,E-40/JS
lC..J9.5/75}
· May 28, 1975
OAS CONFERENCE' IN COSTA RICA
c .,
TO AMEND THE RIO TREATY
SLATED FOR JULY
I I I
16~28
NEWS
RELEASE
WASHINGTON, D.C. --A conference of plenipotentiaries of the Organization
of American States (OAS} wi'll open tn San Jose, Costa Rica, July 16 for the
purpose of amending the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, also
known as the Rio Treaty.
The meeting was convoked recently by the OAS General Asseni>ly to take
decisions on proposed amendments that have been presented by a special cOJ11T1ittee
afte r two years of studies.
The OAS Pennanent Council then decided that the
Costa Rica meeting be held July 16-28.
In connection with the protocol amendment to the Treaty to be approved in
I
Costa Rica, the Assembly had declared that once this step is favorably taken, "it
be resolved to leave without effect the relevant provisions of such resolutions
as have been adopted in order to apply the measures contemplated in Article 8 of
the Treaty, when said resolutions are no longer sustained by a majority of the
meni>er states.
11
Article 8 refers to measures such as breaking diplomatic and consular
I
relations, economic sanctions and interruption of communications with nations
violating the provisions of the treaty.
In the declaration the Assembly had noted that the special co111Tiittee
studying the restructuring of the inter-American system had approved without
I
opposing votes a new text for Article 17, which regulated the vote requirements
(more)
\ flt(•
- 2-
for the approval . of decisions by the Organ of Consultatfon of the
n~
rre·aty ~
Tlie
text, eliminating the requirement of two thirds of the vote to res·c tnd
measures taken pursuant to Article 8, reads as follows:
"The Organ of Consultation shall take all its. decis.i ons or
recomnendations by a vote of" two thirds of
th~
States Parti'es ., except' as
provided in the following paragraph.
"To res'Cind the measures taken pursuant to· Arti:c ie 8', . a. vote: of arr
absolute m.a jority of said States shall be required. 11
In other acti'on, th.e Pennanent Counci.l meetingi under· the cha.innans1tip
~f
the Ambassador of Bolivia,. Dr. Fernando Ortiz Sanz,, ass!fgned.. its· co~ittees
to start i.mplementfn.g th.e resolutions approved less than two we·eks ago by the
Assent>ly.
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