War, as international interest in multilateral action in support of human rights and democracy resulted in several conventions and treaties at the United Nations 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 "he 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 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 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.