In April 1948, the OAS adopted both its Charter and the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man. The Declaration was the first international document listing universal human rights and proclaiming the need to protect these rights and preceded the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights by several months. The American Declaration was unique in that, unlike the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it included both human rights that need to be protected and duties that individuals have to society.
The rights include civil and political rights, economic rights, and social rights, such as the right to property, culture, work, leisure time and social security. The duties include obligations to vote, obey the law, serve the community and the nation, pay taxes and work.
Adoption of the Convention reinforced many of the principles described in the American Declaration. The Convention focuses mainly on civil and political human rights and offers more detailed definitions of these rights than the Declaration. The Convention entered into force July 18, 1978.