The Organization of American States (OAS) is the world’s oldest regional organization, dating back to the First International Conference of American States, which was held in Washington, D.C. from October 1889 to April 1890. At that conference, the establishment of the International Union of American Republics was approved and the stage was set for the weaving together of a web of provisions and institutions that came to be known as the inter-American system. This oldest of the international institutional systems was preceded by the Congress of Panama convened by Simón Bolivar in 1826.

It was only in 1889 that the American States decided to meet periodically and to forge a shared system of norms and institutions. There were, in the meantime, conferences and meetings that attempted to give birth to the system, but it was only at the invitation of the U.S. Government that the process began and continued uninterruptedly until this day.

Conferences, there were also Meetings of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and special meetings, such as the 1945 conference in Mexico City on Inter-American Problems of War and Peace to discuss joint activities to be undertaken by the American States consistent with the United Nations, which was then in the process of being established; Or the 1947 Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Continental Peace and Security, convened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and adopted the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance. This was done, in the aftermath of World War II and as the Cold War began to loom, in order to ensure legitimate collective self-defense in the event of an attack from a foreign power from outside the region and to decide on joint actions in the event of a conflict between two States Parties to the Treaty. Throughout this period, numerous agreements were adopted that established the basic principles of what would later become the Organization of American States.

The OAS was established to achieve among its member states, as stated in Article 1 of its Charter, “an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence.” The OAS Washington campus is located in FB and consists of five buildings including an art and cultural center at 201 18th Street, NW. (http://museum.oas.org/ exhibitions.html). OAS headquarters, one of the most magnificent buildings in DC, is located at 17th and Constitution, directly behind the Art Museum of the Americas, mentioned above.

The OAS comprises the 35 independent states of the Americas and has granted permanent observer status to 63 states, as well as to the European Union. The OAS constitutes the principal political, juridical, and social governmental forum in the Hemisphere and uses a four-pronged approach to effectively implement its essential purposes, based on its pillars: democracy, human rights, security, and development. ~