The citizens’ participation in the Andean Community
Jorge Castro Bernieri
Legal Consultant, General Secretariat
October, 2001

Scathing criticism of trade agreements and international organizations has become frequent in recent months. One of the accusations that is leveled is their lack of opening to common citizens. Trade agreements tend to be viewed as meetings of bureaucrats, offering little communication with individuals.

This criticism is justified, in general, although the truth is that many organizations have attempted to remedy the situation. It is worth calling attention here to the efforts made by the Andean countries and the institutions of the Andean integration system to build an agreement that is ever more open, transparent, representative, and ruled by legal principles.

In the case of the Andean Community, these efforts are grounded in the conviction that an advanced integration process, like the Andean, is not limited to trade. On the contrary, when the countries of the region signed the Cartagena Agreement in 1969, they decided to move ahead with a process that would allow them to combine their efforts, build up and develop their economies, and improve their international position. All of this was to be accomplished with the aim of "seeking a growing improvement in the people’s standard of living." The breakthroughs of the Andean countries in the area of trade (and there are many) are merely harbingers of the enormous benefits to be obtained in other areas of integration.

In this context, the Andean Community has made important strides toward consolidating the political dimension of the integration process. At the Presidential Summit of Carabobo this year, it was agreed to draw up a declaration on the basic rights of the Andean citizens that would make their defense a regional commitment.

Also in Carabobo, the Andean countries approved a common policy for dealing with one of the most serious threats to the region: drug trafficking, money laundering, and related offenses. They likewise adopted a democratic commitment clause calling for the automatic suspension of any country that interrupts the operation of its democratic institutions.

The reforms that have been incorporated into the Cartagena Agreement since 1996 through the Trujillo Protocol have led the way toward making Andean institutions more representative. Today, in addition to the already existing intergovernmental technical bodies (like the Commission made up of Trade Ministers), the Andean Community has at its summit an Andean Presidential Council consisting of the elected Heads of State, which is the system’s supreme authority.

In 1997, it was also decided that the Andean countries would take the necessary steps over the following five years to ensure that the Andean Parliamentarians who comprise the system’s representative and deliberating body are elected directly by the people of those countries.

Furthermore, non-governmental bodies, like those grouping together the workers and business people in the region, occupy a permanent position in the Andean system through the Labor and Business Advisory Councils.

It should be added here that any changes in the basic rules of the Andean system, including the Cartagena Agreement and the other treaties, must be approved in each of the Andean countries in accordance with their own constitutional procedures before they can enter into force. These procedures generally require the participation of the people’s representatives meeting as the national parliament or congress.

As the countries transferred more responsibilities to Andean Community bodies, they also perfected the mechanisms for submitting the activities of those bodies to strict legal controls.

The acts emanating from Andean Community institutions are reviewed by the Andean Court of Justice to ensure that they do not exceed the powers granted by the countries to Community authorities or in any other way illegally affect the rights of any of the region’s countries or citizens. In fact, not only the officials of the Andean countries, but any common citizen who feels that his or her rights or interests have been affected, can petition the Andean Court of Justice for annulment of an illegal Community act.

The Andean Community has done much in recent years to improve the transparency of its acts, aided by the advances in technology. Today, Andean Community officials, the inhabitants of the region, and even foreigners with a special interest in what is happening in the CAN have access, through the General Secretariat’s website, to full information about the course of the Community process, including the sentences handed down by the Andean Community Court of Justice.

Obviously, there is still more to be done. One of the most formidable challenges today is to enhance the benefits of integration and to work toward their more equitable distribution. At the same time, citizens must be informed more fully about the progress of integration. Even in a region that suffers from many problems for the participation of citizens, the Andean countries are moving in the right direction.