COMMITTEE ON NGOS CONTINUES 2000 SESSION

Press Release
NGO/354

COMMITTEE ON NGOS CONTINUES 2000 SESSION

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) this morning continued its consideration of applications for consultative status within the Economic and Social Council.

The current requests for consultative status were deferred from previous sessions of the Committee in 1998 and 1999.

Organizations wishing to apply for the “general” category must be concerned with most of the activities of the Economic and Social Council and its subsidiary bodies. “Special” category is granted to organizations that are involved specifically with only a few of the fields of activity covered by the Council. Organizations that can make occasional and useful contributions to the Council or its subsidiary bodies are included on the “roster”. Such NGOs tend to have a more specific or technical focus or both.

The Committee, first acting on a new application, decided that Fonds E7 pour le développement énergetique durable -- a national NGO based in Paris, France -- be granted special consultative status within the Economic and Social Council.

The NGO focuses on preserving the planet by promoting the implementation of the main principles of sustainable energy development. The basic goal of the organization is conservation in general through the conversion and sound use of energy and the introduction and enforcement of the necessary environmental norms.

The organization also believes that beyond the need to preserve the planet for future generations, sustainable energy development is an issue of social equity and solidarity among nations and generations. The role of the Fonds E7 is therefore to launch projects and participate in their implementation.

Also this morning, the Committee deferred taking action on the application of the Islamic Centre -- an international NGO requesting special consultative status -- because more time was needed by members to consider additional information on the organization’s finances.

The Centre, which is based in London, United Kingdom, endeavours to provide tailor-made services for the Muslim community. Those services can be divided broadly into the following categories: academic, entertainment, social welfare, cultural, education, women, youth and family and minority groups.

By organizing a number of multi-disciplinary programmes, seminars and conferences in collaboration with well-known NGOs, cultural and social services, research centres and universities in the United Kingdom and abroad, the Islamic Centre has been able to advance a better understanding of Islam as well as more multi-faith communication.

Committee on NGOs - 2 - Press Release NGO/354 749th Meeting (AM) 14 June 2000

As the Committee considered the application by Christian Solidarity Worldwide -- a national NGO requesting roster status, a lengthy debate which included vigorous objections to the organization’s request took place.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, based in Surrey, United Kingdom, aims to be the “voice for the voiceless”. It claims to work on behalf of persecuted Christians and others, and believes that its mission is to reach those people who are among the most outcast, deprived and vulnerable.

One issue raised was that questions posed to the NGO by the Committee were not sent, because at the time of the application the organization had not fulfilled the criteria of being in existence for at least two years. The need to send those questions and have them answered was therefore stressed by a number of speakers.

Sudan’s representative expressed serious concerns regarding the NGO’s activities, since her delegation believed that it had links with Christian Solidarity International. She was not prepared to accept an organization which was trying to replace one that was not previously granted consultative status. In addition, Christian Solidarity Worldwide had entered Sudan without any authorization from the appropriate authorities and had called on a number of countries not to trade with Sudan.

She went on to say that Lady Caroline Cox, President of the NGO, had been co-sponsoring terrorists who were trying to topple the Sudanese Government. That was totally unacceptable. Lady Cox had a clear strategy to divide Sudan into different States and referred to the rebel leader, John Garang, as a friend. Christian Solidarity Worldwide was a hate group that hated the Sudanese people and Muslims as a whole. Lady Cox had also accused Muslim and Arab countries of abusing Christians, she added.

The representative of Lebanon highlighted the political nature of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, underscoring that political acts against Member States of the United Nations violated resolution 1996/31 of the Economic and Social Council. The NGO had also attacked his country claiming that the Christian minority there was facing annihilation from the Beirut regime. That was untrue because Christians made up 40 per cent of the population and that hardly constituted a minority. He also said that the NGO was trying to undermine the Committee by applying under another name since its status was withdrawn last year.

The representative of the Russian Federation said his country too had been attacked on the NGO’s Web site. The organization had described Russian legislation on law and religion as draconian and that religious sects were being liquidated.

The Chairman, M. Levent Bilman (Turkey), said that the 12 questions that had been put together by delegates should be sent by the Secretariat to the NGO today along with any additional questions that members wished to include. Any information attacking Governments of Member States on the NGO’s Web site should be made available to the Secretariat by Sudan’s representative. In addition, documents establishing the status of the organization should be provided along with any relevant publications. A representative of the NGO would also be invited to address the Committee once responses to the questions had been received.

Statements were also made by the representatives of Algeria, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, France, Germany, India, Pakistan, and the United States. Interventions were also made by the United Kingdom, Iran and Japan in their capacity as observers. The representative of Fonds E7 pour le développement énergetique durable responded to questions from Committee members as well.

The Committee will meet again tomorrow at 10 a.m. to continue its consideration of applications by NGOs for consultative status within the Economic and Social Council.

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