Editing Organization of American States (section)

=== Official languages ===
[[File:Socha Izabely I Katolickej.JPG|thumb|Statue of [[Isabella I of Castile]], the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] Queen in front of the seat of the OAS headquarters in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
The Organization's [[official languages]] are [[Spanish language in the Americas|Spanish]], [[Portuguese language in the Americas|Portuguese]], [[American French|French]], and [[American English|English]]. The Charter, the basic instrument governing OAS, makes no reference to the use of official languages. These references are to be found in the Rules of Procedure governing the various OAS bodies. Article 51 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly,<ref>General Assembly of the OAS, [http://www.oas.org/juridico/english/agres_1737_xxxo00.htm Amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly], 5 June 2000</ref> the supreme body of the OAS, which meets once a year, states that English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish are the four official languages. Article 28 stipulates that a Style Committee shall be set up with representatives of the four official languages to review the General Assembly resolutions and declarations. Article 53 states that proposals shall be presented in the four official languages. The Rules of Procedure and Statutes of other bodies, such as the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI), the Permanent Executive Committee of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CEPCIDI), the [[Inter-American Commission of Women]] (CIM), the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), the [[Inter-American Commission on Human Rights]] (IACHR) and the Inter-American Juridical Committee (CJI), technical bodies of the OAS, also mention the four official languages in which their meetings are to be conducted. Policy is therefore dictated through these instruments that require use of the four official languages at meetings.<ref>Marguerite Groves (Coordinator, Division of Language Services, OAS), [http://www.cslf.gouv.qc.ca/Seminaire/Conferences/MargueriteGroves.doc Information on the use of language at the OAS: multilingualism] {{webarchive |url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070203222344/http://www.cslf.gouv.qc.ca/Seminaire/Conferences/MargueriteGroves.doc |date=3 February 2007 }}, ''Inter-American Languages Management Seminar'', [[Conseil supérieur de la langue française (Quebec)|Conseil supérieur de la langue française]] ([[Quebec]]), [[Quebec City]], 20 to 22 August  2002</ref>

Although a number of other languages have official status in one or more member states of OAS ([[Surinamese Dutch|Dutch]] in Suriname; [[Haitian Creole language|Haitian Creole]] alongside French in Haiti; [[Quechua language|Quechua]] and [[Aymara language|Aymara]] in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia; [[Guaraní language|Guaraní]] in Paraguay), they are not official languages of the Organization.