In today's Miami Herald, former President Carter and ten other former presidents and government officials from throughout Latin America offer three suggestions for improving the promotion of democracy at the OAS.
•Propote the debate within societies and governments alike about the promise of the Democratic Charter, for it is not just a punitive instrument, but a preventative one, committing the hemisphere to help our neighbors when asked and before a crisis erupts.
•Create early warning systems to alert the hemisphere when democracy is threatened. Human rights activists and local citizens are often the ones first sounding the alarm bell, and they need greater support by the OAS. We also urge that a network of scholars be formed to provide timely alerts and analyses of the state of our democracies. Likewise, ambassadors of the Permanent Council should have a mechanism to receive civil society groups, not just governments, to learn of incipient threats within member countries.
•Encourage member governments of the OAS to specify minimal indicators of unacceptable violations of the Democratic Charter and specific automatic response so we do not depend on the same old debate undermined by paralyzed will in the OAS at every early warning sign.
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