OAS Member States Invoke Rio Mutual Defense Treaty

Members of the Organization of American States (OAS), in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, have approved resolutions to activate a hemispheric mutual defense treaty, and to convene a meeting of regional foreign ministers on September 21.

The OAS Permanent Council, meeting in special session September 19 at OAS headquarters, agreed by acclamation to invoke the 1947 Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, also known as the Rio Treaty, which obligates signatories to consider an attack from outside the region against any member state as an attack against all, and to come to one another's defense.

The Council said the meeting of the foreign ministers would consider measures that should be taken for the "common defense of the hemisphere and for the maintenance of peace and security within."

The Council condemned the acts of terrorism against the United States "as an affront to human dignity and the rule of law and as a danger to the peace and security of the Americas."

The following are the texts of the two resolutions:

begin text of Resolution 1

OEA/Ser.G

THE PERMANENT COUNCIL OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES,CONCERNED by the terrorist attacks perpetrated against innocent civilians from many nations that took place on September 11, 2001 in the territory of the United States of America;

RECOGNIZING the statement approved on September 11, 2001 by the twenty-eighth special session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, held in Lima, Peru, which condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist acts visited upon several cities, and reiterated the need to strengthen hemispheric cooperation to combat this scourge;

CONSIDERING the statement of the Secretary General of the OAS on September 11, in which he condemned the cowardly acts of terrorism perpetrated on the United States of America and stressed that these actions are an attack not only on the United States but also on all the democratic and free states of the world;

RECALLING the inherent right of the United States and each of the other Member States to act in the exercise of the right of individual and collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations;

AWARE that Article 2 of the OAS Charter proclaims that one of the essential purposes of the Organization is to provide for common action on the part of those States in the event of aggression;

CONSIDERING that the conduct of terrorist acts, as well as the direct and indirect support for such acts, is not compatible with the effective exercise of representative democracy, and that representative democracy is indispensable for the stability, peace, and development of the Americas;

CONVINCED that the perpetrators of these terrorist acts rely upon an international support network that may have branches within our own Hemisphere, and those that aid, abet or harbor terrorist organizations are responsible for the acts of those terrorists; and

CONSIDERING the report of the Government of the United States of America that was provided to the Permanent Council on this date,

RESOLVES:

1. To condemn, as an attack against all the States of the Americas, the acts of terrorism perpetrated within the territory of the United States of America on September 11, 2001, that resulted in the murder of thousands of citizens from many member states and other nations.

2. To repudiate these acts of terrorism as an affront to human dignity and the rule of law and as a danger to the peace and security of the Americas, and to express the conviction that this threat against democracy requires united and concerted action to protect and defend the free exercise of democracy.

3. To reaffirm our solidarity with the people and government of the United States of America in the rescue and reconstruction efforts.

4. To call upon the government of the member states and all other governments to use all necessary means at their disposal to pursue, capture, and punish those responsible for these attacks, and to prevent additional attacks.

5. To urge all member states to support international efforts to bring those responsible for these terrorist attacks to justice and to promote inter-American cooperation, especially through information sharing, for that purpose.

6. To convene on September 21, 2001, at the headquarters of the Organization of American States, a Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, pursuant to articles 61 to 65 of the OAS Charter, to consider the threat to hemispheric security posed by international terrorism.

(end text of Resolution 1)

(begin text of Resolution 2)

OEA/Ser.G

CP/RES. 797 (1293/01)

19 September 2001

Original: Portuguese

CP/RES. 797 (1293/01)

CONVOCATION OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MEETING OF CONSULTATION OF MINISTERS OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO SERVE AS ORGAN OF CONSULTATION IN APPLICATION OF THE INTER-AMERICAN TREATY

OF RECIPROCAL ASSISTANCE

THE PERMANENT COUNCIL OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES,

CONSIDERING that the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil, in its note No. 220 dated September 17, requested the convocation of the Organ of Consultation to consider, in accordance with the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, the measures that should be taken to maintain peace and security in the Hemisphere;

HAVING CONDEMNED vigorously the terrorist attacks perpetrated against the United States of America on September 11, 2001;

CONSIDERING that said attacks represent a clear threat to peace and security in the Hemisphere; and

BEARING IN MIND the pertinent provisions of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance and the Charter of the Organization of American States,

RESOLVES:

1. To serve provisionally as the Organ of Consultation envisaged in Article 12 of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Treaty), and to convoke for September 21, 2001, at the headquarters of the Organization of American States, the Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs referred to in Article 11 of the Rio Treaty to agree on measures that should be taken for the common defense of the Hemisphere and for the maintenance of peace and security therein.

2. To inform the United Nations Security Council of the text of this resolution and of all activities related to this matter.

(end text of Resolution 2)