Gondra Treaty (1923)

Gondra Treaty (1923), an agreement that is now viewed as the inspiration for the present-day peacekeeping mechanisms of the Organization of American States, it was named for the Paraguayan statesman Manuel Gondra, who sponsored the initiative at the Fifth International Conference of American States in Santiago, Chile, in May 1923. The treaty's seven articles detail procedures for the settlement of disputes between the American republics through an impartial investigation of the facts relating to the controversy. Disputes that could not be resolved through normal diplomatic means would be submitted to a commission of inquiry composed of five members, all nationals of American states, who would then render a final report within one year. The report would not have the force of arbitral awards and would be binding on the parties involved for only six months after its issuance. The treaty called for the establishment of permanent commissions in Washington, D.C., and Montevideo, Uruguay, to receive requests for inquiries and to notify the other parties involved. The Gondra Treaty mirrored the outlines of the February 1923 Washington Conference treaty between the United States and the Central American republics, which established similar procedures for commissions of inquiry to resolve disputes. Significantly, the Gondra Treaty called for disputes in the hemisphere to be resolved by the American republics themselves.

See alsoGondra, Manuel; Organization of American States (OAS); Washington Treaties of 1907 and 1923.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

L. S. Rowe, "The Fifth International Conference of American States," in Bulletin of the Pan American Union 57, no. 2 (1923): 109-113, see also pp. 114-173.

Arthur P. Whitaker, The Western Hemisphere Idea: Its Rise and Decline (1954), esp. pp. 108-131.

Robert N. Burr and Roland D. Hussey, eds., Documents on Inter-American Cooperation, vol. 2 (1955), esp. pp. 87-89.

Samuel Guy Inman, Inter-American Conferences, 1826–1954: History and Problems (1965), esp. pp. 88-106.

                               Daniel M. Masterson