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tion of regional and interregional arrangements, to improve meteorological services.

Arrangements were agreed upon for close cooperation between the WMO and the International Oceanographic Commission (IOC), particularly in the planning of international oceanographic research projects.

At the conclusion of the Congress, Dr. Reichelderfer, who was the first President of WMO (1951-54), was reelected by acclamation to the WMO Executive Committee.

The Congress approved a budget of $5,373,581 (exclusive of the development fund) to support an enlarged program during the next 4 years (1964-67).

K. Developments in International Law

II-81

UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON CONSULAR RELATIONS, VIENNA, MARCH 4-APRIL 22, 1963: Official Records 1

II-82

1

ESTABLISHMENT OF A SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW CONCERNING FRIENDLY RELATIONS AND COOPERATION AMONG STATES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS: Resolution 1966 (XVIII), Adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, December 16, 1963 2

II-83

INITIATION OF A STUDY OF THE PROBLEM OF FACTFINDING IN REGARD TO THE PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL DISPUTES: Resolution 1967 (XVIII), Adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, December 16, 1963 3

1Volume I: Summary Records of Plenary Meetings and of Meetings of First and Second Committees (A/CONF.25/16). U.N.P. Sales No.: 63.X.2. Volume II: Annexes, Final Act, Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, Optional Protocols, Resolutions (A/CONF.25/16/Add. 1). U.N.P. Sales No.: 64.X.1.

The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the Optional Protocol relating to the settlement of disputes were signed by the United States on Apr. 24, 1963. The Convention was to enter into force following ratification by 22 states. 2U.N. General Assembly Official Records, Eighteenth Session, Supplement No. 15 (A/5515), pp. 70-71. This resolution was adopted by a unanimous vote at the 1281st plenary meeting.

3

U.N. General Assembly Official Records, Eighteenth Session, Supplement No. 15 (A/5515), p. 71. This resolution was adopted at the 1281st plenary meeting by a vote of 65 (including the U.S.) to 15, with 27 abstentions.

Part III

WESTERN HEMISPHERE DEVELOPMENTS

A. The Inter-American System-the Organization of American States

III-1

"THE CEASELESS FLOW OF EVENTS MARKS AN ACCELERATED GROWTH PROCESS THAT PERMITS ONE TO SAY THAT MONTHS COUNT AS YEARS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES": Introduction to the Report of the Secretary General of the OAS (Mora) on the Activities of the OAS, January 1, 1963-June 30, 1964 1

In accordance with the recommendation of the Council of the Organization, this report departs from the standard presentation based on calendar years utilized to date by the Secretary General to initiate a new and more practical procedure. By coinciding with the opening and closing dates of the fiscal years of the Pan American Union, the successive annual reports will present more clearly the development of the activities of the organs within the system and of the programs entrusted to the General Secretariat, while at the same time they will facilitate evaluation and comparison of these programs by serving as a source of reference for the governments, their delegations and, particularly, the Committee on Program and Budget of the Council.

As an inevitable result of this innovation, the present report covers not only the entire year 1963 but also the period from January 1 to June 30, 1964, that is to say, a special period of 18 months.

A great many events have taken place during the period in question, several of which have been vitally important to the life of the Organization. The most outstanding characteristic of this phase of our regional system is its extraordinary vitality. The ceaseless flow of events marks an accelerated growth process that permits one to say that months count as years in the development of the Organization of American States. This is the best evidence of its current vigor and the most valid basis for our confidence in the attainment of the lofty goals we have set, regardless of how distant they may still appear today.

However, it is not our intention to repeat in the preliminary portion of this report, even in summary form, the list of questions mentioned in the body of the document. This would not only be a useless repetition, but also entail the risk of an unfair evaluation of efforts made and progress achieved on the various fronts upon which cooperative inter-American action is being carried out. All of the efforts being made in behalf of the member states are of equal importance. A meeting of specialists in economic or social matters, for example, deserves the same recognition as a gathering of experts on educational, scientific, or cultural matters, if these are viewed from the standpoint of their respective 1OAS doc. OEA/Ser. D/III. 15, pp. iii-vi.

objectives and with sufficient perspective to encompass, as an indivisible whole, the over-all progress of the Americas.

In our opinion, the only proper procedure is to emphasize the extraordinary significance that should be attached to certain events that are authentic milestones in the history of the Organization, whether, because they broaden the horizon of its current possibilities or because they contribute effectively to the affirmation of the principles of hemisphere union and solidarity. It is interesting to note, since it strongly supports our statements on the vitality of the system, that such outstanding occurrences have taken place almost simultaneously in the political, economic, social, and cultural sectors.

For the first time, the headquarters of the Pan American Union was the site of a meeting of consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs convoked by the Organization. Although that meeting was held during July 1964,2 that is, outside the framework of this report, it must of necessity be included in view of the date of its convocation and the decisive circumstances of its reference to political situations created much earlier when, in November 1963, the Venezuelan Government denounced the perpetration of acts sponsored and directed by the present Cuban regime for the purpose of subverting the democratic institutions of that country and overthrowing its government by means of violence.3

In accordance with the regulations it devolved upon the Secretary General to install the conference and to direct the preparatory work. We believe that we have every reason to feel satisfied with the results. Our satisfaction is even greater in view of the importance of these results in consolidating principles and standards fundamental to our system.

We are not unaware of the delicate problems that always go with the presentation of matters as serious as those that occasioned that meeting. The fact that it is not easy, within the concert of the American nations, to arrive at the desired unanimity in the formulation of solutions of vital hemisphere interest is often a matter for criticism. This should be attributed to an erroneous conception of what a society of free and sovereign nations should be.

Full consensus of opinion is not the rule but rather the exception within the democratic process. A difference of opinion and outspoken debate within the free exercise of voting rights, far from debilitating the Organization of American States, serve to strengthen and dignify it. The essential factor is that the will expressed in each case, in accordance with treaty standards, shall in the end prevail and become a guide for collective behavior.

The case of Venezuela is further evidence of the practical effectiveness of the procedures followed by the Organization for the maintenance of peace and security in the hemisphere. The acts of aggression and intervention that led to convocation of the Organ of Consultation were studied, initially, by the Investigating Committee duly appointed by the Council. This committee verified through an exhaustive study on the spot, the facts that had been denounced. The concern felt by the democratic nations of the Americas over the fate of the Cuban people was also manifested both by the successive statements of the foreign ministers and by the final text of the decisions adopted. The foreign ministers reiterated their firm conviction that the condemnation of the policy of aggression and intervention followed by the present Government of Cuba will be viewed by all those inside and outside of that sister nation who share her tragedy as an incentive renewing hopes that a climate of freedom and democracy will soon prevail in the fatherland of José Martí enabling Cuba to be reincorporated into the inter-American system, to which it has never, in principle, ceased to belong.

With reference to economic and social development, the collective efforts of the American republics have made new and highly promising advances.

At the beginning of this year, Alliance for Progress achievements recorded, among many other tangible results, more than 220,000 new housing units, 23,000 new schools, the distribution of close to seven million school textbooks, 1,000 new water supply services in different communities, more than 200,000 families benefited by new credit facilities, and close to 21 million children and adults

2 Documents on the meeting will appear in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1964.

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being rescued from malnutrition by school lunch programs and meals for workers, in addition to other programs designed to benefit mothers and children. In Central America, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Peru, and Venezuela, the pace of development is rapidly increasing. The same may be said for the Brazilian Northeast and for other needy areas of the hemisphere.

Despite the eloquence of these figures, this panorama may not satisfy the impatient, yet it is most encouraging as an index of a development process that has definitively gone beyond the preparatory stages of initial organization.

It is in this last connection that we should attribute particular importance to the establishment of the Inter-American Committee on the Alliance for Progress (CIAP).

There was, in fact, a need, as indicated in the documented reports of former Presidents Kubitschek and Lleras Camargo," for a body that would coordinate and promote the activities of the Alliance while at the same time representing it multilaterally so as to execute mandates entrusted to it by the Second Annual Meeting of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council, held in São Paulo in November 1963. The concept of multilaterality to which we have referred serves to strengthen the sound criterion that views the Alliance as a solemn obligation undertaken freely and spontaneously by the member states for the mutual benefit of their peoples and as a means of achieving a higher level of social well-being and economic development within the democratic system.

The inclusion of outstanding economists and leaders in the world of finance and business in the membership of this new committee helps to ensure the success of its endeavors while at the same time it encourages the vital participation of capital and private initiative in this great progressive undertaking.

All of this, however, does not mean that we fail to recognize the fact that the key to success lies not in the agencies or the individuals participating in the planning and development of Alliance programs but in the firm will for transformation and progress evidenced in practice by the very peoples that will be their beneficiaries. It is also well to emphasize that although foreign aid is indispensable for creating the conditions favorable to dynamic development, it is not in itself sufficient, since there will always be a need to call upon the resources and incentives deriving from exportation based on sound terms of trade and protected from the contingencies of sudden price declines.

Fortunately, this great truth is beginning to win increasing recognition, as we will see later, on the international level.

Undoubtedly one of the most important achievements of the Organization with regard to economic development was the Meeting of the Special Committee for Latin American Coordination held in Alta Gracia, Argentina, in February 1964.7 The Charter of Alta Gracia, which resulted from a resolution of the Second Annual Meeting of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council, constitutes the first genuinely American effort to subject the free and competitive forces of world trade to the principles of international justice, in order to avoid any further widening of the economic gap between the most highly industrialized countries and the developing countries.

The persistence of a situation in which the world is divided into areas of poverty and plenty is a serious obstacle to any possibility that an economically more just society may be achieved, as Resolution III approved by the Ninth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs expressed it in advocating regional and international economic coordination. In this connection, the American countries have been and continue to be well aware of the fact that this vital question characterizes the era in which we live. This was demonstrated by the discussions at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development held this year in Geneva. The Inter-American Economic and Social Council (IA-ECOSOC) will undoubtedly continue the necessary studies to find adequate solutions.

*Post, doc. III-79.

OAS docs. OEA/Ser.G/V/c-d-1102 and OEA/Ser.G/V/c-d-1103.

• See post, title III-75 and doc. III-77.

7 The documents on this meeting will appear in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1964.

'Ibid.

The specialized conferences at the ministerial level are undoubtedly one of the most effective mechanisms employed by the inter-American system to achieve its common goals.

The recent meeting of ministers of labor in May 1963 illustrates the initiative being carried forward by the Organization of American States to seek contact among all the ministries and departments in order to achieve the broadest possible collaboration of the governments in inter-American activities. The two great organs of the Council, the IA-ECOSOC and the Inter-American Cultural Council (ICC), have already issued regulations governing their functions at the ministerial level, transforming them into authentic specialized bodies composed of the ministers of finance or economy and the ministers of education, charged with evaluating the progress made in their respective areas within the vast hemisphere orbit. The ministers of foreign affairs, through the procedure of consultation, held their ninth meeting this year. The ministers of public health and of agriculture are participating in an increasingly more active manner in the meetings of the Pan American Health Organization and the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences, respectively. The results of the meeting of the ministers of labor, including the important Declaration of Cundinamarca which it approved, will enable labor problems to receive greater consideration within the national development plans that represent one of the fundamental elements of the Alliance for Progress. As stated in the Declaration of Cundinamarca, it is essential that the ministers of labor, and the democratic trade unions play an active role in order to achieve the objectives of the Alliance.

The signatories of the Charter of Punta del Este demonstrated their clear vision of the scope and meaning that should be attributed to the term "progress" when they included in the Declaration to the Peoples of America the conclusive statement that "No system can guarantee true progress unless it affirms the dignity of the individual which is the foundation of our civilization." And no one can ignore the predominant and decisive role played by education, science, and culture in individual and collective betterment and in the attainment of the highest levels of human dignity.

99 10

We have stated on other occasions that we do not consider it a coincidence that Resolution A.I appended to the Charter of Punta del Este contains the Ten-Year Education Program. This priority in presentation indicated in some measure the paramount importance that should be assigned to this aspect of progress. Yet the education offered to the individual from primary school on lacks any vital significance if it is not acknowledged that the aim of such basic education is to equip the student with the instruments required for exploring new horizons of culture and to prepare him to develop his creative faculties to the fullest. Therefore, education, science, and culture constitute an inseparable triptych. In our previous report we mentioned the changes that had been made in the internal organization of the General Secretariat with the establishment of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Cultural, Scientific, and Informational Affairs, in order to adapt it more closely to contemporary needs. On this new occasion, we could not fail to mention the reorganization of the Inter-American Cultural Council by express recommendation of that same organ, constituted at the ministerial level in a special meeting.

11

In effect, following the meetings at Bogotá during the month of August 1963," a new stage was initiated in the progress of inter-American cooperative action, characterized by a strengthening of the cultural organ of the Council, with a view to seeking better balance within the two great spheres of activities of our Organization. Once the draft statutes submitted to the Council for consideration have been approved, the process of reorganization of the ICC will have been completed, opening up new and broader horizons to cultural and scientific progress in the hemisphere.

9 See post, doc. III-64 and title III-65.

10

Text in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1961, pp. 393–409. "Text ibid., 1962, pp. 300–303.

12 See OAS doc. OEA/Ser.D/III.15, pp. 114-115 for a summary of these meetings.

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