60 moments in time: 1948-2008: the Organization of American States commemorates 60 years of promoting solidarity and peace in the hemisphere.

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SIXTY YEARS AGO, IN BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, representatives of the nations of the Americas articulated the principles that for more than half a century have guided the work of the Organization of American States (OAS). The signing of the OAS Charter--on April 30, 1948--marked a milestone in a history that nevertheless dates back much further and that justifies calling the OAS the oldest regional organization in the world.

Its creation, in 1948, was simply the reflection and manifestation of a vision as old as the countries of the Americas themselves--even predating most of them. Antecedents can be found in Francisco de Miranda's Open Letter to South Americans, in 1791; in the 1811 Declaration of the Rights of the People of Chile; in the liberator Simon Bolivar's Letter from Jamaica, written in 1815; and in the idea for a "human freedom league" of the Americas, proposed in 1820 by US House of Representatives Speaker Henry Clay.

This aspiration was first formalized in the "Amphictyonic Congress" of Panama, convened in 1826 by Bolivar, and was a recurring theme of various other attempted meetings. These efforts culminated with the success of the First International Conference of American States, held in Washington from October 2, 1889, to April 19, 1890. That meeting created the Bureau of American Republics and the Columbus Memorial Library; the latter continues to be the repository of our Organization's institutional memory.

In 1910, the Bureau of American Republics created a permanent secretariat called the Pan American Union, the direct predecessor of today's Organization of American States. These entities became the framework for the institutions, concepts, legal norms, and common principles of conduct that we now call the "inter-American system" and that to this day govern and guide relations among the states and peoples of the Americas. Among the institutions that trace their origins to that period are the Pan American Health Organization, the Inter-American Commission of Women, the Inter-American Juridical Committee, the Inter-American Indigenous Institute, and the Inter-American Children's Institute. That era produced such ideas as human rights protection, the defense of democracy, the peaceful settlement of disputes, regional free trade, the juridical equality of states, and the principle of nonintervention--notions developed long before they were recognized by other regions of the world.

It is that tradition to which the OAS and its founding Charter are heirs, one of coming together, of understanding, and of peace. That tradition overlies any possible differences, disputes, or conflicts that may arise among nations sharing the same broad geographical expanse and explains how it is that, for the last 120 years, our hemisphere has enjoyed conditions of peace and stability practically unheard of in the international arena during this period. This aspiration toward unity is so old and deeply rooted that it has no parallel in the history of any other region or continent. It is a tradition, in short, that explains why the Organization not only has survived as the hemisphere's primary and longest-lasting political forum, but has expanded, growing from the 21 countries that signed the Charter in Bogota to 35 members today, with the integration of the English-speaking Caribbean countries and Canada.

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The OAS is the only regional organization in which a global superpower and permanent member of the United Nations Security Council interacts with countries that don't even have formal armies. Within the OAS, some of the world's richest countries are seated at the same table--with full equality under the law--as some of the poorest, and all decisions are adopted by consensus or majority vote, with no possibility of a veto. It is, above all, the principal repository of inter-American law. When declarations or resolutions are created in other arenas, frequently the OAS Charter or inter-American conventions are cited as legal precedents.

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We cannot fail to recognize, however, that for a long period of its existence, the OAS divorced itself from the essential reference points that guided its creation, setting these aside to meet other objectives in the context of the so-called Cold War. During this period, it even endorsed regimes that came to power by overthrowing democratically elected governments and that often practiced systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

But we have left that situation forever behind. Today we can affirm that for nearly two decades, the Organization has been going through a new phase, one that began with the adoption, in June 1991, of Resolution 1080. The following year, in December 1992, it took an even more decisive step by adopting the Protocol of Washington, which amended the OAS Charter and declared the democratic system to be an obligation of the member states and a condition for membership and continued participation in the inter-American system.

The loftiest expression of this new era for the OAS came in the form of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, approved in September 2001. The Democratic Charter not only defines the OAS instruments that may be used to defend and strengthen democracy; it also accents the relationship between democracy and economic development, establishing that these processes are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. The Democratic Charter also states explicitly that poverty and illiteracy, as well as environmental degradation and a lack of adequate education, are factors that have a negative impact on the development of democracy. Just as vigorously, it commits governments to promote and observe economic and social rights, and to respect the rights of workers. And it doesn't stop there, but goes on to condemn all forms of discrimination and commits the signatory states to promote the full and equal participation of women in the political structures of society.

Since the adoption of the Democratic Charter, the OAS has not let up in its efforts to reaffirm the democratic process, cognizant that it is only within the democratic system that the women and men of the Americas can realize their hopes for freedom, justice, and social, economic, and cultural development.

Democracy has prevailed in our region for nearly two decades. Although there have been political crises in some countries, these have been resolved within each country's constitutional and institutional framework. Moreover, international harmony and the...