Canada at the OAS: 20 Years of Sustained Commitment

Every week in the Simón Bolívar Hall of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Organization’s Permanent Council undertakes the work of debate, exchange of information and conflict resolution that contributes to a safer, more egalitarian and democratic hemisphere. The debate commonly centers on issues such as the support for free and fair elections, the defense of human rights, social and integral development, and legal cooperation between countries. Thirty-three active member states take part in this important task, and for two decades, Canada has been actively participating in building consensus and in bridging discordant positions in the Organization’s daily work.

Canada joined the OAS in January 1990, and since then it has not only been participating and supporting the numerous efforts of the OAS, but also providing human capacity to the General Secretariat, whose diverse daily activities complement and strengthen each other to fulfill the Organization’s mandates. In the years since, the Organization’s northernmost neighbor has made significant contributions to the work of the Organization. Today Canada has an immense list of accomplishments and therefore good reasons to celebrate.

Canada’s decision to join the OAS was not easy. As M. Brian Mulroney, then Canada’s Prime Minister, put it recently during the marking of his country’s 20th anniversary joining the OAS as a full member, “Our decision to join the OAS was not universally applauded either within or without the government.” At that time, Canada had been an OAS Permanent Observer for 18 years—meaning it had participated in OAS activities and contributed to its programs in a limited way.

Being a free nation of the Western Hemisphere, it was eligible to become an OAS Member State, but many in Canada doubted whether it was in their best interests to do so. Today, Canada is the second largest financial supporter of the OAS after the United States, and has made important contributions to the Organization’s work, particularly in the areas of democracy, human rights and hemispheric security.

For example, Canada’s first initiative as a full member of the Organization was to help set up the “Unit for the Promotion of Democracy” or UPD, which was established to provide requesting Member States with advisory services and technical assistance to support the preservation and strengthening of their political institutions and democratic processes. Among the UPD’s main areas of action were the strengthening of electoral and legislative institutions and processes (including electoral observation), and other activities related to democratic education. Ambassador Graeme C. Clark, Canada’s Permanent Representative to the OAS, explained that the UPD “was the precursor of what we know today as the Secretariat for Political Affairs,” and explains that the work the Unit and the Secretariat have done is, “we would like to think, one of the principal things that we have brought to the table.”

In the same context, Canada was instrumental in the establishment in 2001 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which makes democracy an explicit condition of OAS membership, and of the Declaration on Security in the Americas in 2003, which creates a multi-dimensional security framework for the region.

Currently, Canada chairs the OAS Permanent Council’s Committee on Hemispheric Security, which supports OAS efforts against human trafficking and transnational organized crime, among others, and in natural disaster reduction. It has also helped to fund the Organization’s demining efforts, which has contributed to the goal of declaring Central America a mine-free zone.

In a similar manner, Canada has also offered voluntary financial contributions to strengthen the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and chairs the Working Group on the Review of OAS Programs that seeks to improve the priority-setting process and help the Organization focus on greater accountability in the current context of limited financial resources.

Through its Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Canada has made further contributions to the OAS and its Member States. CIDA has supported OAS initiatives and projects in a wide variety of areas, such as socioeconomic development, human rights, gender equality, and corporate social responsibility; and it has provided financial assistance to countries in crisis, such as, most recently, Chile and Haiti. In 2008, CIDA and the OAS signed a $20 million, three-year Cooperation Plan to strengthen democratic governance in OAS Member States. The plan both reinforces the role of the OAS as the leading multilateral political institution in the Americas, and exemplifies Canada’s emphasis on a more focused, strategic, and results-based approach for the Hemisphere.

In 2010, Canada’s annual assessed contribution to the OAS was more than $11 million or nearly 14 percent of the Organization’s regular budget. This is a reflection of Canada’s belief in the work of the multilateral organization. Yet, despite its important financial role, Canada acknowledges that it is but one of the Organization’s 35 Member States.

“Yes, we’re the second largest contributor but that doesn’t mean we believe that that grants us any sort of additional influence around the table,” Ambassador Clark said. “It’s an important factor, but we believe in the multilateral enterprise, we believe in the multilateral system. Of course we defend our interests and advance our strategies and our ideas, but at the end of the day we believe in working with others in order to reach a reasonable consensus on a way forward.”

Canada’s membership in the OAS has also helped the English- and French-speaking country strengthen and solidify its relationships with other countries in the American continent. “We have reached a level of engagement with the Americas that we’ve never had, and I think that that’s in part a result of joining the OAS but it’s also a reflection of the choices we’ve made,” Clark said.

Increased trade is but one of the ways Canada has benefitted from stronger ties to its hemispheric neighbors. For example, Canada has undertaken free-trade initiatives with Peru, Colombia, Panama and Chile, among other Latin American countries, and has privileged bilateral relations with, among others, countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). In 1988, shortly before joining the OAS, Canada’s bilateral merchandise trade with Latin America totaled $6 billion. Today, Canada’s trade has increased almost sevenfold to $46 billion.

OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza recently highlighted some of Canada’s contributions to the Organization and its Member States, and recalled how Canada has also benefited from its membership. “Canada’s participation in the OAS has changed the dynamic of the interactions among our Member States for the better,” he said.

In addition to Ambassador Clark, four other Ambassadors have held the position since Canada became a member of the Organization—Ambassadors Jean-Paul Hubert (1990-1993) Brian Dickson (1993-1997), Peter Boehm (1997-2001), and Paul D. Durand (2001-2006).

As Mulroney put it recently, “twenty years after the fact, the lesson from our decision to join the OAS, and our experience as a full-fledged member, is a more confident assertion of who we are and where we are. It demonstrates how Canadian interests can be served more efficiently by enlightened foreign policy. That is also a way to demonstrate how the values we cherish as Canadians can be advanced throughout the hemisphere. Our decision to join was an acknowledgement of geographic reality, a declaration of serious political intent and a commitment to serve the interests of our own hemisphere.”

More in-depth articles »