Presentation by Renate Bloem
Coalition of NGOsSeptember 28 2001
Chancellor, Dean Choue, Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, NGO Colleagues and Friends,
Introduction
It is indeed a great pleasure to be in Seoul again, in the City which hosted the 1999 Seoul International Conference of NGOs: Inspire, Empower, Act! which gave such a boost to the NGO culture far beyond this region. The Conference of NGOs (CONGO) under the then President Afaf Mahfouz was privileged to be a Co-Convener with DPI and Kyung Hee University, and I am tremendously pleased to see us here together again. (I remember fondly,albeit with some frustration, my role as coordinator of the health section) On behalf of the CONGO delegation I would like to thank the organizers, particularly Dean Choue for the invitation to today's important gathering, for the very warm welcome and the challenge to be one of the presenters. However, let me acknowledge from the start that I stand here as a person with much to learn.
I am reminded of the story concerning a famous professor of science who was a koryphäe in a rather obscure area of the subject. Being a world expert, she was invited to all the universities in the country to give a lecture on this subject. Being famous, she had a chauffeur who used to travel with her. After a year of travelling with the Professor, the chauffeur turned to her in the car one night and said 'You know, I have heard this lecture so many times that I think I could give it as well as you'. The professor had a sore throat that night and so she said, 'Alright, you act the part of the Professor and I'll act the part of the chauffeur'. They arrived at a prestigious university and found a packed lecture hall. The chauffeur, acting the part of the professor, stood up and gave the most brilliant lecture. But being a little nervous, he rushed through, leaving time for questions at the end. One student stood up and asked a most difficult question. The professor broke out into cold sweat, because she knew the chauffeur could not answer it. But the chauffeur looked at the student and said, 'I am surprised they let people like you into university these days. That question is so simple, I am going to ask my chauffeur to answer it!'
I feel like being the chauffeur in the midst of academia experts. Yet I trust that this conference will be more than an academic exercise, that it will lead us into a vibrant discussion: how can we as NGOs help to make the world a better place and advance the cause of peace, justice and freedom?
Context
This International Peace Conference is being convened in commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the UN International Day of Peace. It could not be more timely as we are still dumbfounded by what happened on that International Day itself, the 11th September, and stunned by the scale of human tragedy, and when we still do not know what all the consequences of that day, the Economist called: "The day the world changed..", will be.
NGOs and NGO Networks sent floods of messages to express their sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims. Many, including we as CONGO, organized moving events, vigils and candle light marches to express our solidarity. Voices from all over the world were heard which warned against unmeasured retaliation to prevent more bloodshed of innocent people. Many also pointed to underlying causes, of which the following is an example 1:
"…There is no patent remedy for terrorism. The only remedy is to remove its causes. One can kill a million mosquitoes, and millions more will take their place. In order to get rid of them, one has to dry the swamp that breeds them. And the swamp is always political.
A person does not wake up one morning and tell himself: Today I shall hijack a plane and kill myself. Nor does a person wake up one morning and tell himself: Today I shall blow myself up in a Tel-Aviv discotheque. Such a decision grows in a person's mind through a slow process, taking years. The breeding ground of the decision could either be national or religious, social or spiritual or any combination of these.
No underground fighters can operate without popular roots and a supportive environment that is ready to supply new recruits, assistance, hiding places, money and means of propaganda. An underground organization wants to gain popularity, not lose it. Therefore it commits attacks when it thinks that this is what the supporting public segments want. Terror attacks always testify to the public mood.
The reality of today is that the globalization of problems must lead to the globalization of their solutions. Not in the abstract, by fatuous declarations (in the UN), but by a global endeavor to resolve conflicts and establish peace, with the participation of all nations, (with the US playing a central role).
Instead of the destroyed New York edifices, the twin towers of Peace and Justice must be built." And that is what we are here for...
I cannot help but make the link to lessons learned for and by the NGO Community at the World Conference against Racism, which came to a close only a few days before the tragedy happened... But before doing so, allow me to recall for a moment the rise and recent development of NGOs....
Looking back...the rise of NGOs
There has been an explosive growth in the number, size and reach of the transnational NGO movement, especially since the end of the Cold War when the process of democratization encouraged the growth of NGOs. For many countries in Africa and Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, the rise of civic organizations and NGOs had been one of the most startling developments since the transition from authoritarianism to democracy.
International NGOs had blossomed already into 28,900 by 1993, and over 20,000 transnational networks are already active on the world stage, most of them were formed during the last two decades. The story is the same for developing countries, except those with repressive regimes. In Nepal, the number of NGOs registered with governments grew from 220 in 1990 to 1,210 in 1993; in Tunisia, from 1,886 in 1988 to 5,186 just three years later. In 1996, the largest ever survey of the non-profit sector found over a million such groups in India, and 210,000 in Brazil.2 NGOs in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations have surpassed 2000 this year. The real change in their influence, however, has come in the last decade, as they have moved from being what Michael Edwards describes as "simply instruments to pick up the pieces of state and market failure" to becoming "a force for transformation in global politics and economics". Outstanding examples include the Jubilee 2000 debt relief campaign, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines as well as the current campaign for affordable medicines to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other killer diseases. But whether their focus has been on economic development, health and education, human rights and gender, the environment or conservation, NGOs have been increasing sharply in number and popularity.
Some scholars see this as evidence of a fundamental 'power shift', an 'associational revolution', as profound as the rise of the nation state in the eighteenth century. This change is irreversible. Many Governments around the world have come to realize this. They have recognized that the State is the servant of its people, and not vice versa.
Civic organizations have always been at the forefront of the political struggle against authoritarian rule while, at the same time, the process of democratization has in turn led to a remarkable growth in the number of NGOs and the scope and the diversity of their activities. NGOs have fought for constitutional guarantees such as freedom of expression and association and are now at the forefront of wider social reform, peace and economic justice movements.
This has been most noteworthy in Korea, (in your country), and we recall that your President Kim Dae-Jung addressed us at the 1999 Conference as "an NGO activist". The proliferation of Korean NGOs at all levels - national, regional and local - and the sheer diversity of the issues they deal with are proof of the profound impact democracy had had on Korean society. In the wake of the Seoul Conference, a number of them have gained consultative status and we as CONGO, through our outreach program, are looking forward to have a closer relationship with Korean NGOs and to facilitate their awareness also of international concerns addressed at the United Nations. Kyung Hee's plan for the new NGO Complex in the University is one further visionary/prophetic step to support international NGO cooperation in a sustainable way. Linking Research with Graduate Study....
UN World Conferences and empowerment of NGOs
When we came to Seoul in 1999, we came in a way to celebrate all this NGO success. We came to assess human progress in the broadest sense, and in particular to examine closely progress of the remarkable cycle of the UN World Conferences held throughout the 1990's in which thousands of non-governmental organizations played a crucial part (e.g.17,000 NGO representatives were at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, 30,000 at the Women 's Conference in Beijing in 1995). Assisted by new ways of communication they had networked worldwide from local to regional and then to global level and had became partners with the UN in helping to shape an ambitious worldwide agenda from Conference to Conference, including on children, environment, human rights, population, social development, women, food and habitat. The Beijing Conference in particular had empowered women the world over to claim women's rights as human rights.
In all their diversity, NGOs had found some communality and the capability for consensus building, (even between international, regional and national NGOs). The United Nations had played a harmonizing role and catalyst for this to happen by providing a forum where diverse points of views were aired, proposals debated and where, most importantly, political consensus was achieved. And CONGO has helped during these Conferences and 5 year follow up appraisal sessions to facilitate NGO participation in the most integrated way.
Millennium Forum and NGO Power
The Millennium Forum held last year at UN Headquarters itself reinforced the power of NGOs and was a further step in the evolving process for civil society to find its collective voice in a manner widely representative of the world's peoples. Organized by CONGO, DPI and a Millennium Executive it brought together some 1350 NGOs from the Global North and South.
Despite the diverse views expressed at the meeting, the NGOs found again common ground to adopt a Declaration and Agenda for Action without a vote. While the various UN Conferences zeroed in on specific themes, the Millennium Forum was unique because it covered all the cross-sectoral issues in a single five-day meeting. It had vision for inclusion and addressed the most urgent issues of our present time.
The Forum achieved to project an NGO vision for the 21st Century and delivered it directly to the Millennium Summit (of Heads of States). And Kofi Annan declared that "...If the global agenda is to be properly addressed, a true partnership between civil society and the United Nations is not an option; it is a necessity."
The Declaration underscored the impact of globalization on the poor and described the growing new phenomenon as a process of economic, political and cultural domination by the economically and militarily strong over the weak. "Globalization should be made to work for the benefit of everyone: eradicate poverty and hunger globally; establish peace globally; ensure the protection and promotion of human rights globally.... We see a strengthened and democratized United Nations and a vibrant civil society as guarantors of this accountability....And we issue a warning: if the architects of globalization are not held to account, this will not simply be unjust; the edifice will crumble with dire consequences for everyone...." In retrospect, this part holds a macabre foreboding.
Nevertheless, all the above showed the steady rise of NGOs with and around United Nations activities, often supported by UN Agencies through partnership programs. And Governments, except for repressive ones, have, at least until recently, viewed this development with a benign eye, because the general public, their voters, see NGOs as uniformly altruistic, idealistic, trustworthy and independent. Governments also find NGOs useful for aid distribution, because less costly, and as sources for information, e.g. in some benighted parts of the world, sometimes only NGOs can reveal what is going on.
Seattle and aftermath
However, in the aftermath of violent clashes in Seattle, Prague, Quebec and Genova, voices/questions critical of NGOs - and they were always there - have become louder. Some just challenge the right of NGOs to occupy such a prominent place in policy debates, while others raise issues such as legitimacy:
· Who - if anyone - do NGOs represent?
· Are they maybe just unaccountable interest groups?
· Who speaks for whom in an NGO alliance?
· Whose voice is heard, and which interests are ignored?
Others touch on accountability:
· To whom do NGOs report on their activities, constituencies? (the poor) donors?
Still others criticize NGOs about accuracy:
· They are supposed to often be simplistic, driven by fashion and sensation rather than loyalty to facts.3
Some UN officials have said that it is no accident that questions about legitimacy are being raised at a time when NGOs have started to gain real influence on the international stage. In that sense they are victims of their own success. As CONGO we are less concerned by these questions for ourselves, because we and most of our members are governed by strict rules, bylaws or codes of conducts. However, we are concerned for our members and NGOs in general about backlash attitudes of some governments against NGO participation which translates into a general deterioration of access to the UN machinery, especially in New York.
A last question has to do with the problems of disconnection - are global NGOs in touch with local communities? This question brings me (back) to the World Conference against Racism
This first UN Conference in the new Century had set out with an ambitious agenda to adopt a declaration and plan of action which would provide the standards, the structure, the remedies - in essence, the culture - to do away with 'Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance' (so the full title) and ensure full recognition of the dignity and equality of all, and full respect for their human rights
A Vision Statement, issued by Mary Robinson and Nelson Mandela and signed by may heads of States, declared further: "..We all constitute one human family. This truth has now become self-evident because of the first mapping of the human genome, an extraordinary achievement which not only reaffirms our common humanity but promises transformation in scientific thought and practice, as well as in the visions which our species can entertain for itself. It encourages us toward the full exercise of all its inventive, creative and moral cacpacities, enhanced by the equal participation of men and women. And it could make the twenty-first century an era of genuine fulfillment and peace.
We must strive to remind ourselves of this great possibility. Instead of allowing diversity of race and culture to become a limiting factor in human exchange and development, we must refocus our understanding, discern in such diversity the potential for mutual enrichment, and realize that it is the interchange between great traditions of human spirituality that offers the best prospect for the persistence of the human spirit itself.. For too long such diversity has been treated as threat rather than gift...."4
But while the process was unfolding and NGOs and Civil Society around the world were mobilized through various regional and preparatory meetings, it became evident that this Conference had embarked on a process not so much oriented towards a visionary tomorrow but rather to an examination of a painful past. The NGOs who came from all corners of the earth and from all walks of life - many came for the first time to an UN meeting - spoke with the voices of victims, of excluded, marginalized, discriminated and minority parts of society. The deep wounds left by of slavery, colonialism, ethnic oppression, cast and class discrimination and treatment of indigenous peoples were opened again. NGOs spoke with hurt and anger and demanded apologies and reparations and did not use much diplomatic or UN parlance. And while some of them expressed some solidarity with each other during the preparatory process, it seemed that, when we came to Durban to the NGO Forum, every group was only interested to focus narrowly on its own cause with the loudest voice possible.
Political maneuvering and manipulation became easy. Consensus building among each other, or for that matter with the official Conference did not really take place. In the end, the NGO Forum was not an event to impact positively on the Government Conference. It remained a Conference on its own. However, all the victims' voices were heard, and this for the first time in such a global event. This marks a beginning, however tumultuous and chaotic, to recognize the 'other' as also belonging to the one human family.
Many lessons were and still need to be learned. What was striking was the victims' deep distrust of everything international, of international NGOs in particular. International or global NGOs have not yet connected, or not meaningful enough, to these groups and communities.
The Way/Vision Forward
In the meantime comments have been made, including by Mary Robinson, which linked what happened in Durban with the tragedies of the 11th September. We need to be aware of the underlying causes and listen to the excluded and make our societies more just and inclusive. But at the same time we need to be vigilant that we do not create new innocent victims.
As CONGO we tried in Durban to connect caucuses and voices again at briefings during the Government Conference. We also organized a panel to recall the vision for the Conference to connect at a much deeper level of our humanity. We were reminded that the roots of racism and xenophobia is a major "crisis of identity", and that there is a need to focus on our individual and collective identity. "To connect the disconnected we must re-establish the grounds of our human identity in all its dimensions, and provide new foundations to bring about the true values and human strength of our social, political, religious, cultural, racial and spiritual diversity. This human identity is just not sold in a supermarket."5
NGOs have been in the past on the forefront of political and social reform. They can become now the connector, the social/human glue, to add the social, human and spiritual dimension to the current globalization process. They can help to connect the local with the global and develop this New Social Architecture based on equality, social justice, tolerance, respect and shared responsibility, as expressed in the Millennium Summit Declaration.
We as CONGO are committed to pursue intensively the attainment of the international development goals signed by all countries in the Millenium Summit last year. And I propose to integrate the Durban agenda into the road map which will guide us through the different stages of our outreach program to our next General Assembly and Millennium Forum follow up event. 'I have a dream' said Archbishop Tutu in Durban. 'I have a dream that we enter this new Millennium in which my humanity is bound up with your humanity, in which I AM BECAUSE YOU ARE.' We share this dream.
Note1 See Uri Avnery: Twin Towers, 15-09-01
2 From NGO Rights and Responsibilities, Michael Edwards, 2000
3 NGO Rights and Responsibilities, Michael Edwards
4 Tolerance and Diversity: A Vision for the 21st Century, World Conference Against Racism, UNHCR
5 refs Alfredo Sfeir Younis: Connecting the Disconnected: A World Vision For a New Millennium, Durban, 2001
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