At the Quebec City Summit of the Americas, leaders endorsed the development of an Inter-American Democratic Charter “to reinforce Organization of American States, OAS, instruments for the active defence of representative democracy”. The charter is intended to complement the “democracy clause” in the Quebec City declaration, which establishes that “any unconstitutional alteration or interruption of the democratic order in a state of the hemisphere constitutes an insurmountable obstacle to the participation of that state's government in the Summit of the Americas process”. It thus goes well beyond OAS Resolution 1080, a mechanism for dealing with overthrow by force of democratically elected governments.
Foreign ministers adopted the charter at the XXVIII Special Session of the OAS General Assembly, which was held September 10 and 11, 2001 in Lima, Peru.
The preambular section clearly subordinates the Democratic Charter to the Charter of the OAS and strengthens the link between democracy and human rights. It also adds education, protection of the environment, workers’ rights and economic, social and cultural rights as important elements in strengthening representative democracy.
The term “inter alia” in Article 3 ensures that the list of essential elements of representative democracy outlined in this article is not viewed as exhaustive. The “separation of powers and independence of the branches of government” is covered in Article 3 as an essential element of representative democracy. Article 4 includes language clearly subordinating the military, and all state institutions, to duly elected civilian authorities while the strengthening of political parties and other political organizations appears in Article 5 as a “priority for democracy”. Article 7 states that fundamental freedoms and human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent. Other elements include strong language against all forms of discrimination, race, gender and ethnic, in Article 9, reference to the importance of the protection of workers’ rights in Article 10 and specific mention in Article 28 that the participation of women in political structures is fundamental to democracy.
The central elements of the charter are included in Chapter 4, Articles 17 to 22, “Strengthening and Preservation of Democratic Institutions”. This section reflects the democracy clause from Quebec City and outlines a series of clearly defined, progressively tougher measures to address subtle, and not so subtle, threats to democracy.
The Inter-American Democratic Charter is a new political mechanism which has never been invoked. However, its invocation was considered by the OAS Permanent Council on January 15, 2002, in response to the deteriorating situation in Haiti. Although another solution was found to bolster OAS efforts in Haiti, invocation of the Charter remains a possibility should a lack of progress on Haiti persist.
The charter can be triggered: upon request of a member state for assistance from the Secretary General or Permanent Council; upon request of a member state or of the Secretary General for the convocation of the Permanent Council to assess a given situation; or by the Permanent Council so as to convene a special session of the General Assembly in order to adopt decisions to address a given situation. The situation itself would likely define who would trigger the charter, as outlined in Articles 17 to 22. The charter is a government to government instrument. It cannot be triggered by individuals, however, individuals can bring concerns and complaints about human rights issues to the inter-American system for the promotion and protection of human rights.
While the charter does not apply to the FTAA in that its scope is limited to OAS instruments, the “democracy clause” of the Quebec City declaration applies to all summit products, including the FTAA process and the activities of financial institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank. In addition to the various OAS instruments which support democracy in the hemisphere, the “democracy clause” therefore represents a further commitment to democracy in the conduct of inter-American relations in all areas at the highest political level.
Canada works closely with the major international financial institutions in the western hemisphere to ensure that the development goals of the member countries are met through adequate funding. Should there be an unconstitutional disruption of the democratic order in any of the countries belonging to the Summit of the Americas process, Canada would proceed to make its views known through our membership in the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Caribbean Development Bank, as appropriate. Canada is represented on the boards of directors of all three institutions. Canada has worked and will continue to work with the hemisphere's major funding agencies to develop guidelines for dealing with corruption, transparency and accountability.