Committee on NGOS

7^th Meeting (AM)

NGO COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE FOR CONSULTATIVE STATUS

WITH ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

Leaves Pending Applications of Environmental Protection

Society, World Council of Muslim Communities, World Sindhi Institute

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) continued its session today by recommending roster consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute, one of four previously deferred applications considered today.

Special reports, complaints and quadrennial reports deferred from previous sessions were also taken up, with three requests for consultative status, one special report, two complaints and six quadrennial reports left pending for clarifications later in the current session.

The 19-member Committee makes recommendations on an organization’s standing or reclassification with the ECOSOC using a variety of criteria, including mandate, governance and financial regime.  Currently, 2,234 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have such status.  Those with roster status can attend meetings; those with special status can attend meetings and circulate statements; and those with general status can attend meetings, circulate statements and propose items for the Council’s agenda.  Organizations with special and general consultative status are required to submit quadrennial reports on activities of relevance to the Council’s work.  They may also be asked to provide special reports on activities.

Left pending was consideration of the Environmental Protection Society’s request for special consultative status, since the Pakistan-based national NGO had not yet responded to questions.  Pakistan’s representative agreed to secure a response.  India’s representative supported the request for additional time.

Also left pending was the application of the World Council of Muslim Communities, Inc., a United States-based international organization seeking general consultative status.  A representative of the group held a dialogue with the representatives of Pakistan, Algeria, France and India to clarify outstanding questions about its social work in relation to religion.

Finally, the application of the World Sindhi Institute was left pending.  India’s representative noted that information was still to come from this United States-based international organization promoting the rights of the Sindhi people.

Deliberations were also suspended on a special report by the “Movement against Racism and for Friendship among Peoples”, because Iran’s representative remained unsatisfied.  Speaking in his capacity as an observer, he said he wanted more answers from the NGO about having accredited, to a session of the Commission on Human Rights, members of the Modjahedin Khalgh Organization/National Council of Resistance (NKO/NCR), a group Iran considered a terrorist organization.  The representatives of Cuba, China, France, India and the Sudan took part in the exchange.  It was decided the Secretariat would contact the NGO and ask it to not accredit NKO/NCR members.  A representative of the organization would also be asked to address the Committee during the current session.

A complaint by Libya, a Committee observer, was taken up and suspended.  It concerned the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which had earlier this year distributed a letter urging Member States to oppose Libya’s candidacy for President of the Human Rights Commission as a member of the African group.  Libya had charged the organization with interfering in the affairs of Member States and violating the rules of conduct as outlined in ECOSOC resolution 1996/31.  Libya stated that the Center should send a letter of apology along with assurances that it would refrain from such actions in the future.  If that was not done, the Committee should recommend that its status be withdrawn.  The representatives of the Sudan, China, Cuba, Germany, Russian Federation, United States, France, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Tunisia, Iran, Chile and India held a debate on the appropriateness of the organization’s actions.  The Committee had an initial exchange of views and will resume the discussion on the issue at a later date.

A complaint by Cuba against “Reporters without Borders” was also taken up and suspended.  Cuba’s representative stated that the organization had organized a provocation against its Embassy in France and demanded that the organization’s consultative status be withheld for three years.  France’s representative said the issue of human rights in his country and their violation by Cuban diplomats had become a diplomatic problem between Havana and Paris and did not belong in the Committee.  Cuba’s position was that the complaint concerned an NGO, and not bilateral relations between the two countries.

Taking up quadrennial reports previously deferred, the Committee left pending the reports of:  the Society for Threatened Peoples, a European-based national organization concerned with fighting discrimination against threatened minorities, in special consultative status with the Council since 1993; the Centrist Democrat International (formerly Christian Democratic International), concerned with Christian humanism and holding special consultative status since 1950; and Transnational Radical Party, a non-violent international political organization having general consultative status since 1995.

Also:  the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, an independent international health professional organization, in special consultative status since 1996; World Society of Victimology, with the purpose of advancing victim research, in special consultative status since 1982; and United States-based World Safety Organization, aimed at accident prevention, in special consultative status since 1987. 

Information about the organizations considered today can be found in documents E/C.2/2003/3 and Add.1; and E/C.2/2000/CRP.1, 2, 5.  It is also available to the Committee in electronic form on laptop computers, as part of the “Paperless Committee” initiative being launched during this session of the Committee.  (See Press Release NGO/497 of 5 May.)

Current Committee members are Cameroon, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Côte d’Ivoire, China, Pakistan, India, Iran, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Cuba, Russian Federation, Romania, Germany, France, United States and Turkey.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. Monday, 12 May, to continue deliberations on deferred applications for consultative standing and to review quadrennial reports.

* *** *