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instrument of ratification has been deposited, the Convention shall enter into force on the thirtieth day following the date on which that State deposits its instrument of ratification or accession.

Article 23

This Convention shall remain in force indefinitely, but may be denounced by any State Party. The instrument of denunciation shall be deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States. After one year from the date of deposit of the instrument of denunciation, this Convention shall cease to be in effect for the denouncing State but shall remain in force for the remaining States Parties.

Article 24

The original instrument of this Convention, the English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish texts of which are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, which shall send a certified copy to the Secretariat of the United Nations for registration and publication, in accordance with the provisions of Article 102 of the United Nations Charter. The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States shall notify the member states of the Organization and the states that have acceded to the Convention of signatures and of deposits of instruments of ratification, accession, and denunciation, as well as reservations, if any.

INTER-AMERICAN CONVENTION TO PREVENT
AND PUNISH TORTURE, 1985

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Source: Department of Legal Affairs, General Secretariat of the Organization

of American States.

Entry into Force: February 28, 1987.

78-578 0 - 89 - 8

II. AN OVERVIEW OF THE INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM
AND THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
(OAS) *

A. Evolution of the Inter-American System

THE INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM

The Honduran writer, journalist, and politician José Cecilio del Valle, born in 1821, left works that establish him as a precursor of the inter-American system. In his Americanist doctrine José Cecilio del Valle uses the expression "the American system" and describes it as an "ordered collection of principles that should mold American political conduct...." The inter-American system is, in fact, based on an order of law, and on international commitments and agreements through which it has succeeded in achieving a seemingly impossible equilibrium between power and weakness. It has been built on the incredible premise that mighty nations and small ones have the same right to live together in peace, free from intervention in their domestic affairs or from external pressure.

The Charter of the Organization of American States is the basic document of the System-its most important set of institutional principles. But the System goes beyond the limits of the Charter itself because it is a juridicalpolitical reality, alive, in constant evolution, capable of becoming at all times a source of new rights and reciprocal obligations.

Another great Americanist, whose thought and work contributed decisively to shaping his nation and founding American international law, was the Argentine Juan Bautista Alberdi, born in 1810. Alberdi's many works demonstrate the need for economic and juridical cooperation within the American nations. Among these works mention should be made of Memoria sobre la Conveniencia y Objetos de un Congreso General Americano (Essay on the Advisability and Purposes of a General American Congress), 1844. In this writing, published by the University of Chile in 1844, Alberdi enumerates the following steps that suggest the magnitude of his Americanist vision:

Settlement of the territorial boundaries among the
American nations

• Protection of commerce

• Founding of a hemisphere bank and public credit

• Construction of international roads

• Extradition of criminals, except persons accused of
political crimes

• Arms limitations

• Establishment of a tribunal of international peace

• Determination of American international law

• Prevention and regulation of war

• Promotion of land settlement programs

• Construction of a trans-Andean railroad

* Source: The OAS and the Evolution of the Inter-American System, Department of Public Information, General Secretariat, OAS, with lettered subheadings added by CRS. This publication explains the structure and operation of the OAS before the entry into force, on November 16, 1988, of. the 1985 Protocol of Cartagena de Indias which amended the OAS Charter.

In Henry Clay the United States had a staunch defender of the rights of Latin American countries to become independent. Henry Clay was born in 1777. He was a member of the House of Representatives, an ardent partisan in the War of 1812 against Britain, Secretary of State under John Quincy Adams, and a thrice defeated presidential candidate. Contrary to the prevailing opinion of his day Henry Clay felt it was incumbent upon the United States to reconcile its interests with those of its sister republics of the Hemisphere toward the attainment of the common goals of democracy and progress. He was able to visualize the great advantage of a Hemisphere united.

Those men of thought and men of action, such as Simón Bolívar, Venezuelan heroe and liberator of much of South America, formed the beginnings of the interAmerican system.

The Congress of Panama, convoked by Simón Bolívar in 1826, although it failed to achieve its desired objective, marked the first step towards continental solidarity and the creation of the inter-American system. The Treaty of Perpetual Union, League and Confederation, signed in Panama during the Congress, was not only the forerunner of today's Organization of American States but also the League of Nations and the United Nations.

FIRST FRUITS OF UNITY

The Treaty of the Congress of Panama was ratified only by Colombia (then Gran Colombia, which included also Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela), with the result that the ideal of regional solidarity did not materialize until 1889-90, when the First International Conference of American States was held in Washington, D.C.

The Conference, presided over by the U.S. Secretary of State, James G. Blaine, transformed the sense of hemispheric unity into a reality, establishing the International Union of American Republics and its permanent secretariat, the Commercial Bureau of the American Republics.

TOWARDS CONTINENTAL SOLIDARITY

Of all of the developments that contributed to the unity of the American republics during the first 50 years of their association, the revolution in communications proved to be one of the most important. The Panama Canal, for example, facilitated direct contact between many countries that had previously remained relatively isolated from each other. The plan for an inter-American railroad system, strongly endorsed in 1890, evolved into the Pan American Highway, one of the towering achievements of inter-American cooperation. As communications shortened the vast distances between the countries, it became only a matter of hours for delegates. to travel to inter-American conferences, which were held with increasing frequency. By 1910 it was clear that the young regional organization required new and larger quarters and a name that would symbolize the new ties of solidarity. In that year the Commercial Bureau became the Pan American Union and found a new home in a magnificent building in Washington, D.C., which has become known throughout the Hemisphere as the "House of the Americas." Here due tribute should be paid to Andrew Carnegie, the U.S. philantropist who, together

with the member countries, made substantial financial contributions towards the construction of the building.

As the conferences grew in number, the base of the regional system was broadened beyond purely commercial and juridical matters, and new specialized agencies were created to handle regional cooperation in fields far broader than the traditional ones.

TWO WORLD WARS THREATEN
AND UNIFY THE HEMISPHERE

Despite their progress towards regional solidarity, the American republics were unprepared to meet the challenges of global war and the danger of possible aggression from abroad. Whereas each nation jealously safeguarded its own sovereignty, it became clear that unilateral action could not insure the territorial integrity of the American nations in the event of foreign aggression; and it was also evident that conflicts among them enhanced their vulnerability to such attacks.

This situation led to the adoption of a system of collective security, culminating in the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (also known as the "Rio Treaty,") that was signed in 1947 in Rio de Janeiro.

A CHARTER FOR THE
INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM

Having formed their security system, the American governments then drafted an "Organic Pact" designed to give their regional organization a legal structure. This document, which was submitted to the Ninth International Conference of American States in Bogotá, Colombia (1948), was carefully studied and then adopted as the Charter of the Organization of American States, the new name for the regional association.

In addition to consolidating all of the principles of inter-American law previously sanctioned by the organization, the Charter reaffirmed the fundamental rights and duties of states, and set up the organs and agencies needed for the functioning of the OAS. The InterAmerican Conference, for example, was designated the supreme body for formulating policies and determining the role of OAS entities; the Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs was to decide upon urgent matters of common concern to the American States; the Council was to carry out the policies and supervise the activities of the OAS through three technical organs: the Inter-American Economic and Social Council, the InterAmerican Cultural Council, and the Inter-American Council of Jurists. The Pan American Union became the permanent general secretariat, and the specialized conferences and organizations were authorized to deal with specific matters within their fields.

The Ninth Conference also approved two instruments of special importance for the future of the OAS: the American Treaty on Pacific Settlement (Pact of Bogotá), which codified the numerous methods and procedures of pacific settlement and replaced all previous treaties and conventions on this subject, and the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the first international document of its kind.

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