i) Preparatory work of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man 194. Pursuant to Resolution XL of the 1945 Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace, the Inter-American Juridical Committee drew up a draft Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man to be considered by the Ninth International Conference of American States in 1948. 291 This text was analyzed during the Conference in conjunction with the preliminary text of the International Declaration on Human Rights prepared by the United Nations in December 1947. 292 195. Article I of the draft declaration submitted by the Juridical Committee stated the following with regard to the right to life: Every person has the right to life. This right extends to the right to life from the moment of conception; to the right to life of incurables, imbeciles and the insane. Capital punishment may only be applied in cases in which it has been prescribed by pre-existing law for crimes of exceptional gravity. 293 196. Subsequently, a working group was created, 294 which submitted a new preliminary text to the Sixth Committee entitled American Declaration of the Fundamental Rights and Duties of Man; 295 the new Article 1 of which reads: Every human being has the right to life, liberty, and the security and integrity of his person. 296 197. In its report to the Sixth Committee, the working group explained this new article and other changes introduced as a compromise to resolve the problems raised by the delegations of Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, the United States of America and Venezuela, mainly as a result of the conflict existing between the laws of those States and the draft prepared by the Juridical Committee, 297 because the definition of the scope of the right to life in the Juridical Committee’s draft was incompatible with the laws on capital punishment and abortion in most American States. 298 198. On April 22, 1948, the Sixth Committee approved article I of the Declaration with a slight change in the wording of the Spanish text. 299 The definitive text of the Declaration was approved at the seventh plenary session of the Conference on April 30, 1948. 300 The only difference in the final version was the elimination of the word “integrity.” 301 The final version that was approved stated: 291 Cf. Inter-American Juridical Committee, Reports and Recommendations, Official Documents, 1945-1947, Río de Janeiro, 1960. 292 Cf. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Baby Boy v. United States, Case 2141, Report No. 23/81, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.54, doc. 9 rev. 1 (1981), para. 19(a) 293 Cf. IX Conferencia Internacional Americana - Actas y Documentos, Vol. V, p. 449. 294 Cf. IX Conferencia Internacional Americana - Actas y Documentos, Vol. V, pp. 474 and 475. 295 Cf. IX Conferencia Internacional Americana - Actas y Documentos, Vol. V, pp. 476 and 478. 296 Cf. IX Conferencia Internacional Americana - Actas y Documentos, Vol. V, p. 479. 297 Cf. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Baby Boy v. United States, Case of 2141, Report No. 23/81, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.54, doc. 9 rev. 1 (1981), para. 19(d) (citing IX Conferencia Internacional Americana - Actas y Documentos, Vol. V, pp. 474-484, 513-514). 298 Cf. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Baby Boy v. United States, Case of 2141, Report No. 23/81, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.54, doc. 9 rev. 1 (1981), para. 19(e). 299 Cf. IX Conferencia Internacional Americana - Actas y Documentos, Vol. V, p. 578. The final text was: “Every human being has the right to life, liberty and the safety and integrity of his person.” 300 Cf. IX Conferencia Internacional Americana - Actas y Documentos, Vol. V, pp. 231, 234 and 236. 301 Cf. IX Conferencia Internacional Americana - Actas y Documentos, Vol. V, p. 248.