Organization of Ibero-American States
Members of the Organization of Ibero-American States
Headquarters		Madrid, Spain
Language		Spanish, Portuguese
Membership		23 sovereign states and 1 dependent territory
Leaders
-	Head of the OEI	King Juan Carlos I
-	Secretary General	Álvaro Marchesi
Area
-	Total	21,462,574 km2  12,147,768 sq mi
Population
-	2005 estimate	712,974,000
-	Density	61.09/km2  158.2/sq mi

The Organization of Ibero-American States (Portuguese: Organização dos Estados Ibero-americanos; Spanish: Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos; formally The Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture) is an intergovernmental organization, comprising the Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking nations of America and Europe, plus Equatorial Guinea in Africa.

The Organization of Ibero-American States for the Education, Science and Culture (OEI) is an international organization for inter-governmental cooperation between the Latin American countries in the field of education, science, technology and culture in the context of the integral development, democracy and regional integration.

The Members of plenary session and observers are all American, European and African: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Equatorial Guinea, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The seat of its General Secretariat is in Madrid, Spain, and it maintains regional offices in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Spain, Mexico and Peru, with field offices in Chile, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay.

The financing of the OEI and its programs are covered by obligatory quotas and voluntary contributions by the governments of the member states and by the contributions by institutions, foundations and other organizations interested in improvement of the educational quality and in scientific and cultural development.

The Honorary President of the organisation is His Majesty King Juan Carlos I of Spain.

History[link]

The OEI was founded in 1949 under the title of the Office of Latin American Education and with the character of an international agency, as a result of the 1st Latin American Education Congress in Madrid. In 1954, the 2nd Latin American Congress of Education took place in Quito, and it was decided to transform the OEI into an intergovernmental organization, integrated by sovereign States, and it was so constituted on the 15 of March 1957 at the 3rd Latin American Congress of Education celebrated in Santo Domingo; they subscribed the first Statutes of the OEI, effective until 1985.

In 1979 the Congress met for the 4th Latin American of Education in Madrid; in 1983 the 5th took place in Lima, and in May 1985 it held an Extraordinary Meeting of the Congress in Bogotá, in that it was decided to change the old name of the OEI to the present one, keeping the abbreviations and extending its objectives. This modification affected only the name of its organ of Government, the Latin American Congress of Education, became the General Assembly. In December 1985, during the Meeting of the Directive Council in Panama, its members acted as plenipotentiaries of their respective States and in plenary sessions, powers of the General Assembly, subscribed the present Statutes of the OEI, which replaced the statutory text of 1957 and they approved the Organization Regulations.

Since the I Latin American Conference of Government and Chiefs of State (Guadalajara, 1991), the OEI has promoted the Conferences of Ministers of Education, as instances of preparation for the summits, and for the execution of the educative, scientific and cultural programs delegated to it.

Aims and objectives[link]

The Organization of Ibero- American States for the Education, Science and the Culture, make the principles that are based on and fulfilling its obligations in agreement with the Statutes, it established the following general aims:

• To contribute to fortify the knowledge, mutual understanding, integration, solidarity and peace between the Latin American peoples to spread education, science, technology and culture.
• To foment the development of education and the culture like vélida and viable alternative for construction of peace, by means of the preparation of the human being for the exercise responsible for the freedom, the solidarity and the defense of the human rights, as well as to support the changes that they make possible a right society month for Iberoamé rich.
• To collaborate permanently in transmission and interchange of the integration experiences economic, political and cultural produced in the countries European and Latin American, that constitutes the two areas of influence of the Organization, as well as in any other aspect susceptible to serve for the development of the countries.
• To collaborate with the Members in objective to obtain that the educative systems fulfill a triple approach: humane, developing the formation é tica, integrate and harmonize the new generations; of democratization, assuring the equality educative opportunities and the social fairness; and productive, preparing for the life of the work and favoring labor insertion.
• To collaborate in the diffusion of one culture that, without forgetting the idiosyncrasies and the peculiarities of the different countries, incorporate the codes of modernity to allow assimilation of global advances in science and the technology, revaluing the own cultural identity and taking advantage of the answers that they arise from his accumulation.
• To facilitate the relations between science, technology and society in the Latin American countries, analyzing the implications of the development scientist-knowledge from one social perspective and increasing to its valuation and the understanding of its effects by all the citizens.
• To promote the entailment of the plans of education, science, technology and culture and the plans and socioeconomic processes that persecute a development to the service of man, as well as an equitable distribution of products cultural, technological and scientific.
• To make and promote programs of lateral cooperation between the Member States and of between the States and of other regional institutions.
• To contribute to the diffusion of languages Spanish and Portuguese and to the improvement of all and techniques of its education, as well as to his conservation and preservation in the cultural minorities residents in other countries. To foment the education at the same time bilingual to preserve the multicultural identity of the communities of Ibero-America, expressed in the multilingualisms of its culture.

Structure[link]

The government of the OEI consists of the three following organs:

General Assembly[link]

The General Assembly, that is the supreme authority of the Organization; be integrated by Representatives or Official delegations the Member States.

It is, also the legislative instance that it establishes the general policies of the OEI, studies, it evaluates and it approves the Plan of Activities of the Organization, the Program and Global budget and fixes the quotas annual, and meets to choose to Secretary General by the corresponding period.

Directive Council[link]

The Directive Council is the organ delegated by the General Assembly for the control of the government and of Administration of the OEI. Be integrated by the Ministers of Education of the States Members or by their representatives and is presided over by the Minister of Education of the country in which there is of to hold the next meeting of the General Assembly.

Its main mission is the one to consider and to approve the report of activities, the Program and Budget biennial and financial statement of the Organization.

General Secretariat[link]

The General Secretariat is delegated organ permanent of the General Assembly for executive direction of the OEI and shows its presentation in relations with the Governments, the international organizations and with other institutions. Té has to its position the direction; cnica and administrative of the Organization and the execution of the programs and projects.

The General Secretariat is structured internally by a system of flexible organization, adapted to the policies, the strategies and the Plan of Activities.

Member states[link]

Members of the Organization of Ibero-American States

Andorra

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Chile

Colombia

Costa Rica

Cuba

Dominican Republic

Ecuador

El Salvador

Equatorial Guinea

Guatemala

Honduras

Mexico

Nicaragua

Panama

Paraguay

Peru

Portugal

Puerto Rico

Spain

Uruguay

Venezuela

See also[link]

• Organization of American States
• Ibero-American Summit
• Rio Group
• List of current heads of state and government of Ibero-america
• Latin America
• Americas
• Commonwealth of Independent States
• Commonwealth of Nations
• CPLP

External links[link]

• Organization of Ibero-American States (Portuguese)
• Organization of Ibero-American States (Spanish)