Tuesday, May 22
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Tuesday, May 22
Today the deliberations on what the procedure should be for NGOs who are denied accreditation to the WCAR continued.
Yesterday it was about 6 NGOs, today a 7th was added by Sudan, although this organisation (A Sudanese Women organization) had
their application in last October,
Sudan only objected to them today. The reason given for discussing this whole issue now was that several governmental
delegations said they received the information on the NGOs only just before the start of the PrepCom yesterday, so they
would need one week to study them.
Then some delegations argued that if any NGO was ever refused ECOSOC status should not be accredited for the WCAR as well
as organisations who do not have an official status in their country of origin. The secretariat explained they have been
accrediting organizations in the spirit of regulations for accreditation to the WCAR, otherwise at least 50% of the already
accredited NGOs wouldn't be allowed in. All this while the whole point of organizing the WCAR with broad involvement of
civil society is to have a more productive one than the two previous ones.
Rumor has it some parties are trying to stall the discussion on the conference declaration and action plan long enough
for a third week to be added to the PrepCom so the NGOs will go home and the declaration and action plan can be made without
further ‘interference'. But hey, it's just a rumor :-). Anyway, in the end it was decided that for each of the 7 NGOs the
assembly would take a vote. The first one, from Thailand, got voted in! So they are accredited after all. We'll keep you
informed about the others.
For the rest a lot of different caucus meetings took place today, we hope to give you the articles on what happened tomorrow.
NGOs present at the PrepCom are concerned because it took 2 days talking just about accreditation procedures of 7 NGOs. They have formulated the following statement:
NGO POSITION REGARDING ITEM 3 IN THE AGENDA
1. The undersigning NGOs attending the second session of the preparatory committee express their concern regarding the increased polarisation of discussions within the UN on the issue of civil society participation and accreditation, both in ECOSOC bodies and at UN world conferences.
2. We urge all states to abide by both the letter, as well as the spirit, of ECOSOC resolution 1996/31. This decision was adopted 5 years ago in order to expand civil society access and participation in the UN system, especially that of southern NGOs working at the national level.
3. We urge all governments to take due note that we, as civil society institutions, play a key role in the democratization of world affairs in general and of the UN system in particular.
4. We take note that almost every state opposing or favouring the disputed credentials of 6 NGOs in the discussion of item 3 of the agenda have expressed their understanding that this issue should be solved in a fair and expeditious way that will not delay the drafting of the declaration and programme of action for this world conference.
5. We expect them to act accordingly and to recognize that the procedures and the decision-making meganism that exist for determining credentials and participation in UN world conferences are different from those applied by the UN NGO committee in New York for extending ECOSOC status to NGOs.
6. We call the attention of the preparatory committee to the fact that respect for pluralism and diversity within the UN international community of states shall be also extended to political opinions and positions of civil society organisations that may wish to exercise their right to dissent from government policies.
NGOs that signed so far:
ENAR (European Network Against Racism)
Penal Reform International
UNITED for Intercultural Action
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, USA
Egale, Canada
Women for Development Europe
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights/Education Fund, USA
Applied Research Center, USA
African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies
Presbytarian Church, USA
United to End Racism
Rroma Center for Public Policies "Aven Amentza"
Sikh Human Rights Group
Magenta foundation, Netherlands
Simon Wiesenthal Centre Europe
International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Sri Lanka
LBR (National Bureau against Racial Discrimination), Netherlands
French Coordination for the European Womens Lobby
Indigenous World Association
European Coucil of Federations WIZO
Essemblee des Femmes Vol de Marne
Susila Dharma International
Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities