COMMITTEE ON NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS BEGINS THREE-WEEK SESSION, ELECTS OFFICERS, ADOPTS AGENDA

Committee on NGOs

2001 Session

1^st Meeting (AM)

COMMITTEE ON NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS BEGINS THREE-WEEK SESSION,

ELECTS OFFICERS, ADOPTS AGENDA

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) elected its new Chairman, four Vice-Chairs and its Rapporteur this morning, as it began the first part of its session for the year 2001, scheduled to conclude on 25 May.  It also adopted its agenda and programme of work, addressed its methods of work and deferred one NGO’s application for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council.

The Committee re-elected, without a vote, Mehmet Levent Bilman (Turkey), as Chairman, and Mihaela Blajan (Romania), Mercedes de Armas Garcia (Cuba), and Ilham Ibrahim Mohamed Ahmed (Sudan) as Vice-Chairs.  The Committee also elected Ishtiaq Andrabi (Pakistan) as Vice-Chairman.  Ms. Blajan (Romania) would also serve as Rapporteur.

Following his re-election, the Chairman said that the session would once again be a busy one, as the Committee was expected to consider 80 deferred applications, more than 50 new ones, 230 quadrennial reports, two special reports as well as other important work.  He said the potential benefit that the Committee could draw from the review of quadrennial reports was very high, as they presented a fairly detailed picture of the work carried out by NGOs in consultative relationship with the Economic and Social Council.

The Committee, he added, needed to encourage the contribution of NGOs to the work of the United Nations in economic, social and related fields, in general, and to the Council’s high-level segment, in particular.  It would also review the requests by NGOs for oral statements at the forthcoming substantive session of the Economic and Social Council.

The Chief of the NGO Section, Hanifa Mezoui, said 2049 NGOs now had consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, of which 880 had roster status.  Thanks to improved working methods in applications, it was now time to bring the Committee’s work to the next level:  a review of the work of the NGOs.  The quadrennial reports that NGOs with general and special status had to submit were powerful tools for that review.  She announced the development of a database to track the NGOs with roster status, and another database to track NGOs by activity and region.

Also this morning, the Committee took up the requests of the following NGOs in consultative status with the Council to be heard by the Council in connection

with items in the provisional agenda of the Council’s substantive session of 2001: Asia Crime Prevention Foundation; Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement; Conference on NGOs (CONGO); and Centro de Ricerca e Documentiazione Febbraio 74.  A decision on the requests would be taken at a later date.

Under the agenda item “Review of the Committee’s working methods”, the issue of security and NGOs’ activities during meetings of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva was addressed.  The representatives of the Russian Federation and China expressed concern about the fact that NGOs not having consultative status with the Council had been distributing material outside the Commission on Human Rights.  Indeed, stated Cuba’s representative, some NGOs were going too far.  She noted, however, that despite some difficulties, on the whole, the experience with NGOs in Geneva had been positive.

The representative of Germany said the increasing number of applications for consultative status was an enormous problem, and the Committee should concentrate more on that issue, rather than on the Commission on Human Rights.

The Committee considered the application from the International Federation of Inspection Agencies, an international organization requesting general consultative status with the Council.  Committee members had questions about the organization’s expenditures, and remarked on its limited area of activities which might not warrant general status.  The representative of India said the organization could make contributions in the work of the Council concerning matters of e-commerce.  A decision on the request was deferred.

Background

The Committee, a standing body of the Economic and Social Council established in 1946, considers applications submitted by NGOs for consultative status and their requests for reclassification; considers quadrennial reports submitted by those organizations; implements the provisions of Council resolution 1996/31 and the monitoring of consultative relationships; and considers other issues as requested by the Council.  Non-governmental, non-profit voluntary organizations can be admitted into consultative status with the Council if they meet the requirements detailed in Council resolution 1996/31, regarding matters such as the organization’s activities, decision-making processes and resources.

Non-governmental organizations with consultative status are classified under the "general", "special" or "roster" categories.  Those in the general category must be "concerned with most of the activities of the Economic and Social Council and its subsidiary bodies".  The special category concerns those "which have a special competence in, and are concerned specifically with, only a few of the fields of activity covered by the Council".  The roster category relates to NGOs which "can make occasional and useful contributions to the work of the Council or its subsidiary bodies". 

Different privileges and obligations are accorded to each category.

Non-governmental organizations with general status can propose items for the

Council agenda, attend and speak at meetings and circulate statements.  Those with special status can attend meetings and circulate statements, while those on the roster can only attend meetings.  Organizations with general and special status must report every four years on their activities in support of the United Nations.

The Committee’s membership consists of 19 countries:  five members from African States; four members from Asian States; two members from Eastern European States; four members from Latin American and Caribbean States; and four members from Western European and Other States.  Its current members are Algeria, Bolivia, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Ethiopia, France, Germany, India, Lebanon, Pakistan, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey and the United States. 

Other speakers this morning were the representatives of China, Bolivia, India, Algeria, Russian Federation, Cuba, France, Germany and the United States.

The Committee on NGOs will meet again at 3 p.m. today to continue consideration of applications for consultative status and requests for

reclassification deferred from the previous sessions of the Committee.

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