The Permanent Council is one of the two main political bodies of the

Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 Apri ...

, the other being the

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of pres ...

. The Permanent Council is established under Chapter XII of the

OAS Charter The Charter of the Organization of the American States (otherwise known the Charter of the OAS) is a Pan-American treaty that sets out the creation of the Organization of American States. It was signed at the Ninth International Conference of Ame ...

. It is composed of

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or s ...

s appointed by the member states (one per state), and it meets regularly at OAS headquarters in Washington, D.C.,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The chair of the Council rotates among these permanent representatives of the member states, with each country chairing the Council for a three-month period. Together, the General Assembly and the Permanent Council set broad priorities for the OAS; because it meets more regularly, however, the Council has immediate responsibility for directing the Organization's ongoing actions.

Sources

:Parts of the first version of this article were adapted fro
Organization of American States: A Primer
a

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...

publication of the U.S. government.

External links

Permanent Council of the Organization of American States
(www.oas.org) Organization of American States {{poli-org-stub