NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS FIVE ORGANIZATIONS FOR CONSULTATIVE STATSU WITH ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

Press Release
NGO/324

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS FIVE ORGANIZATIONS FOR CONSULTATIVE STATSU WITH ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations this morning continued its review of applications from civil society groups seeking formal relations with the Economic and Social Council, recommending consultative status for five organizations.

In order to enable non-governmental, non-profit public or voluntary organizations to participate in a mutually beneficial working relationship with the United Nations, the Committee reviews and makes recommendations on applications for consultative status with the Council. There are three categories of consultative status: general, special and roster. Groups with consultative status can participate in the Council and its subsidiary bodies through attending meetings, and presenting oral interventions and written statements. General category organizations may propose items for the Council’s consideration.

The Committee first took up new requests by non-governmental organizations for reclassification and recommended reclassifying two groups from the special to the general category: the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs of the World Council of Churches; and Medecins sans Frontieres. It took that decision after reading communications from the groups to questions it had posed earlier in the week.

Next, after studying written responses to questions posed by it earlier this week, the Committee recommended granting special consultative status to: the International Metalworkers’ Federation; the Association Tunisienne de la Communication; Ligue Pour l’Education de la Femme et de l’Enfant; American Society for Training and Development; and the Mountain Institute.

It decided to leave pending its decisions on Vishva Hindu Parishad, Global Policy Forum and Peaceways. Its decision on Vishva Hindu Parishad was taken after the representative from Pakistan raised “serious questions” about “disturbing trends” in the organization’s philosophy and ideology. Foremost among his concerns was the organization’s affiliation with Rashtriya Swayamsevark Sangh, Sangh Parivar, and other organizations which had been “very closely linked” with the ideas of strict “cultural Hinduism”, Nazism and fascism. Some members of Vishva Hindu Parishad had reportedly participated in and supported violence against women and there had been accusations that members had raped missionary nuns. He questioned the organization’s view on the assassination of Mahatma Ghandi.

Committee on NGOs - 2 - Press Release NGO/324 721st Meeting (AM) 20 January 2000

The representative of Vishva Hindu Parishad said that one of the basic principles of his organization was that “all humanity was one family” and that all religions should be respected. The organization was committed to promoting literacy and the education of women and children in poor and remote locations in India. The organization had no direct links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevark Sangh or Sangh Parivar, and in fact Vishva Hindu Parishad “dispelled” the idea of forced “cultural Hinduism”. India was a large country with over 6,000 newspapers and he believed that his organization had been mistakenly linked to violence against women, and that it had been misquoted as supporting Mahatma Ghandi’s assassin. “We regard Ghandi as the father of our country”, he said adding that the organization was sorry about any connection to the assassins. “Our organization repudiates all forms of violence and criminal acts,” he said. There had been no proof in court of Vishva Hindu Parishad’s involvement in violence against women.

Pakistan’s representative said that he was not questioning India’s democracy, secularism or freedom of the press. “We are dealing with one organization and its philosophy”, he said. He then read from a copy of the Sangh Parivar Web page that “clearly displayed” a relationship with Vishva Hindu Parishad. As to the question of Vishva Hindu Parishad’s support of violent acts against women, he was not asking about newspaper commentaries, but rather about specific incidents. People everywhere respected Mahatma Ghandi, he said, but his question had been about the organization’s position on Ghandi’s assassin. In view of incidents which appeared to be in direct conflict with the Economic and Social Council, written responses were needed before the Committee would consider the group’s application, he stressed.

Also this morning, the Committee discussed ways to address applications that had been left pending for several years. Lebanon’s representative cautioned against the accumulation of such applications and proposed taking decisions on those applications. While Sudan’s representative agreed, she pointed out that some cases involved sensitive questions that must be reviewed thoroughly. Committee members discussed whether an application that had been deferred since 1995 should be rejected or closed, and whether the organization in question, which had failed to respond to communications from the Secretariat, should be invited to apply again. They will continue considering the matter this afternoon.

The representatives of China, Ireland, Algeria, Chile, India, Cuba, Russian Federation, Ethiopia, France and Colombia also spoke this morning. The Chief of the Non-Governmental Organizations Section, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Hanifa Mezoui, responded to Committee members’ questions.

At the outset of the meeting, condolences were offered to the representative of Algeria for the loss of her father by the Committee Chairman, the representatives of Cuba, Pakistan, Lebanon, India, Sudan, China, France, Chile, Colombia, Ireland, United States, Russian Federation, and the observers from Mexico, Yemen, Syria, Palestine and Djibouti. Algeria’s representative expressed appreciation for their support.

The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. today, to continue its work.

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