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SECTORAL AGREEMENTS ON SERVICES 
IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

SG/TU/WG.SERV/DOC.2/97/Rev. 2
25 February 1998
Original: English


(Continuation)

5. CULTURAL SERVICES 

A. Sub-Regional Sectoral Services

 

1. Tratado de la Organización del Convenio Andrés Bello de Integración Educativa, Científica, Tecnológica y Cultural (Treaty on the Organization of the Andrés Bello Convention on Educative, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Integration)

DATE: November 27, 1990

MEMBERS: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela

Summary of Provisions

Name and Objectives:
Article 1:
It is created the Organization of the Andrés Bello Convention on educative, scientific, technological and cultural integration , named in honor and recognition of the work of the famous American humanist Don Andrés Bello.

Article 2: The purpose of the Organization is the educative, scientific, technological and cultural integration of the Member States, for what they commit to harmonize efforts in the international arena, with the purpose of:

a) Stimulate the reciprocal knowledge and the fraternity between them.

b) Contribute to the achievement of an adequate equilibrium in the process of educative, scientific, technological and cultural development.

c) Realize combined efforts in favor of the education, science, technology and culture to achieve an integral development of their nations; and

d) Apply science and technology to the improvement of the living standards of their people.

Article 3: To achieve the objectives mentioned above, the Organization will take, among others, the following actions:

a) Formulate and execute plans, programs, projects and integrated activities;

b) Incentive combined projects of development, which contribute to improve the productivity in the Organization’s areas;

c) Develop relations of cooperation with other countries and with national, international, governmental and non-governmental entities;

d) Formulate and present projects of agreements on protection and defense of cultural inheritance, taking into account the international conventions on this material;

e) Promote granting of reciprocal scholarships;

f) Support, in conditions of reciprocity, the establishment of quotas for students from other Member States to enter or to continue their studies in higher education establishments;

g) Unify criteria to recognize levels of knowledge and/or abilities acquired in activities that are marginal to the formal education, by national of any of the Member States;

h) Promote the diffusion of the Member States’ culture and of the advances in education, science and technology, through the press, the radio, televisions, movies and other means of social communication;

i) Incentive the publication and diffusion of literary and scientific values between the Member States.

Recognition:
Article 4:
The Member States will recognize the primary or general basic training studies and studies of intermediate or secondary education through tables of equivalence which allow the continuity of the studies or the attainment of the certificates corresponding to courses, levels, modalities or degrees approved in any of the Member States.

Article 5: The Member States will recognize the diplomas, degrees or titles accrediting academic and professional studies issued by Institutions of Higher Education in each of them, for the purpose of entering graduate programs only (Specialization, Masters and Doctorate), which do not imply in the right to professional practice in the country where they were undertaken.

Cooperation: 
Article 7: The Member States will organize meetings and cooperation programs for the exchange of information on topics of interest .Article 8: The Member States will stimulate the development of multinational programs of investigation, experimentation, innovation and technological transferences in the fields of education, science and culture.

Juridic Nature and Structure:
Article 9:
The Organization will have an international juridic personality and will possess full capacity in the exercise of functions for the achievement of its objectives, and in particular will: 

a) Celebrate agreements with States and International Organizations. 

b) Acquire, rent and dispose of goods and services, and celebrate in general any type of acts and contracts. 

c) Take part in legal processes and initiate juridic procedures.

Article 10: The Entities integrating the Organization of the Andrés Bello Convention are the following: 

  • The Board of Ministers. 
  • The Executive Secretariat. 
  • The Principal Assisting Commission. 
  • The Technical Commissions of Education, Science and technology, and Culture.

Article 11: The Organization’s higher authority is the Board of Ministers of Education and of the Member States which are responsible for: 

a) Define the Organization’s general policy. 

b) Study and propose amendments to this Convention. 

c) Approve the statutory and regulation norms, in all issues of its competence. 

d) Create, modify or suppress, according to its necessities, specialized entities, defining their action scope and approving their statutes. 

e) Appoint the Organization’s executive authorities. 

f) Analyze and approve the Organization’s Budget-Program. 

g) Authorize the signature of Seat Agreements with the Member States. 

h) Define the functions of the Organization’s entities and its own. 

i) Exercise the remaining attributions assigned by this Convention, the Statutes and Regulations, as appropriate.

Article 15: The Organization’s Executive Entity is the Executive Secretariat, and its officer is the legal representative of the Organization. The Executive Secretariat has the following functions:

a) execute the Organization’s policy; 

b) prepare the Ministers Meeting; 

c) apply and make apply the resolutions and other agreements by the Board of Ministers; 

d) administrate the Organization’s Financing Fund;

e) prepare the Organization’s Budget Proposal; 

f) coordinate the activities of the specialized entities and agencies; 

g) maintain the Organization’s relations with third countries and national and international entities; 

h) the remaining functions determined by the Ministers at their meeting.

Article 16: The Principal Assisting Commission will be the Auxiliary Entity to the Board of Ministers of Education, will inform the agenda for the day and the proposals brought to the Ministers and will evaluate, periodically, the application of its decisions. This Commission will consist of National Secretaries or by the Representative designated by the Minister of Education of each country.

Article 17: The Organization will have Technical Commissions on Education, Science and technology, and Culture, whose purpose is to formulate or evaluate programming projects in the respective area, to be presented by the Executive Secretariat to the Board of Ministers, for their approval, given previous consideration of the Principal Assisting Commission. The Technical Commissions will consist of a specialist from each Member State, in each of the mentioned areas.

Financing Fund:
Article 21:
The Financing Funs is constituted by contributions made by the Member States. The interests and other profits produced will support the financing of joint projects and activities.

Settlement of Disputes:
Article 26:
The disputes over the interpretation or application of this Convention, which can not be resolved through direct diplomatic negotiations about the involved parties, will be submitted, for their resolution, to the Board of Ministers. If the dispute is not resolved by the Board of Ministers, it will be submitted, with the consent of the involved parties, to any of the mechanisms foreseen by the international right for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

Denouncement: 
Article 28: Any of the Parties may denounce this Convention through a written notification to the Depositary, which will enter into effect one year after being received.

Depositary:
Article 29:
The government of the Republic of Colombia will assume the functions of Depositary.

Enter into Force:
Article 31:
This Convention will enter into force thirty days after the deposit of the fifth instrument of ratification. *(Date of Entry into Force: September 21, 1995) 

Adhesion:
Article 32:
After its entry into force, this Convention will be open to the adhesion of other countries, in the quality of full or observing members, according to the procedures and conditions assigned by the Board of Ministers of Education, through regulation channels.

Other Provisions:
Article 33:
The provisions of this Convention will not affect the resulting rights and obligations of the Agreements signed by any of the countries before its entry into force.

Article 34: The Andrés Bello Convention on educative, scientific and cultural integration signed by the Countries of the Andean Region on January 31, 1970, will be revoked with the entry into force of this Convention. All goods, rights and obligations acquired because of the Convention of 1970 will automatically pass to the Organization.

 

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