ABSTRACT
The Governments represented at the InterAmerican Conference for the Maintenance of Peace,
Animated by a desire to promote the maintenance of general peace in their mutual relations;
Appreciating the advantages derived and to be derived from the various agreements
already entered into condemning war and providing methods for the pacific settlement of international disputes;
Recognizing the need for placing the greatest restrictions upon resort to war; and
Believing that for this purpose it is desirable to conclude a new convention to coordinate, extend, and assure the
fulfillment of existing agreements, have . . . agreed upon the following provisions:
Article . Taking into consideration that, by the Treaty to Avoid and Prevent Conflicts between the American States, signed at Santiago, May , (known as the Gondra Treaty), the High Contracting Parties agree that all controversies which it has been impossible to settle through diplomatic channels or to submit to arbitration in accordance with existing treaties shall be submitted for investigation and report to a Commission of Inquiry;
That by the Treaty for the Renunciation of War, signed at Paris on August , (known as the Kellogg-Briand Pact, or Pact of Paris), the High Contracting Parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies and renounce it as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another;
That by the General Convention of Inter-American Conciliation, signed at Washington, January , , the High Contracting Parties agree to submit to the procedure of conciliation all controversies between them, which it may not have been possible to settle through diplomatic channels, and to establish a ‘Commission of Conciliation’ to carry out the obligations assumed in the Convention;
That by the General Treaty of InterAmerican Arbitration, signed at Washington, January , , the High Contracting Parties bind themselves to submit to arbitration, subject to certain exceptions, all differences between them of an international character, which it has not been possible to adjust by diplomacy and which are juridical in their nature by reason of being susceptible of decision by the application of the principles of law, and moreover, to create a procedure of arbitration to be followed; and
That by the Treaty of Non-Aggression and Conciliation, signed at Rio de Janeiro, October , (known as the Saavedra Lamas Treaty), the High Contracting Parties solemnly declare that they condemn wars of aggression in their mutual relations
or in those with other States and that the settlement of disputes or controversies between them shall be effected only by pacific means which have the sanction of international law, and also declare that as between them territorial questions must not be settled by violence, and that they will not recognize any territorial arrangement not obtained by pacific means, nor the validity of the occupation or acquisition of territories brought about by force of arms, and, moreover, in a case of non-compliance with these obligations, the Contracting States undertake to adopt, in their character as neutrals, a common and solidary attitude and to exercise the political, juridical, or economic means authorized by international law, and to bring the influence of public opinion to bear, without, however, resorting to intervention, either diplomatic or armed, subject nevertheless to the attitude that may be incumbent upon them by virtue of their collective treaties; and, furthermore, undertake to create a procedure of conciliation;
The High Contracting Parties reaffirm the obligations entered into to settle, by pacific means, controversies of an international character that may arise between them.
