Committee on NGOs

25^th & 26^th Meetings (AM & PM)

Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Takes Note of 220 Quadrennial Reports

 

from Organizations in Consultative Status with Economic and Social Council

 

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today took note of the quadrennial reports of 220 non-governmental organizations in consultative status and deferred consideration of the reports of 21 more, owing to insufficient information.

It also took note that the one-year suspension of the Arab Commission for Human Rights would come to an end on 27 July.  The Committee was unable to reclassify the status of International Real Estate Federation from special to general, and further postponed consideration of the request for reclassification from roster to special status for the International Union against Cancer.

In reviewing new and deferred quadrennial reports, it tooknote of three outstanding reports (document E/C.2/2010/CRP.15) received from organizations suspended as per Council resolution 2009/228, and 217 new reports contained in documents E/C.2/2010/2/Add.30 through Add.65.

The Committee postponed consideration of reports from the following five organizations, owing to requests for additional information: Reporters without Borders International; International Federation of Journalists; International Press Institute; International Union of Socialist Youth; and Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights.

It also postponed consideration of 16 deferred quadrennial reports within document E/C.2/2010/CRP.8, because questions, either previously posed by the Committee or new ones, remained unanswered.

Concerning cases of lingering questions, India’s representative proposed that any organization which had not responded for at least two sessions should be suspended for one year.  If the organization still did not respond within that period, its status with the Council would be withdrawn.  The delegate also recommended that the Secretariat send three reminders to each organization that had not responded to questions.

The representatives of Sudan, Egypt, and China expressed support for that proposal, while the representatives of the United States, Egypt, Russian Federation and Cuba noted the importance of sending reminders as an initial step.  Additional time to deliberate the issue was requested.

On other matters, attention was drawn to a proposal by Turkey to suspend the consultative status of Centre Europe-Tiers Monde/Third World Centre (CETIM) for three years.  Turkey’s representative said that the organization did not respect his country’s territorial integrity and political unity, and had not for years.  Clearly, that organization had failed to respect the United Nations Charter, as its statements were filled with unsubstantiated and politically motivated allegations against Turkey and other United Nations Member States.  Moreover, it had been inciting and condoning acts of terrorism against them.

In a counter proposal, the United Kingdom’s representative suggested a one-year suspension, noting that it was a first-time offence and due process was needed, as was time to examine all facets of those allegations.  The representative of the United States said it was a legitimate organizationfulfilling Economic and Social Council requirements.  Although it took positions which were often “anti-US, anti-Europe, anti-capitalism, anti-all sorts of things”, taking positions contrary to national positions was not sufficient grounds for suspension.

Several delegations intervened in support of Turkey’s proposal, including the representative of Qatar, who urged the adoption of very strict measures in order to prevent similar behaviours from other organizations.

The Chair of the Committee said the issue would be revisited tomorrow at 3 p.m.

Considering the adoption of the agenda and other organizational matters, the Committee agreed on several amendments proposed by Qatar to the report on part I of the 2010 session, with the Secretariat agreeing to reflect those in a published corrigendum.

In other business, the Committee took note of requests for name changes from 11 organizations.

During today’s interactive dialogue with non-governmental organizations, a representative of International Solidarity and Human Rights Institute — a United States-based international organization committed to establishing solidarity among people worldwide — said the organization was focused on introducing students to the concept of human rights through education programmes, noting that the organization had brought students to several United Nations conferences to give them a chance to participate.

The organization was not a religious group, he said, yet it utilized the catholic social teaching approach in forming discussions on human rights.  Several members of the organization were professors at various academic institutions, who incorporated human rights concepts and information from United Nations events into comprehensively designed coursework.

In response to a question on the organization’s planned contributions to the upcoming high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals in September, the representative said that the organization had no current plans to participate, due to teaching responsibilities, but would consider participating if time allowed.

Next, the representative of Scholars at Risk Network — a United States-based international organization dedicated to defending threatened scholars and scholarly communities worldwide — took the floor and was asked to respond to questions, including by the representative of the United Kingdom, on how the organization would contribute to the Economic and Social Council’s work.  He was asked by China’s representative how it decided to stop providing assistance to scholars under threat.  The representative explained that the organization was an international, non-political programme, essentially, a network of universities and scholars, which believed in one global community of knowledge.  Its work was designed to strengthen that community and protect individual scholars when their work or lives or well-being was threatened.

That would contribute to Council’s work, he said, in that it reinforced the efforts of Member States to develop their own top-quality educational communities, which, in turn, would contribute to their development, reduce “brain drain” and safeguard investment in intellectual capital.  To questions about what was meant by “temporary” assistance, he said the programme’s intention was not to support a permanent exile or relocation of intellectuals from one society to another, but to ensure that brain drain was reduced.  When scholars were involuntarily forced to leave their home countries, the organization created a safety net for them to continue working as academics.  The hope was that conditions would improve in the home country to enable their return, he added.

He used as a recent example of the organization’s work the assistance it had been giving for the past five years to scholars from Iraq, which, he said, had not been targeted by the Government of Iraq or, in many cases, by any identifiable group, but by a “disorganized” campaign to perpetuate violence against intellectuals in Iraq.  Indeed, hundreds had been killed and thousands had been forced into exile.  The organization had attempted to set up positions for many Iraqi professors, and when conditions improved in that country, it hoped it would be possible for the educational sector to be rebuilt there.

Egypt’s representative asked for the replies to be provided in writing and for additional time to be granted for further examination.

When attention was drawn to Secure World Foundation — an international organization in the United States working towards the long-term sustainability of outer space and protection of the Earth — the representatives of the United States and Turkey asked about the organization’s anticipated contribution to the Council, while China’s representative asked for corrections on the website concerning use of terminology regarding Taiwan, Province of China.

The representative explained that his organization had been involved in a variety of United Nations conferences and forums, notably the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Spaces, and it was a sponsor of the UN-SPIDER programme, which was a disaster-relief programme using space-based systems.  In terms of the organization’s contribution to the Council, he said it was heavily involved with the United Nations community in Geneva, including in the area of disarmament affairs, as well as the role of the peaceful uses of outer space, which was a foundational part of the human endeavour.

Asked by India’s representative how the organization was funded, he said it was a 501 C 3 organization in the model of many American foundations, it had an endowment, and the majority of its financing came from investors — similar to Harvard University.  He explained there was no commercial link and that the derivation of the organization’s wealth and the current interests of the family members who comprised the Board had no ties to the space sector, in any way.

Egypt’s representative sought clarification about the organization’s application for consultative status with the Council and its observer status with

the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.  The representative explained the timeline of applications.  When it emerged that retaining permanent observer status with the Outer Space Committee depended now upon receipt of consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, the Egyptian speaker wanted to know how the two would coexist.

The representative referred the Egyptian delegate to the Office of Outer Space Affairs and explained that his organization had been in the process of applying for consultative status with the Council for some time before having applied for permanent observer status with the Outer Space Committee.

In other decisions, the Committee elected Wael Attiya of Egypt as Rapporteur for the resumed session to replace Crispin Gregoire of Dominica, upon his resignation on 21 May.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. Thursday, 3 June, to review its working methods and continue considering deferred applications.

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For information media • not an official record