62
Resolution
The Organization of American States
2. Based on the proposals in the aforementioned report, to recommend to the
General Assembly that it support the applicability of international law to state
operations in cyberspace through the approval of the following statement:
The OAS General Assembly affirms that international law, including the United Nations Charter in its entirety, the OAS Charter,
international humanitarian law, international human rights law,
the duty of non-intervention, the sovereign equality of states,
and the law of state responsibility, is applicable to the use of
information and communication technologies (ICT) by States
and those for whom States are internationally responsible.
3. To request the Department of International Law, in its capacity as Technical
Secretariat of the Inter-American Juridical Committee, to present to the CJI a
proposal to support or undertake training activities for various actors on the
application of international law to cyberspace.
4. To keep the theme on its agenda and broaden its scope beyond the themes
of international law related to international peace and security to encompass
other international legal regimes.
This resolution was unanimously approved at the regular session on the 7th
August 2020, in the presence of the following members: Drs. Luis García-Corrochano Moyano, Eric P. Rudge, Mariana Salazar Albornoz, José Antonio
Moreno Rodríguez, Milenko Bertrand-Galindo Arriagada, Duncan B. Hollis,
Alix Richard, George Rodrigo Bandeira Galindo, Miguel A. Espeche-Gil, Íñigo
Salvador Crespo and Ruth Correa Palacio.
The Organization of American States (OAS) is the world’s oldest regional
organization, dating back to the First International Conference of American States, held
in Washington, D.C., from October 1889 to April 1890. At that meeting the establishment
of the International Union of American Republics was approved. The Charter of the OAS
was signed in Bogotá in 1948 and entered into force in December 1951. The Charter was
subsequently amended by the Protocol of Buenos Aires, signed in 1967, which entered
into force in February 1970; by the Protocol of Cartagena de Indias, signed in 1985, which
entered into force in November 1988; by the Protocol of Managua, signed in 1993, which
entered into force on January 29, 1996; and by the Protocol of Washington, signed in 1992,
which entered into force on September 25, 1997. The OAS currently has 35 member states.
In addition, the Organization has granted permanent observer status to a number of states,
as well as to the European Union.
The essential purposes of the OAS are: to strengthen peace and security in the Hemisphere;
to promote and consolidate representative democracy, with due respect for the principle of
nonintervention; to prevent possible causes of difficulties and to ensure peaceful settlement
of disputes that may arise among the member states; to provide for common action on the
part of those states in the event of aggression; to seek the solution of political, juridical,
and economic problems that may arise among them; to promote, by cooperative action,
their economic, social, and cultural development; and to achieve an effective limitation of
conventional weapons that will make it possible to devote the largest amount of resources
to the economic and social development of the member states.
The Organization of American States accomplishes its purposes by means of: the General
Assembly; the Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs; the Councils (the
Permanent Council and the Inter-American Council for Integral Development); the InterAmerican Juridical Committee; the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; the
General Secretariat; the specialized conferences; the specialized organizations; and other
entities established by the General Assembly.
The General Assembly holds a regular session once a year. Under special circumstances
it meets in special session. The Meeting of Consultation is convened to consider urgent
matters of common interest and to serve as Organ of Consultation under the InterAmerican Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Treaty), the main instrument for joint action
in the event of aggression. The Permanent Council takes cognizance of such matters as are
entrusted to it by the General Assembly or the Meeting of Consultation and implements
the decisions of both organs when their implementation has not been assigned to any
other body; it monitors the maintenance of friendly relations among the member states
and the observance of the standards governing General Secretariat operations; and it also
acts provisionally as Organ of Consultation under the Rio Treaty. The General Secretariat is
the central and permanent organ of the OAS. The headquarters of both the Permanent
Council and the General Secretariat are in Washington, D.C.
Member States: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, The Bahamas (Commonwealth
of), Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba,
Dominica (Commonwealth of), Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada,
Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
© Organization of American States
Inter-American Juridical Committee
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