1928: The Havana Convention

It was held in Havana, Cuba, from 16 January to 20 February 1928.

Although President Wilson played a leading role in the establishment of the League of Nations, he was unable to guide his country into this general society of states. The fact that the ICAN (International Commission for Air Navigation) was considered formally linked with the League was one of reasons why the USA did not join it. The need for a separate form of international cooperation on a regional American basis was result of this situation. 

From 2 to 19 May 1927 had met in Washington the Commercial Aviation Commission, which had drawn up the project of a Pan-American Convention of Aerial Navigation. It also took the Paris Convention as starting point, but it carried out many modifications that were of importance. 

Drawn up the – elaborou    carried out – realizou, cumpriu

Further to the above Commission, the Pan American Convention on Commercial Aviation had been finalized in Havana early 1928 under the auspices of the Sixth Pan-American Conference. President Calvin Coolidge of USA arrived in Havana on 15 January and addressed the Conference on the opening day. The United States and twenty other States located in the Western Hemisphere signed the Convention on 20 February 1928. This new Convention weakened the ICAN’s (International Commission for Air Navigation) international stature.

 The Havana Convention was modeled after the Paris Convention; it applied exclusively to private aircraft (government aircraft were not included) and laid down basic principles and rules for aerial traffic, recognizing that every State had complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory and adjacent territorial waters. Clauses largely enabled USA owned airlines to freely operate services within North and South America.

Enabled – permitiu    within – “no”, ideia de dentro, no interior de

 Although the principles of the Havana Convention were the mutual freedom of air passage, it made however no attempt to develop uniform technical standards, nor was there any provision for periodic discussion on common problems through the agency of a permanent organisation (i.e. a Secretariat).  The Havana Convention had no Annexes; all rules were contained in the treaty itself. Aircraft regulation was done according to the laws of each country; no uniformity was provided. However, they were seen to be no longer adequate for the years after World War II, because of the immense wartime development of aerial transport. The Convention on International Civil Aviation signed at Chicago on 7 November 1944 superseded them; there was some readiness to concede that commercial air rights as well as technical and navigational regulations should be governed by international agreement.

 The Havana Convention was approved by the US Senate on 20 February 1931. The Convention was registered with the League of Nations on 12 May 1932. 

This Pan-American Agreement was a certain success, since, signed by 21 States, it was finally ratified by 16 of them by 1944, i.e. Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Uruguay, the USA, and Venezuela.