Committee on NGOS

9^th & 10^th Meetings* (AM & PM)

NGO COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS FOUR MORE ORGANIZATIONS FOR CONSULTATIVE STATUS

WITH ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

Continuing its consideration today of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) applying for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Committee on NGOs recommended four NGOs for special consultative status, and left 12 more pending until further clarification was received from the organizations.

The 19-member Committee makes recommendations on an organization’s standing or reclassification with ECOSOC by using a variety of criteria, including mandate, governance and financial regime of the applicant.  Special status NGOs, which was the classification recommended for four organizations today, can attend meetings and circulate statements.  General status NGOs can attend meetings, circulate statements and propose items for the Council’s agenda.  Those with roster status can attend meetings.  There are currently more than 2,200 NGOs with consultative status.

Organizations with special and general consultative status are required to submit quadrennial reports on activities of relevance to the Council’s work.  Today, the Committee took note of 10 quadrennial reports from the following NGOs: American Association of Retired Persons; International Association of Soldiers for Peace; Daytop Village Foundation; HelpAge International; Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues; International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics; International Society of Social Defence; International Union of Socialist Youth; Rivers Club; and Rural Reconstruction Nepal.

Special consultative status was given to Population Concern, a United Kingdom-based NGO that worked for the worldwide improvement of the quality of life by advancing the right of all people to exercise free and informed reproductive health choices.  Founded in 1991, the organization also advocates access to confidential sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning. 

Special status was also recommended for:  the New York-based international organization Priests for Life; Buddha’s Light International Association, a United States-based international NGO, established in 1992; and the International Institute for the Rights of the Child, a Swiss-based international organization aimed at training and raising awareness on the rights of the child. 

The Committee left pending the following 12 applicants:  Association International de Boxe Éducative; OneWorld International; Morality in Media; International Corrections and Prisons Association for the Advancement of Professional Corrections; Disarmament Archives; European Industrial Gases Association; Human Rights International Alliance; Kashmiri American Council; African Community Research Centre; Indian Federation of United Nations Associations; Myochikai (arigatou Foundation); and Christian Conference of Asia.

Following an exchange between the delegations of Pakistan and India, the Committee left pending the application from the Indian Federation of United Nations Associations.  The representative of Pakistan indicated he would not be in a position to consider the application during the current session.  Committee Chair Mihaela Blajan (Romania) twice appealed to delegation to avoid the “politicization” of the Committee’s debates.

The Shandong Society for Sustainable Development, based in Jinan, China, withdrew its application, saying it was undergoing reorganization and restructuring.  The Committee decided to request it to resubmit a new application after it had completed that exercise.

Information about the organizations considered today can be found in documents E/C.2/2003/2/Adds.6 and 7, and E/C.2/2003/CRP.1.  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. on Tuesday, 13 May, to hear a briefing by John Clark, an Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs official, on the Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations-Civil Society Relations, before resuming its consideration of applications.

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*     Press Release NGO/501 of 9 May should have included the 8^th Meeting (PM).

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