Assembling for progress.

• Position: Chile hosts 21st General Assembly of the Organization of American States - Includes related article on OAS mission in Suriname

During the first week of June, Santiago, Chile became the diplomatic capital of the Americas when it hosted the twenty-first General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS). Ambassadors, foreign ministers, and delegations from 34 OAS member nations converged on the city to deal with a wide range of issues facing the Hemisphere. The agenda included such important topics as: the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative; the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Multilateral Trade Negotiations; consolidation of democracy and procedures for establishing a lasting peace in Central America; problems relating to illicit use and trafficking of drugs; human rights and juridical issues; and OAS activities in the environmental field.

The purposes of the General Assembly's annual convocation of delegates are numerous: to decide the general action and policy of the Organization; to determine the structure and functions of its organs; to promote economic, social, and cultural collaboration among the members; to consider reports of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs; to adopt general standards; to approve the annual budget; and to establish equitable cost sharing policies among the members. Delegations from all the member states, usually headed by their foreign minister, have a right to be represented in the General Assembly and in all the Councils, (the three Councils of the OAS are the Permanent Council, the Inter-American Economic and Social Council, and the Inter-American Council for Education, Science, and Culture.)

The First Special Session of the General Assembly was held in 1970 in Washington, D.C, under the presidency of the then Secretary of State for Foreign Relations of the Dominican Republic, Fernando Amiama Tio. Prior to the establishment of the General Assembly as the highest organ of the OAS, conferences of American states were held on an annual basis. The International Union of the American Republics, which was created at the First International Conference in 1890, evolved into the Pan...