The Tenth Inter-American Conference

REAFFIRMS:

The fundamental principles and aims of the Charter of the Organization of American States, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the resolutions of the Organization that refer to those principles and aims,

REITERATES:

Recognition of the inalienable right of each American state to choose freely its own institutions in the effective exercise of representative democracy, as a means of preserving its political sovereignty, achieving its economic independence, and living its own social and cultural life, without intervention on the part of any states or group of states, either directly or indirectly, in its domestic or external affairs, and, particularly, without the intrusion of any form of totalitarianism.

RENEWS:

The conviction of the American States that one of the most effective means of strengthening their democratic institutions is to increase respect for the individual and social rights of man, without any discrimination, and to maintain and promote an elective policy of economic well-being and social justice to raise the standard of living of their peoples; and

RESOLVES:

To unite the efforts of all the American States to apply, develop, and perfect the above-mentioned principles so that they will form the basis of firm and solidary action designed to attain within a short time the effective realization of the representative democratic system, the rule of social justice and security, and economic and cultural cooperation essential to the mutual well-being and prosperity of the peoples of the Continent; and

DECLARES:

This resolution shall be known as the "Declaration of Caracas."

(1) Adopted at the Tenth Inter-American Conference, Caracas, held from March 1 to 28, 1954. Back