UN CIVIL SOCIETY LINKAGE

The United Nations Charter empowers the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to consult with non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In 1946, the first year of the UN, ECOSOC accredited fewer than 50. Over the next four decades Cold War pressures kept the annual increase in accreditations low. Over the 1970s and 1980s, there were usually no more than 30 to 40 new applications every year. That changed with the end of the Cold War: there were 200 applications in 1998-99, 400 in 2000-01, and 500 in 2002-03. In all, ECOSOC now has over 13,000 accredited civil society organizations, the vast majority of them NGOs. As the time-line below shows, many now have key roles in international deliberative and operational processes.

In addition to ECOSOC, NGOs also contribute to the work of the General Assembly and the Security Council, but neither body has set in place formal arrangements for accreditation. The UN Secretariat, through its Department of Public Information (DPI), works with over 2000 registered NGOs (of which over a third appear also on the ECOSOC list). DPI organizes a well-attended NGO conference in September every year.

A number of specialized programs established by the General Assembly engage strongly with civil society. UNICEF has formal relations with 191 NGOs, and receives nearly a third of its income from its national committees. UNAIDS, which coordinates the work of the UN system on HIV/AIDS, includes non-governmental representatives in its governance structure: five are on its Program Coordinating Body (PCB), along with representatives of 22 governments, and 8 UN agencies.

Among UN Specialized agencies, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has had a tripartite governance structure involving governments, businesses and labor unions since its founding in 1919 as part of the League of Nations. UNESCO had accorded formal status to 580 NGOs in 2005, the Food and Agriculture Organization to 190, and the World Health Organization to 180. All these agencies consult and work with many more, especially at the national level. The World Bank has had an NGO Committee of 26 civil society representatives since 1982, and works with many more at the project level. About half of Bank-financed projects now involve NGOs and about 60 country offices and 10 HQ departments now have civil society focal points. With the permission of the respective governments, large numbers of national and international NGOs are accredited to annual World Bank-IMF meetings.

A basic problem in the relations of the United Nations System with civil society is the North-South divide: organizations in affluent countries dominate the scene. There is need for much greater representation of developing country organizations in the work of the UN, but that is not something that can be wished into being. Among the organizations that do represent the South at the UN, most are affiliated to or funded by Northern partners. 

UN and Civil Society: A Post Cold War Timeline

1992: Acting on the initiative of the International Committee of the Red Cross, six NGOs established the International Campaign to Ban Landmines at a meeting in New York. Though initially considered pie in the sky, the Campaign gained support from governments and civil society and became in a few years an effective instrument of mobilization and pressure. With civil society membership climbing past 1,000, it became a major force in shaping the Ottawa Convention to ban anti-personnel landmines, which opened for signature in December 1997 and came into force on 1 March 1999. In less than a decade, the Campaign had succeeded in getting governments to ban an entire class of weapons. Though some major countries have not joined the treaty, it has turned the tide on the indiscriminate use of landmines.

In the Security Council, Ambassador Diego Arria of Venezuela invited Security Council members to meet over coffee in the UN Delegates’ Lounge with a Bosnian priest who wanted to brief them about events in his country. The meeting set the pattern for “Arria formula” meetings that came to be held with interpretation and informal records kept by the Secretariat.

1993: In the wake of the very significant involvement of civil society in the 1992 Rio Conference on Environment and Development, ECOSOC initiated a “general review of current arrangements for consultation with NGOs, with a view to updating them.”

1994: With strong support from “Like-Minded Governments” an NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) was established with 45 members (it now includes some 800 organizations). The Coalition became a key information source for governments, and was so much part of the official process that it handled NGO accreditation for the 1998 Rome Conference that adopted the treaty. The Statute of the Court entered into force on 1 July 2002.

1996: The ECOSOC review begun in 1993 led to a resolution and a decision, both adopted by consensus. Resolution 1996/31 eased accreditation of national, regional and sub-regional NGOs, including national affiliates of international NGOs and set out a standard procedure for civil society participation in international conferences. It also said that non-ECOSOC NGOs could participate in international conferences and placed special emphasis on encouraging Southern NGO participation; a Trust Fund to support that was proposed. Except for a few International NGOs which wanted participation of national-level NGOs limited to major conferences and regional commissions, the changes were generally welcomed. Not so Decision 1996/297, which asked the General Assembly to examine “the question of the participation of NGOs in all areas of work of the UN.” The permanent members of the Security Council did not want NGOs involved in security issues (see below), and some developing countries, viewing NGOs as primarily from the North, did not want to give them greater weight in the work of the Assembly. The matter was taken up by an Assembly Working Group.

Chile tried to convene an “Arria formula” meeting (see 1992 above), to have the Security Council briefed by NGOs providing relief in the Great Lakes region of Africa, but there was opposition from some Permanent members. A modified formula had to be devised before a meeting could be held — in 1997.

1997: Consultations in the Assembly Working Group continued inconclusively on matters of definition and scope of NGO access. Developed countries wanted “all areas” to exclude the Security Council; developing countries wanted to include not only the Security Council but the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and their offshoots.

The 1996 initiative by Chile to arrange a briefing by OXFAM, CARE and Medecins Sans Frontieres on the Great Lakes region of Africa resulted in a February meeting chaired by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and attended not only by Security Council members but by the Bureaus of the General Assembly and ECOSOC. In September, a bid by Portugal to convene an “Arria formula” meeting with the Secretary-General of Amnesty International ran into opposition from the Permanent members of the Council; it had to be held as an “ad hoc event.”

1998: Responding to a request from the Assembly, the Secretary-General reported on existing arrangements for NGOs in July (A/53/170). He noted the broad engagement of NGOs with the work of the UN, their overwhelmingly positive role, and their weaknesses, including tensions with governments and occasional lack of independence from them. The report proposed a number of improvements that could be made in existing arrangements. However, on the issue of access to the General Assembly, it did no more than suggest that during public meetings ECOSOC-accredited NGOs be allowed to occupy seats “as available” in a part of the GA hall where they could access documents.

1999: The Secretary-General submitted another report (A/54/329), reflecting the views of those who had replied to a UN questionnaire. Respondents were a handful of governments, UN Specialized Agencies and 130 NGOs, mostly from developed countries. Amidst growing frustration in the NGO community, the larger and more influential NGOs began to abandon the effort to win across the board access and sought to improve their own status. On the other hand, the street demonstrations at the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Seattle in November 1999 underlined the need to improve the situation more broadly.

2000: The Council met on three occasions with representatives of NGOs under the Arria formula, and also opened the meetings to all delegations that asked to attend. NGOs had a key role in shaping the Council’s groundbreaking resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security.

2002: “Many Member States are wary of the constant pressure to make more room for NGOs in their deliberations, while NGOs feel they are not allowed to participate meaningfully,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the General Assembly. The sheer volume of NGO participation made it “physically impossible for the Organization to accommodate all NGOs requesting participation in UN conferences and meetings.”

2003: The Secretary-General appointed a high-level panel to study the UN’s links with civil society and recommend what needed to be done, with former President of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso as Chairman.

2004: Cardoso panel issued its report (A/58/817) on UN-Civil Society relations.

2005: The General Assembly meeting at the summit level took no substantive action to strengthen UN-civil society relations. 

 To go to the civil society page at the UN web site click here.