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NGOs Secretary General Kofi Annan
Considers Concerns of NGOsBy CONGO
Distributed on the CONGO List-serv
August 10, 1999
On August 6, Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed support for measures to improve access by NGOs to United Nations deliberations. These expressions were in response to concerns expressed by the Conference of NGOs (CONGO) on behalf of NGOs worldwide over the past nine months about deteriorating conditions of access, at a time when Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other UN leaders have stated how indispensable the work of NGOs is to the work of the United Nations and its agencies.
On several occasions in recent months Assistant Secretary-General Gillian Sorensen has met with representatives of CONGO, led by President Afaf Mahfouz, to discuss issues related to NGO access to the United Nations, such as the changing UN context with regard to the UN's relationship with NGOs; security arrangements; access to the UN optical disk system (for official documents); fees being charged NGOs to use facilities at the European office of the UN in Geneva, etc. On these occasions other UN officials, such as Principal Officer Mitchell Werner and Danielle Loff of the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, UN Security Chief Michael McCann, and Mona Khalil, Legal Officer in the Office for Legal Affairs, have been present.
At the most recent meeting with ASG Sorensen on Wednesday, August 4, Sudha Acharya (All India Women's Conference), Dennis Frado (Lutheran World Federation) and Rebecca Nichols, Executive Director, joined President Afaf Mahfouz for the discussions.
The CONGO delegation raised several outstanding issues of concern to NGOs, including the insistence that NGOs pass through metal detectors at the UN's perimeters in New York, strictures on NGO access to the 2nd floor of the UN, and the imposition of fees on NGO use of UN facilities in Geneva. Mr. McCann acknowledged that the metal detectors had been set at an overly sensitive level, thus being prone to going off at even a hint of metal, and said that this had been altered. He also, along with Mrs. Sorensen, expressed willingness to explore the creation of a parallel system for NGO representatives with year passes, in order to avoid the need to pass through the metal detectors. The discussion on NGO access to the 2nd floor brought about no real advances, with access still limited by 50 NGO passes, which are under the control of the UN NGO Section. More positively, Mrs. Sorensen committed to exploring the question of fees in Geneva, with a view to their elimination. Also positively, UN security apologized for the recent mistake of an officer who blocked NGO access to an open meeting of the Security Council, and said that more effort would be made in training to eliminate these occurrences.
The review of issues related to NGO access to the United Nations and United Nations information also included an invitation to an NGO representative to participate in a UN Task Force and public sessions for NGOs on the UN optical disk system (ODS). The great majority of UN documents are accessible through the system, but only via computers in the UN library. Initially offered to outside NGO subscribers at a fee beyond the means of most NGOs, the UN is now committed to making it available much more widely at no cost. Commitments were also made to replace the often non-working earphones in the public seating areas of UN chambers.
Two days later, on Friday, August 6, Secretary-General Kofi Annan received the CONGO delegation along with Assistant Secretary-General Sorensen, and senior staff in his personal conference room on the 38th floor. The CONGO delegation was led by Afaf Mahfouz and included Sudha Acharya, Dennis Frado, Rebecca Nichols, Joanna Weschler (Human Rights Watch) and Jim Paul (Global Policy Forum). All members of the CONGO delegation had been centrally involved in ongoing discussion on NGO access issues at the United Nations.
The CONGO delegation reviewed the evolving relationship between the NGO community and the United Nations. It touched upon NGO concerns relating to the Committee on NGOs and its mandate under Resolution 1996/31, concerning which CONGO is committed to undertaking the same kind of soundings among NGOs as it did in seeking responses to the draft report of the Secretary-General on UN-NGO relationships. The first open meeting on this topic is set for October 1 at the United Nations. Delegation members covered the treatment of human rights NGOs at the United Nations. They also reviewed general issues relating to NGO access to and within the UN and the impact of that access on the consultative relationship; the specific issue of fees in Geneva; the optical disk system; and expanding interest on the part of NGOs around the world in the state of the NGO-UN relationship. The delegation expressed interest in the Secretary-General devoting personal attention to those matters.
In his remarks, the Secretary-General reiterated commitment to resolving NGO concerns on access to the optical disk system, and on the imposition of fees in Geneva. He also expressed his intention of looking into the other issues raised, at the same time as identifying Mrs. Sorensen as his continuing interlocutor on those issues.
CONGO is pleased to have had these meetings and pleased at the progress made on some of the small but continuing matters of concern expressed by NGOs. Equally, if not more important, is the indication suggested in the meetings of the renewal of the kind of dialogue CONGO has had in the past with UN leadership and of a commitment on the part of the leadership to be attentive to concerns of NGOs working with the United Nations on its global agenda.
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