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Colombia Relations with World Organizations
Colombia has been an active member of the UN since the
organization was founded. It belonged to numerous UN
organizations,
including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT), the
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC),
and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD). Under the National Front governments, Colombia
became a
major recipient of funds and programs from international
bodies,
such as the IDB, IMF, United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP),
and International Labour Organisation (ILO). Colombia
preferred to
handle security and global matters through the
international forums
provided by the UN General Assembly and Security Council.
Pursuing
a somewhat independent course, Colombia became a respected
voice in
the General Assembly and other international arenas on
matters of
international law. It played an active role in the various
UN
conferences on the law of the sea. In late 1975, it became
the
first nation to call on the General Assembly for a legal
definition
of outer space and geostationary orbits, arguing that
nations have
"inalienable and untransferable" sovereign rights to the
airspace
directly above them, including the geostationary orbit.
Betancur also played a role in improving international
trade
conditions for developing countries through the
International
Coffee Agreement (which he helped to renegotiate in 1983),
UNCTAD,
Aladi, and the Inter-American Economic and Social Council
(Consejo
Interamericano Económico y Social--CIAES). Other
international
organizations to which Colombia belonged in the late 1980s
included
the World Bank and International the Telecommunications
Satellite
Organization (Intelsat), the Washington-based
communications
consortium.
Data as of December 1988
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