NGO COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS 55 ORGANIZATIONS FOR CONSULTATIVE STATUS WITH ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL, CONCLUDING RESUMED SESSION

Committee on NGOs

27^th Meeting (AM)

NGO COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS 55 ORGANIZATIONS FOR CONSULTATIVE STATUS

WITH ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL, CONCLUDING RESUMED SESSION

During the resumed session of the Committee on Non-governmental Organizations, which began 10 May and concluded today, 55 organizations were recommended to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for consultative status, while considerations of two organizations were closed and 38 applications for consultative status were deferred to a later date.  In addition, the Committee recommended reclassification of one organization and reviewed 33 quadrennial reports.

A standing committee of the Economic and Social Council, the 19-member body uses various criteria to recommend general, special or roster status with the Council, including the applicant’s mandate, governance and financial regime.  Organizations enjoying general and special consultative status can attend ECOSOC meetings and circulate statements of a certain length.  Those with general status can, in addition, speak at meetings and propose items for the Council’s agenda, while non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with roster status can only attend meetings.  Non-governmental organizations with general and special consultative status must submit a report to the Council every four years.

At the close of the session today, the Committee adopted its draft report, as orally amended, contained in document E/C.2/2006/L.3.  Introducing the draft report, the Committee’s Rapporteur, Octavian Stamate ( Romania), said the report contained five draft decisions on matters calling for action by ECOSOC, concerning granting consultative status of 55 NGOs, reclassification of one NGO, closing consideration of the application of two NGOs, and taking note of 27 quadrennial reports.

According to the Committee’s recommendations, ECOSOC would also decide that the 2007 regular session would be held from 22 January to 2 February 2007, and the resumed session from 14 to 18 May 2007.

During consideration of the draft report, several speakers, including the representatives of Senegal, China, Cameroon, Cuba, Sudan, Colombia, Russian Federation, Côte d’Ivoire and Chile, stressed that their expression of support for the NGO Section should be included under the item on “Strengthening of the NGO Section of the Secretariat”.  The Permanent Observer of the Holy See also expressed appreciation for the hard work of the Section and the Committee.  The representative of the United States, while expressing support for the Section, noted that the report should encompass the overall discussion, including on the working methods, as other elements had also been addressed.

The representatives of the United States, Cuba, Cameroon, Colombia and Pakistan asked that names of participants in their delegations be corrected.

The observer of Greece asked for inclusion in the report of his delegation’s protest that it had not been invited in advance to take part in the consideration of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe.  He said in its application the NGO had stated that its most important goal was to secure the rights of the Turkish minority in Greece.  The Committee’s rules of procedure stated that any State should be invited with special interest in the issue.  In response, Turkey’s representative said that the Committee’s deliberations were open to observers and that all information was published on the website.  The Secretariat was not obliged to inform every Member State of an application, but only to inform the country in which the NGO concerned was based, in this case, Germany.

In closing remarks, Hanifa Mezoui, Chief, NGO Section of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said the 2006 regular and resumed session had recommended consultative status for some 150 NGOs, which, if followed, would bring the total number of NGOs with consultative status with ECOSOC to 2,870.  Around 50 of those NGOs came from the South.  One of the priorities for the Section was to bring in more NGOs from the South, but helping them along in the application process usually took more effort because of communication problems.

In thanking everybody who had contributed to the Committee’s successful work, its Chairperson, Patti Londoño ( Colombia), highlighted the contribution volunteers had made to the “e-readiness” of the Committee.  [As a pilot project in the United Nations, the Committee had started in 2003 to conduct its business in a “paperless” matter.  That endeavour had been made possible through the voluntary contributions of Mumbai Education Trust in India, which provides human resources, and the World Job and Food Bank in Canada, which provides the equipment.  They are both NGOs in consultative status.]

The Committee also approved the next session’s draft provisional agenda, contained in document E/C.2/2006/L.4.

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

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For information media • not an official record