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Letter to the Secretary General About NGLS
International NGO Task Group on Legal and Institutional Matters (INTGLIM)
October 25, 2004
October 25, 2004United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
United Nations Headquarters
New York, NY 10017Cc:
Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette
Director Ms. Marta Maurás
Senior Officer Mr. Adrian Hills
Dear Secretary-General Annan,We are writing in response to your recent report on the Implementation of the Report of the Panel of Eminent Persons on UN-Civil Society Relations (A/59/354). As you are aware many of the recommendations in the reports are considered quite controversial by governments, civil society NGOs, the members of the ECOSOC NGO Committee, and others.
We are concerned that the controversies surrounding this report are threatening to undermine the work of one of the most valuable UN-NGO liaison body in the UN; the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS). NGLS is one of the most efficient and widely supported programs within the UN, and many NGOs believe that the independence and autonomy of NGLS should be protected.
Both the Cardoso Panel’s report as well as your response, Mr. Secretary-General, set out to strengthen NGLS by ensuring it a greater institutional standing and funding stability. We greatly appreciate these intentions. However, we are concerned that NGLS is experiencing increased difficulty raising voluntary funding from the UN system and external donors pending the outcomes of the intergovernmental debate of the two reports. As you know, this debate will very likely require many months of consultations, which threatens to leave NGLS with insufficient funding to finance its core programs and thus inflict serious wounds on its ability to provide services to the NGO community and the UN system.
Mr. Secretary-General, it would be very unfortunate if one of the first outcomes of these reports is the weakening of the work of the NGLS. Accordingly, we hope that you will take the necessary steps to reinforce the relatively small budget for NGLS for 2004-2006 while the longer term questions of NGLS’s institutional setting remain to be resolved.
In appreciation of your continuous efforts to improve the UN organization, we turn to you to assure the continuing viability of the NGLS and circumvent a potential deterioration of the UN-civil society relations.
Yours sincerely,
James A. Paul, Executive Director
Global Policy Forum
New York, USA
William Pace, Executive Director
World Federalist Movement
New York, USA
Yvonne Terlingen,
Amnesty International Representative at the UN
New York, USA
Martin Khor, Director
Third World Network
Penang, Malaysia
Sophy Kurian, Director
Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action
Mumbai, India
Seonghoon LEE
Pax Romana ICMICA
Geneva, Switzerland
Minar Pimple, Executive Director
Peoples' Decade of Human Rights Education
New York, USA
Dr. Arjun K. Karki, President
Rural Reconstruction Nepal-RRN
Kathmandu, Nepal
Joseph Rocher, Director
RONGEAD
Lyon, France
Walden Bello, Executive Director
Focus on the Global South
Bangkok, Thailand
Dominic Walubengo, Director
Forest Action Network
Kenya
June Zeitlin, Executive Director
Women's Environment and Development Organization
New York, USA
Ralf Bendrath, Chief Editor
www.worldsummit2005.org
Berlin, Germany
Gothom, Secretary-General
Forum-Asia
Bangkok, Thailand
Demba Moussa Dembele
Forum for African Alternatives
Senegal
Peer de Rijk, Director
WISE,World Information Service on Energy
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Mr. Nicky Nzioki, Research Coordinator
Cohort for Research on Environment, Urban Management and Human Settlements (CREUMHS)
Nairobi, Kenya
Hans Engelberts, General Secretary
Public Services International
France
Bruno Gurtner, Senior Economist
Swiss Coalition of Development Organizations
Bern, Switzerland
Bani Dugal, Principal Representative to the UN Director,
Office for the Advancement of Women
Baha'i International Community's UN Office
New York, USA
Seán Ó Siochrú, Executive Secretariat Member
CRIS Campaign
Dublin, Ireland
Elizabeth Eilor, Coordinator Incharge Programmes
African Women's Economic Policy Network
Kampala, Uganda
Ezra Limiri Mbogori, Executive Director
MWENGO
Harare, Zimbabwe
Cyril Ritchie, Chairman
Environment Liaison Centre International
Geneva, Switzerland
Roberto Bissio, Editor in Chief
Social Watch
Montevideo, Uruguay
Meena Raman, Chairperson
Friends of the Earth International
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Albert Koellner, Member of the Board
VIBE!AT - Austrian Association for Internet Users
Vienna, Austria
Robert Bloem, President
Conference of NGOs (CONGO)
Geneva, Switzerland
Vicente Garcia-Delgado, Esq, UN Representative
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
New York, USA
Dennis W. Frado, Main Representative at UN Headquarters
The Lutheran World Federation
New York, USA
Rudy de Meyer
11.11.11
Coalition of the Flemish North-South Movement
Brussels, Belgium
More Information on UN Reform
More Information on the Cardoso Panel
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