Screening of General Assembly Mandates

As mandated by the Permanent Council

CP/doc.4687/12 rev.2

Background

In September 2008, the OAS General Assembly reiterated the mandates adopted at its thirty-eighth regular session by resolution AG/RES. 2437 (XXXVIII-O/08) regarding the process of preparing the program-budget and, at the same time, ordered an in-depth examination of all the Organization’s revenue and expenditure in the context of its current mandates in order to establish priorities and optimize the use of funds for future program-budgets, within the capacity of the member states to finance them.

The first inventory of mandates (CP/CAAP-2968/08) was presented in 2008; however, its scope was too limited as it only identified the 537 mandates issued by the General Assembly session in Panama.

The report on that inventory (CP/CAAP-2977/08 add. 1 corr. 1) defined what constitutes a mandate, and the first situation review of the Organization’s mandates was prepared.

The first list of mandates arranged by pillar and subpillar (CP/CAAP-3030/09 rev. 1) was presented toward the end of 2009; it identified more than 1,700 mandates from 1935 to 2008.

In 2010 and 2011 a number of mandate reviews were conducted using different schemes (active and inactive mandates, mandates classified by costing and with no funding assigned, and mandates by pillar, by subpillar and by set of mandates).

The above reflects the complexity of the mandate issue at the OAS.

Near the end of 2011, the Working Group on the Review of OAS Programs established an informal working group to analyze the mandates from a different perspective and design a scheme for screening them.

In the Draft Procedure and Schedule of the Strategic Vision of the OAS, the Permanent Council instructed the Working Group to finalize the scheme for screening the mandates issued by the General Assembly over the past five years, with a view to consolidating all current mandates in a single document.

This report (CP/CAAP-3175/12) and its addendums contain an analysis of the mandates based on the scheme used by the Working Group on the Review of OAS Programs, which were approved by the CAAP in accordance with the mandate of the Permanent Council.

Inventory of Mandates

Mandates Recorded 1935-2011

2,370

1935-2006

925

2007-2011

1,445

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

328

326

255

259

277

Mandates 2007–2011

1,445

General Assembly mandates

Mandates from other legal instruments

96 1,349Inter-American Programs

Plans of Action

Communiqués of Meetings of Ministers and High Authorities

Work Plans

Method

a) Mandates with expired deadlines for implementation

b) Mandates with currency solely during the budgetary cycle, under Art. 83 of the General Standards

c) Mandates created for an event that has concluded

Expired

AG/RES. 2372 (XXXVIII-O/08)

Coordination of Volunteers in the Hemisphere in response to Natural Disasters and the Fight against Hunger and Poverty – White Helmets Initiative

No. 13 To request the General Secretariat to report to the General Assembly at its fortieth regular session on the implementation of this resolution, the execution of which shall be subject to the availability of financial resources in the program-budget of the Organization and other resources.

AG/RES. 2353 (XXXVII-O/07)

Program-budget of the Organization for 2008, Quotas and Contributions to FEMCIDI for 2008

No. III, B, 14

14. HonorariaTo maintain the sum of US$150 a day for the honoraria paid to members of the following bodies entitled to such payment: Administrative Tribunal, Board of External Auditors, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Inter-American Juridical Committee, and Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

AG/RES. 2341 (XXXVII-O/07)

Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials

No. 4 To convene, in the framework of the Consultative Committee of the CIFTA, the Third Meeting of the OAS Group of Experts to Prepare Model Legislation in the Areas to Which the CIFTA Refers, for October 15 and 16, 2007, to consider draft model legislation on legislative measures, pursuant to Article IV of the Convention.

d) Mandates corresponding to observations and recommendations on the annual reports of autonomous and decentralized organs, such as the:

• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights• Inter-American Court of Human Rights• Inter-American Juridical Committee

Duplicates

Mandates whose text repeats identically over several years

2007 AG/RES. 2271 (XXXVII-O/07)

Protecting Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism

No. 4 To request the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to continue promoting respect for and the defense of human rights and facilitating efforts by member states to comply appropriately with their international human rights commitments when developing and executing counterterrorist measures, including the rights of persons who might be at a disadvantage, subject to discrimination, or at risk as a result of terrorist violence or counterterrorist initiatives, and to report to the Permanent Council on the advisability of conducting a follow-up study.

2008 AG/RES. 2415 (XXXVIII-O/08)

Protecting Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms While Countering Terrorism

No. 9 To request the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to continue promoting respect for and the defense of human rights and facilitating efforts by member states to comply appropriately with their international human rights commitments when developing and executing counterterrorist measures, including the rights of persons who might be at a disadvantage, subject to discrimination, or at risk as a result of terrorist violence or counterterrorist initiatives, and to report to the Permanent Council on the advisability of conducting a follow-up study.

2009 AG/RES. 2512 (XXXIX-O/09)

Protecting Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms While Countering Terrorism

No. 10 To request the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to continue promoting respect for and the defense of human rights and facilitating efforts by member states to comply appropriately with their international human rights commitments when developing and executing counterterrorist measures, including the rights of persons who might be at a disadvantage, subject to discrimination, or at risk as a result of terrorist violence or counterterrorist initiatives, and to report to the Permanent Council on the advisability of conducting a follow-up study.

2011 AG/RES. 2676 (XLI-O/11)

Protecting Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms While Countering Terrorism

No. 13 To request the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to continue promoting respect for and the defense of human rights and facilitating efforts by member states to comply appropriately with their international human rights commitments when developing and executing counterterrorist measures, including the rights of persons who might be at a disadvantage, subject to discrimination, or at risk as a result of terrorist violence or counterterrorist initiatives, and to report to the Permanent Council on the advisability of conducting a follow-up study.

Procedure

Mandates whose actions for implementation have been as incorporated as working or reporting methods in areas of the General Secretariat.

AG/RES. 2338 (XXXVII-O/07

Support for and Follow-up to the Summits of the Americas Process

No. 10 To request the General Secretariat to submit to the Permanent Council systematic and detailed information on the budgetary and financial management of said Specific Fund.

AG/RES. 2514 (XXXIX-O/09)

Access to Public Information: Strengthening Democracy

No. 12 To instruct the Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression of the IACHR to continue to include in the Commission’s Annual Report a report on the situation regarding access to public information in the region.

Not mandates

Do not entail actions to be carried out by the Secretary General and do not meet the terms of document CP/CAAP-2977/8 add. 1 defining a mandate “as a request for action by the OAS General Secretariat, which originates in a resolution of the General Assembly.”

2010 AG/RES. 2535 (XL-O/10)

Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials

No. 3 To encourage the member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) to implement, as appropriate, the aforementioned model legislation, and to request the assistance of the Technical Secretariat, where appropriate, in the development and enactment of this model legislation.

CAJP

CSH

CIDI

CAAP

CEAM

SUMMITS

Democracy and Governance

Human Rights

Multidimensional Security

Integral Development

Policy Direction

Support to member states

Administration

Infrastructure and Common Costs

Organizational Pillars Permanent Council Committees

Result

1,349 mandates

Expired Duplicates Not Mandates Procedure Current

649 mandates

Distribution of mandates by Permanent Council committee

MANDATESCAJP CSH CIDI CAAP CEAM SUMMITS TOTAL

Current 207 190 139 72 21 20 649Expired 126 48 53 228 2 8 465Duplicates 126 38 20 2 39 225Not mandates 3 1 1 5Procedure 3 1 1 5

TOTAL 465 277 214 302 23 68 1,349

COMMITTEE