Posts Tagged ‘Practical Guide to the UN Committee on NGOs’
July 9, 2017
Civil society participation at the UN is essential to ensure the relevance and value of debates and decisions at the international level along with the implementation of UN resolutions and recommendations on the ground. The International Service for Human Rights is organizing an interactive event to discuss NGO engagement with UN bodies and processes as well as opportunities and imperatives for reform. Monday 17 July, 11:30 – 13:00, Room XXIV, Palais des Nations, Geneva
ISHR will also launch a brand new handbook, the ‘Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly: A Practical Guide for NGOs’. Copies of the updated version of the ‘Practical Guide to the UN Committee on NGOs’ will also be available at the event.
Panelists
• Dianela Pi, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Uruguayan Mission to the UN in Geneva
• Iniyan Ilango, FORUM-ASIA
• Eleanor Openshaw, International Service for Human Rights
Moderator
• Tanya Bennett, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Australian Mission to the UN in Geneva
Concluding remarks:
• Peggy Hicks, OHCHR
[Attendance with UNOG pass only. If you are a member of civil society interested in attending but don’t have a UNOG pass, please contact information@ishr.ch.]
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, ISHR, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: civil society organisations, Eleanor Openshaw, Geneva, Iniyan Ilango, International Service for Human Rights, ISHR, NGOs, Practical Guide to the UN Committee on NGOs, side event, Third Committee
May 4, 2015
Getting ‘consultative status’ with the UN is for many NGOs a nightmare and a subject that does not attract the most attention. Hopefully this opinion piece written by Jean-Daniel Vigny, Swiss human rights expert and member of the Board of the International Service for Human Rights (27 April 2015) will help to change this:
He makes 5 recommendations in relation to the ECOSOC Committee on NGOs (shortened version):
- Ministries of Foreign Affairs positively inclined to civil society and the big international NGOs represented in New York should actively participate in each session of the ECOSOC Committee;
- The EU and the rest of WEOG and other friendly States of civil society from the East European Group, GRULAC, the African Group and the Asian Group and national and international NGOs should join the campaign for improved membership and modalities of the NGO Committee;
- The status quo of quasi permanent membership to the NGO Committee by some States not favourable to civil society should be broken;
- (a rather difficult one) ECOSOC could develop an ‘interpretative guide’ for the Committee on the application of ECOSOC resolution 1996/31 (or get agreement on a paragraph calling for all applications for consultative status to be forwarded to ECOSOC for decision within a 3 years limit, thereby short-circuiting the present practice of repeated deferral of many applications);
- Share cases of denial or repeated deferral of consultative status as reprisals with the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Association and Assembly and to pursue implementation of his recommendations to strengthen NGO participation at the UN and in other multilateral fora. We could also encourage the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders to study, report and make recommendations as to the reform of the NGO Committee, including in relation to the misapplication of ECOSOC resolution 1996/31.
The full text of the piece entitled “NGO participation at the UN: A roadmap for reform” follows:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, ISHR, UN | 3 Comments »
Tags: Civil society, consultative status, ECOSOC, International Service for Human Rights, Jean-Daniel Vigny, New York, NGO Committee, NGOs, participation, Practical Guide to the UN Committee on NGOs, reprisals, Switzerland, UN
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 