DPI/NGO CONFERENCE DISCUSSES 'INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIPS' FOCUSING ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEVELOPMENT

Press Release
NGO/297
PI/1030

DPI/NGO CONFERENCE DISCUSSES 'INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIPS' FOCUSING ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEVELOPMENT

In response to Africa's political crises, a new generation of Africans had emerged to assume its own responsibilities, but wanted a new partnership with the United Nations and non-governmental organizations which would strengthen local capacity, participants at the fiftieth annual Department of Public Information (DPI)/NGO Conference were told this morning.

Hassan Ba, Secretary-General of Synergies Africa, said that too often the Organization's contributions in Africa were seen to come from outsiders, and in a Balkanized effort which Africans did not appreciate. He sat on the second of two panels held this morning which focus on the theme "Networks in Action: Innovative Partnerships" -- one on communications aspects of human rights and the other on cooperating for development.

Also this morning, Joanna Weschler, of Human Rights Watch, said that while advances in communications technology had enabled news of humanitarian crises to reach audiences quickly, political solutions were not equally forthcoming. Communicating information about human rights situations must be conveyed in a targeted way, as a form of advocacy.

The theme of the three-day Conference, which has brought together representatives of over 600 non-governmental organizations from around the world is "Building Partnerships".

The Conference will meet again at 3 p.m. today to continue its discussions.

Communications Aspects of Human Rights

The Panel's Moderator was CHARLOTTE BUNCH, Executive Director, Women's Global Leadership. She noted that during the 1990s, a decade of conflicts, human rights had become a fundamental ethical standard for a new world order. The year 1998 would present an opportunity to affirm that truth. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights remained a critical document to the maintenance of human rights worldwide.

KAZIMIRA-DANUTE PRUNSKIENE, Chairperson, Lithuanian Women's Party, said that women's participation in politics, professions and business must operate under standards of equal rights. The road to gender equality and harmony was a difficult one. Without constant, daily expression, equal rights would remain an abstraction. In a country such as Lithuania, women still played a passive role, and its society remained tolerant of domestic violence. Women's salaries were 30 per cent lower than those for men, and the unemployment rate for women was 53 per cent. Women had greater responsibility for maintaining families and suffered from lower levels of education, thus making them attractive to low-wage employers. Discrimination in the Lithuanian labour market was common, with overt references to female attractiveness found in job advertisements. Every fifth Lithuanian woman fell victim to domestic violence.

A law on equal opportunities was being prepared by the Lithuanian Government, she said, but implementation mechanisms were needed for its enforcement. The number of women in the Lithuanian Parliament had grown to 18 per cent of the total representation. Women in government offices were, however, intimidated by men from furthering reforms on behalf of women. The activities of the Lithuanian Women's Association had encouraged women's political activism, to counter male chauvinism, as had the Lithuanian Women's Party. United Nations efforts to strengthen the role of women had reached the Baltic countries as well. Most women NGOs in Lithuania had partners in other countries, such as Spain and Latvia. An equal opportunities policy for Lithuania was expected to arise from NGOs' efforts.

REBECCA RIOS-KOHN, Senior Programme Officer at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), called for legislative and administrative measures by governments to enforce the rights of children. She said millions of children of Mexico had, in elections carried out last July, sent a clear message about the importance of the promotion and protection of their rights, listing health, education and the protection of the environment among issues of concern to them. The voice of children must be heard worldwide.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child, the monitoring body of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, had been reviewing reports of countries on the implementation of the Convention, she said. Progress achieved in the Convention's implementation so far was due to the work of NGOs. Religious bodies and parliamentarians had also been working with UNICEF to promote the rights of the child. Powerful images were needed to promote the rights of children, she said and referred to the role celebrities and sports personalities could play towards that end. Non-governmental organizations were also best positioned to spearhead strategic dialogue on promotion of human rights. The promotion of human rights should be everybody's business.

She said UNICEF was looking to strengthen collaboration with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and to seek

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dialogue with similar bodies in the field. The UNICEF would also work with the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and continue its partnerships with NGOs and political leaders on the promotion and protection of the rights of children.

LEONARD SUSSMAN, Senior Scholar in International Communications, Freedom House, said his organization was concerned particularly with monitoring a country's system of governance, its real application of political rights and civil liberties for all its citizens. By its estimates, one third of all nations today did not provide their own people with the freedoms pledged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, nor did they allow their journalists freedom of access to information, or the freedom to report without fear of harassment, arrest, physical attack or even murder. In a study carried out last May, Freedom House had found that 43 countries were discussing new press laws that were mainly restrictive.

Noting that the Secretary-General had made clear his determination to advance human rights while reforming the United Nations, he said the structure of the Organization did not yet permit action -- in the name of the full international community -- in most violations of human rights by a sovereign State. The United Nations could act when a few pariahs had been widely acknowledged. Non-governmental organizations, particularly in the field of information, must be aware of efforts to restrict freedom of information.

WILLIAM VENDLEY, Secretary-General, World Conference on Religion and Peace, said the question of communicating aspects of human rights begged the question, "Who should be communicating these rights, and by what means?" Religious traditions had studied the meaning of being human for a great length of time, pre-dating modern definitions of human rights. Religions were now rising to the challenge of examining the body of public human rights language. Religious communities often had exalted understandings of the human being, which even transcended public understandings of human rights, even when those same religions did not respect them. Religious traditions had engaged the human rights community in dialogue on that issue, in order to establish moral foundations for human rights.

Religious communities were also stunning for their organizational presence in the field of human rights, he said. They must realign their institutional assets in relation to the challenge of observing human rights. If their definitions of human rights could be correlated with modern ideas of human rights, the world would be well-served. Each religious community was challenged to become universal in its language on that issue.

JOANNA WESCHLER, main representative to the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, said that communicating information about human rights abuses had long been a powerful weapon for the human rights community. Some nations had sought

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to keep quiet their human rights situations. Disseminating information had, therefore, been an "important part of the battle", as part of a "shame factor", to encourage change. That situation changed in the early 1990s, with the end of the cold war and the revolution in communications technology. Yet, whereas news of situations of genocide in Rwanda, for example, had reached people quickly, political change was not forthcoming. Merely getting information out was not enough to stop violations. The human rights community had taken a few years to observe that reality.

Communicating information about human rights must be undertaken in a more targeted and useful way, she continued. Information must reach specific hands in an analytical way. In addition to the collection of information, there must be advocacy. Networking was essential to that effort. The United Nations, at the end of the cold war, had become free to address issues of human rights. The Secretary-General had emphasized communication of human rights in a newly explicit way. Human rights NGOs must build partnerships with the Organization.

Replies to Questions

In replies to the questions, the panellists stressed that human rights issues could not be separated from peace and security questions. The participant from UNICEF said the organization was involved in the implementation of the report on children in armed conflict prepared by Graça Machel at the request of the former United Nations Secretary-General. She also told a questioner that the United States had signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but had not ratified it. She urged United States NGOs to work to ensure ratification.

Cooperating for Development

The Panel's Moderator was REINHART HELMKE, Executive Director, United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). He said that UNOPS had learned many lessons about cooperating with NGOs, particularly in rehabilitating social structures after conflict. Committed citizens globally were now concentrating their efforts at a local level.

He said $100 million of the UNOPS budget was now concentrated in local NGOs, whose role had transformed from contractors to partners. The NGOs had contributed to programme design, co-financing and co-execution. "Grant agreements" between the United Nations and NGOs were now commonplace and were different than private contracts. Panellists should ask themselves, how had the roles of national and international NGOs evolved, particularly in Africa, and how could they share roles on that continent.

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Another geographic area rich with lessons for NGOs was Central America, he said. Long-term development was a priority, especially now that the cold war was over. How could vulnerable populations gain access to resources, and what had governments done to assist NGOs? Food aid was a particularly crucial issue, as was feedback on project design.

He recognized SHAIKH HASSAM CISSE, President, African American Islamic Institute, who updated participants about the "Building Partnerships" Conference facilitated by the United Nations Information Centre in Dakar, on 8 September. Mr. Cisse said the Dakar Conference intended to highlight the global war against poverty and conflict in order to "usher in a millennium of peace". The conference had enshrined that principle in its final resolution. The resolution also stated that poor countries' debt should be converted to the fight against poverty. Efforts should be made to educate people about peace, in order to insert the concept into all development programmes. The international community should show mercy to those who need it.

HASSAN BA, Secretary-General, Synergies Africa, said that crises in Africa were extremely serious, particularly in the Great Lakes region. Each Conference participant, particularly Africans, must ask himself, "What is my responsibility to solve them?". Local societies affected were not inactive in response to the crisis. Two kinds of local actors were active in relief: traditional actors -- mostly chiefs -- whose efforts must continue to be engaged; and modern actors, particularly civil society. The latter were a diverse group, including women's associations, human rights organizations and workers. Women in Rwanda were contributing to rehabilitation, for example. Those local actors had limits, such as management shortcomings.

United Nations contributions to the resolution of such African crises were often seen as coming from outsiders -- "like Martians", he said. Local NGOs were given money to address problems, but those same problems would often re-emerge a few years later. Yet local capacity must be tapped. There was also a Balkanization of efforts: human rights actors dealt only with other human rights actors, and so forth. Yet Africans did not like to deal in that manner. The new generation in Africa was prepared to take on its own responsibilities, but wanted a new partnership with the United Nations and other NGOs, with an eye to strengthening local capacity.

FABIOLA FUENTES ORELLANA, Consul General of Guatemala in New York, said non-governmental organizations played a vital and profound role in Central America. Efforts of governments and NGOs should focus on social and economic rights. The NGOs had reached the age of maturity in Central America. There was no economic progress in areas of conflict such as her own. The people were slow in accepting change. It was important that NGOs and civil society committed themselves to education for change. The situation of women should be taken account of because of the feminization of poverty. There was need to

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promote basic and technical education. She urged recognition of the right of women to work and participation in political life. The parties to the peace accords in Guatemala were moving towards implementation of the provisions. She also urged recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples and assistance to meet their needs.

ANGELA CROPPER, Special Adviser on development at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said a far more systemic effort was required to involve all actors in the development process. The current conference offered an opportunity to achieve that. Ideas for innovative partnerships should recognize the changing climate and context of cooperation for development which were characterized by a number of things, such as openness of societies, and numerous aspects of development. The UNDP had worked with non- governmental organizations and other civil society bodies in promoting development. It was helping developing countries, particularly the least developed, in capacity-building and in implementing their development programmes. The NGOs must also be involved with multilateral organizations such as the World Bank.

MONA HAMMAN, Acting Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said about a third of its food aid was for development and the rest was for humanitarian assistance. The agency was now more heavily involved in conflict areas such as Bosnia, Afghanistan, Angola and Sri Lanka. It was helping women in Bangladesh and Bosnia with its food aid programmes to generate investment in income-earning activities. The Programme did not encourage dependency in its activities but promoted development.

Responding to a participant's question about the logic of distributing food aid without charge, Ms. HAMMAN said that not all food aid of the World Food Programme (WFP) was distributed free-of-charge. In its school and health centre programmes it was sold, as an incentive for women to access health centres, and to create savings for communities. Sustainable benefits were crucial. Local production was also actively encouraged.

To a question about possible political manipulation of food aid in Iraq, she noted that a United Nations humanitarian programme had been started in Iraq in 1991, and that the WFP had since provided $400 million in food aid. The WFP was committed to addressing that problem, but the United Nations had steered clear of political considerations. She praised a similar programme in Armenia. Also, the WFP in its programmes provided nutrition experts to empower local farmers' capacities.

Asked about optimal development practice, Ms. ORELLANA said that international assistance must include the transfer of technology, to enable local peoples to solve their own problems. Mr. BA said that the United States could solve many food aid problems by reducing its trade barriers.

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