Thank you very much for that question.
When we joined the Organization of American States over 20 years ago, one of the first measures Canada took was to establish a unit for the promotion of democracy. It has different names now, but that office has continued to develop and grow. A lot of the expertise so far has been on the observation of elections. The OAS has become very good and very strong in that regard. I think that's a fundamental building block of good democracies.
What we've always promoted, and continue to promote, is that we think the Organization of American States can do more. We believe that capacity-building is the key. Reporting is one thing, particularly by other governments. Being able to empower civil society to bring its government to task regarding what it thinks are abuses or lack of respect for human rights is much more important. We think the Organization of American States should be providing more and more technical assistance. We ourselves are providing moneys in that regard.
The other aspect is that when conditions reach a certain critical point, the OAS needs to become activated. It has a permanent council, and at council meetings that country's representatives, our ambassadors, can make statements. We have done so on several occasions, not only on Venezuela but on others.
Again, we think there should be an opportunity for not only countries but also other branches to bring those points of view. Thus far, it is only when a country's executive brings a critical threat to democracy to the OAS that it is heard. We believe that in this case it should be open to the judiciary as well as to the legislator.
A good example would be in the case of Venezuela, where I think we see a trend line of disrespect for the rights of the judiciary to have a capacity to be completely independent. I would like to see the OAS be open to, as I said, having other branches of the government come forward and be able to lay their concerns in advance of a major rupture, such as we saw take place in Honduras just about a year ago.