[WSIS CS-Plenary] [Fwd: UN embraces civil society]

[Dr. Francis MUGUET]

Hello everybody

Seems an important piece of news to pass...
and to discuss

Best

Francis

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: UN embraces civil society
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 14:21:20 -0700
From: Other News - Roberto Savio / IPS <soros at topica.email-publisher.com>
Reply-To: <othernet at ips.org>
To: muguet at wtis.org

/Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, 
article sent for information purposes./

U.N. Hosts Historic Session With Civil Society
Mithre J. Sandrasagra

UNITED NATIONS, Jun (IPS) - For the first time ever, civil society has 
been invited to participate in interactive sessions of the U.N. General 
Assembly, but the guest list has irked some leading activists who wonder 
why they were not asked to attend.

The event will draw thousands of representatives of civil society, 
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the private sector to New York 
on Thursday and Friday to present proposals on development, security and 
human rights.

”While governments have traditionally been known as the engine for 
development, it has increasingly become imperative for them to partner 
with civil society,” said Jean Ping of Gabon, president of the General 
Assembly.

The informal hearings are a clear demonstration that ”member states of 
the U.N. are prepared not only to work with civil society but also to 
give serious consideration to proposals and ideas presented at these 
discussions,” Ping said.

”These hearings are taking place at a crucial time,” as negotiations are 
being held on the outcome document for the 2005 World Summit in 
September to review progress made on commitments made during the 2000 
Millennium Summit, said Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

U.N. officials say that Ping has invited over 200 participants 
representing a ”broad and balanced cross-section of civil society, NGOs 
and the private sector, both high-level leadership and grassroots 
membership,” to present their views.

But many NGOs disagree. ”We do not know how they selected speakers,” 
Esmeralda Brown of the Southern Caucus of NGOs for Sustainable 
Development told IPS.

Though Brown was the vice president and chairperson of the NGO 
Millennium Forum, held during the lead-up to the Millennium Summit of 
world leaders here in 2000, she has not been chosen to speak at the 
interactive hearings.

Of the 1,350 NGOs that Brown brought to the U.N. in 2000, many have not 
been invited back this year, she says. ”These are the groups that have 
been working on the on the basis of our outcome document for five years, 
how can we have a follow-up without them?”

The Southern Caucus has been a voice of NGOs at the world body and 
instrumental in U.N. processes since before the Earth Summit +5 review 
in 1997.

The United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS), a small 
inter-agency programme with offices in Geneva and New York and a 
combined staff of 10, selected nine Northern NGOs to advise Ping on the 
modalities of the hearings and the selection of participants, Brown says.

No speakers have been included from the nuclear and general disarmament 
and international law fields, according to John Burroughs, executive 
director of the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy.

Burroughs points to an International Herald Tribune op-ed on May 30 in 
which Annan challenged world leaders meeting in September to ”break the 
deadlock on the most pressing challenges in the field of nuclear 
nonproliferation and disarmament.”

”Why is there no speaker who will address nonproliferation and the 
related issue of suspected WMD proliferation?” he asked.

At the heart of the hearings will be a push by civil society to 
strengthen the United Nations and hold governments accountable for their 
commitment to work toward a more peaceful, prosperous and just world.

World leaders agreed at the Millennium Summit to meet eight Millennium 
Development Goals (MDGs), which included decreasing by half the number 
of people living in poverty and hunger by 2015, ensuring primary 
schooling for all children, and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, 
malaria and other major diseases.

Since 2000, however, many governments have not acted on their promises, 
and the gap between rich and poor continues to widen.

The basis of the hearings will be four informal interactive sessions 
that will focus on the four main themes of the secretary-general's 
report, titled ”In Larger Freedom”: freedom from want, freedom from 
fear, freedom to live in dignity, and strengthening the U.N..

Five rapporteurs will be appointed by civil society participants to 
prepare a summary of their respective sessions, which they will present 
at the closing segment.

Asked weather the member states will incorporate the views expressed at 
the civil society meetings into their outcome document for the September 
summit, Ping said that ”many things will be considered in the 
preparation of the outcome document.”

”Civil society plays an important role, they are not marginalised,” Ping 
stressed. ”NGOs today are a player that we can not ignore.”

Nevertheless, rumours are circulating at the U.N. that even Southern 
governments are failing to have much influence on the draft of the World 
Summit outcome document.

Gemma Adaba, representative of the International Confederation of Free 
Trade Unions to the U.N. (ICFTU), thinks the process is fair. ”We are a 
broad constituency of NGOs,” she told reporters Wednesday. ICFTU was 
selected by NGLS to advise Ping.

”We are optimistic people and hope that governments will take our 
viewpoints into consideration,” Adaba said.


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-- 

------------------------------------------------------
Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D

MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals
Associate Publisher
http://www.mdpi.org   http://www.mdpi.net
muguet at mdpi.org       muguet at mdpi.net

ENSTA   Paris, France
KNIS lab.  Director
"Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS)
muguet at ensta.fr   http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet

World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
Civil Society Working Groups
Scientific Information :  http://www.wsis-si.org  chair
Patents & Copyrights   :  http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair
Financing Mechanismns  :  http://www.wsis-finance.org web

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