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UNITED NATIONS: Civil Society Wants Partnership

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Dec 4 2007 (IPS) - The alliance of civil society groups that have consultative status with the United Nations has without a doubt gained visibility on the international scene, although in many respects the international forum still relegates it to a secondary role.

That is the predominant sensation among the representatives of civil society who will meet Wednesday through Friday in Geneva in the 23rd General Assembly of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO).

The only time civil society was given a starring role was during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), staged by the U.N. with the aim of reducing the digital gap between rich and poor countries, and held in two phases: in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005.

That international conference "was in that way close to a multi-stakeholder tri-partite model and created an exchange platform between governments, civil society and the private sector," the president of CONGO, Renate Bloem, told IPS.

By contrast, several meetings of the Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) Substantive Session, held last July in Geneva, showed that the tripartite approach is still a long way from being the norm in relations between the U.N. and the alliance of NGOs, complained Bloem.

NGOs protested that two of the four key U.N. funds and programmes failed in the ECOSOC session to even make a reference in their policy statements to civil society, even though the implementation of their aid projects depends heavily on civil society cooperation.

Each year some 100 or 150 NGOs join the ranks of those in consultative status with ECOSOC, which currently number around 3,000. But one of the main concerns of CONGO is the geographic distribution of these civil society organisations.

Around two-thirds of them are based in North America and Europe, which reflects a serious imbalance, said Bloem.

As a result, NGOs in the developing South face a number of problems, especially those that attempt to draw in the younger generations.

As indicated by the theme of this week’s assembly, "Moving from consultation to partnership in promoting rights and responsible governance at all levels", civil society’s aim is to go from a consultative role to the status of genuine participants, reflecting the tendency that is occurring in the international community through multi-stakeholder forums.

In an assessment of civil society’s position within the U.N. system, Bloem noted that an important space was opened up when the General Assembly established in 2005 that peace (and security), development and human rights are the three pillars on which the world body is based.

In the meantime, attempts to reform the U.N. governance body on peace and security, the Security Council, remain blocked.

On the other hand, ECOSOC has introduced modifications that favour growing participation by civil society.

The replacement of the now-defunct U.N. Commission on Human Rights by the Human Rights Council in 2006 offered civil society a possibility to influence the U.N. decision-making process, although "not without having to overcome occasional skilfully set-up roadblocks," said Bloem ironically.

One of civil society’s main concerns is gender questions. After the initial success in U.N. and member government thinking and decision-making, NGOs must be vigilant in preventing gender issues from "again becoming the stepchild of continuing reform," say the activists.

For instance, the outcome document of the 2005 conference that evaluated compliance with the declaration approved in 2000 by the U.N. General Assembly (the Millennium Summit) did not adequately reflect the additional effort required to strengthen respect for the rights of women and gender equality, said Bloem.

Furthermore, many NGOs believe the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted at the 2000 U.N. General Assembly do not sufficiently highlight the urgency of resolving problems related to gender, and their cross-cutting nature.

Civil society is thus once again underscoring its demand for the creation of an institution that focuses specifically on gender questions within the U.N. system.

Another concern is the proliferation of NGOs that are not independent but are actually instruments of national governments, which have thus been dubbed "GONGOs".

"The GONGOs discredit and harm the activities of independent NGOs," according to Bloem.

Civil society’s activities can also be obstructed by large corporations, whose resources are sometimes channelled into financing movements of opponents or into discrediting NGOs, said the activists.

Bloem, a Swiss expert who represents the World Federation of Methodist and United Church Women, finishes her second term as president of CONGO at this week’s meeting. Her first three-year term began in 2000, and her second was extended by the assembly to four years.

The only candidate so far registered to be elected by the assembly as Bloem’s successor is Liberato C. Bautista, representative to the United Nations of the General Board of the Church and Society of the United Methodist Church.