OAS Regional Report on CSO Regulation

Published: November 2022

Beginning in 2021, ICNL collaborated with Inter-American Juridical Committee (IAJC) Commissioner Ramiro Orias to compile and analyze the laws and practices for regulating civil society organization lifecycles in Organization of American States (OAS) member countries. The report compares regional regulations to relevant international standards and served as a basis for a motion on Inter-American Principles on the Legal Regime for the Creation, Operation, Financing, and Dissolution of Civil Not-for-Profit Entities that the IAJC approved during its March 2023 plenary. ICNL convened several expert dialogues throughout 2021 and 2022 with lawyers, academics, and civil society representatives to validate the findings and provide additional analysis on CSO lifecycles laws in their countries. The Regional Report, available in Spanish only, summarizes these laws and implementation practices governing civil society organization creation, operation, financing, and dissolution in the 35 Organization of American States member States. Additionally, the report includes an extensive annex of relevant laws compared to international and regional legal standards that readers may use to assess the laws and practices in their own countries.