Distr.

GENERAL
[E/AC.70/1994/NGO/ISI.1]*
20 June 1994
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH

OPEN-ENDED WORKING GROUP ON THE REVIEW

OF ARRANGEMENTS FOR CONSULTATIONS WITH
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
First Session
20-24 June 1994
Item 3 of the provisional agenda

GENERAL REVIEW OF ARRANGEMENTS FOR CONSULTATIONS

WITH NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

Statement submitted by the International Synergy Institute,

(now Information Habitat: Where Information Lives)
a non-governmental organization accredited to the
Commission on Sustainable Development
A. Consistency of procedures for consultation
1. There is a clear need for a consistent approach in all consultations
with non-governmental organizations. This need is underscored by the
growing recognition of the inter-relatedness of many United Nations
proceedings. This inter-relatedness means that issues in which an
non-governmental organization has particular expertise, or in respect
of which it represents an important constituency, are likely to appear
on or be affected by the agendas of many different proceedings. It is
essential that the arrangements for consultation take this reality into
consideration.
2. Development and International Cooperation: An Agenda For
Development (A/48/935), recently released by the Secretary-General,
highlights the linkages between development, peace and security,
social justice, democracy and economic issues. Likewise, Agenda 21
(A/CONF.151/26) and the related mandate of the Commission on
Sustainable Development repeatedly calls attention to the
interrelationship between a broad range of issues relating to
environment, development and sustainability.
3. An Agenda For Development and Agenda 21 each involves substantial
overlap with the issues of the International Conference on Population
and Development, the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development
of Small Island Developing States, the World Summit for Social
Development, the World Conference of Women, the Intergovernmental
Negotiating Committee to Elaborate a Convention to Combat
Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or
Desertification, Particularly in Africa, and Habitat II -- to name just
a few.
4. To do justice to the issues in which they have expertise, and/or to
the constituencies and interests they represent, non- governmental
organizations that play a consultative role in any United Nations
proceedings need to have the right to participate in any other
proceedings that address the principal agenda issues with which they
are concerned.
5. The arrangements that had until recently been in effect for
non-governmental organizations accredited to the Commission on
Sustainable Development in treating these organizations as having
Roster Status with the Economic and Social Council recognized the
crucial significance of sustainable development, and its
interdependence with other United Nations issues.
6. Unfortunately, those arrangements -- that were clearly intended by
Economic and Social Council resolution 1993/215 -- are presently in
suspension, and the reinstatement of the arrangements awaits
consideration by the Economic and Social Council in response to the
Commission on Sustainable Development's reaffirmation of 1993/215 in
paragraph 10 of its draft decision on Major Groups
(E/CN.17/1994/L.11). Reinstatement of the provisions of 1993/215
will be an important step towards strengthening the arrangements for
consultations with non-governmental organizations.
B. Consultations with national non-governmental organizations
7. The guidelines established by the Commission on Sustainable
Development for participation by non-governmental organization are
important in that they recognize the value of the participation of
national non-governmental organizations in United Nations deliberations
concerning the transition to sustainable development. This recognition
has been invaluable in strengthening the role of national
non-governmental organizations in contributing to their national
strategies and actions in support of sustainability as well as to the
Commission's work.
8. Economic and Social Council Resolution 1296 (XLIV) also recognizes
the potential value of consultations with national non-governmental
organizations in its paragraph 9. This value needs to be recognized in
any revision of Resolution 1296, and if the Resolution is left intact,
the Economic and Social Council's Committee on Non-Governmental
Organizations should be encouraged to be liberal in its application of
that paragraph.
9. As recognized by Resolution 1296 and by the Commission on
Sustainable Development, a sound case can be built for the needs for,
and rights of, such national non-governmental organizations to have
ready access, by virtue of Roster status, to all United Nations
proceedings relating to their principal issues of interest. However,
the reality is that, in many respects, economic and practical
limitations present substantially greater barriers to meaningful
participation than do procedural barriers.
10. The United Nations Non Government Liaison Service has done
excellent work in seeking to facilitate the participation of
non-governmental organizations from developing countries in a number
of United Nations proceedings. However, it is clear that the resources
available to support such participation have been far less than
necessary to provide for a "balanced and effective representation of
non-governmental organizations reflecting major interests of all regions
and areas of the world." (Resolution 1296 (XLIV) para 9.)
11. This Working Group needs to give serious consideration to
exploring how resources can be mobilized, and mechanisms established,
on a regular basis to support and enable meaningful participation on
an ongoing basis of non-governmental organizations from developing
countries and countries in transition in consultations with the
Economic and Social Council and other United Nations bodies.
12. As one of the mechanisms for strengthening arrangements for
consultations with non-governmental organizations from developing
countries, this Working Group may wish to explore practical procedures
for consultations on a regional basis, especially in the context
addressed below of exploring new modalities for consultations.
C. Practical arrangements for consultation
13. At its organizational session, the Open-ended Working Group on the
Review of Arrangements for Consultations with Non-Governmental
Organizations paid only very brief attention to the issue of the
practical arrangements for consultations with non-governmental
organizations. However, strengthening of the practical arrangements for
consultations may be at least as important as clarifying the principles
on which the consultations are based. Stated in another way, the
finest of principles may lead to little in the way of accomplishments
in the absence of adequate practical provisions for their
implementation.
14. The steady growth, particularly in the post-UNCED period, of
involvement of non-governmental organizations in United Nations
proceedings, has placed considerable stress on the existing Secretariat
capacity to handle arrangements for consultations with
non-governmental organization. This growth calls for a thorough
examination of the practical arrangements, both in terms of the
adequacy of the resources available, and of the extent of the
coordination between the various departments.
15. Serious consideration needs to be given to proposals that have
been developed for the consolidation of services to non-governmental
organizations -- including those in consultative status and those
affiliated with the Department of Public Information -- under an
Under-Secretary-General for Non-Governmental Organization Relations.
D. Provisions for timely and effective access to documents
16. Particular attention needs to be paid to the adequacy of the
procedures and resources for information and communication, including
timely and effective access to all relevant documentation pertaining to
the United Nations proceedings in which an non-governmental
organization has an interest. Bearing in mind the inter-relatedness --
noted above -- of many proceedings it becomes important to conduct a
system-wide review of the provisions for access to documentation.
17. It should be noted that while this statement is being presented
here in relation to the needs of non-governmental organizations for
timely and effective access to information, the observations and
recommendations presented below are likely to be equally applicable to
the needs of Member States and of agencies for information and
effective access to documents. It should perhaps also be noted that
there are likely to be other very substantial related benefits from a
strategy that makes effective use of computer-based communications and
information technology.
18. During the course of the preparations for the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development, significant headway was
made in increasing timely access to documents through the electronic
dissemination of most key documents. In several subsequent proceedings,
notably the final Preparatory Committee of the International Conference
on Population and Development and the 1994 session of the Commission
on Sustainable Development, there has been significant electronic
dissemination of documents related to the proceedings.
19. Despite the good intentions, efforts and cooperation of many
individuals within the United Nations, the present arrangements for
electronic dissemination of relevant United Nations documents remain
very much on an ad hoc basis. These arrangements fall far short of the
systematic, comprehensive arrangements that are essential if
non-governmental organization are to have consistent, dependable and
timely access to all the documentation that is necessary for informed
and effective participation in United Nations proceedings.
20. A number of specific recommendations for procedures that would
facilitate more effective, comprehensive and systematic electronic
dissemination of, and access to, United Nations documents have been
made by the International Synergy Institute in other fora at the
United Nations./1 The details of these recommendations will not be
repeated in this statement, but a brief synopsis of the essence of the
principal recommendations is presented:
a. The Economic and Social Council, functional Commissions, and
Conference Secretariats should formally request that all documents and
statements presented to them are provided in electronic form as well
as in print;
b. Documents disseminated electronically should be made
available in a public domain environment, preferably on a "gopher",
from where they can be accessible from virtually any system with
access to the Internet;
c. To the extent practical, all documents that are available in
print form should be available in electronic format;
 d. Publication of documents in electronic format should be
simultaneous with publication in printed form;
e. Support should be provided for initiatives providing
capacity-building in information and communication infrastructure,
resources and skills in developing countries and countries in
transition;
f. Active efforts should be made to encourage and support
cooperation and collaboration among governments, United Nations
agencies (including the United Nations Information Centres and the
United Nations Development Programme Resident Representatives),
non-governmental organizations and other service providers in the
electronic dissemination of documents and in related capacity-building.
21. In developing and supporting procedures for electronic
dissemination of documents, priority should be given to the use of
procedures that comply with prevailing international standards for
computer communications. While there may be value in exploring
unconventional approaches, such exploration should be secondary to
approaches based on international standards.
22. To date, in the electronic dissemination of United Nations
documents, there has been a distinct bias in favor of disseminating
documents in English. This bias, which should be corrected at the
earliest possible opportunity, reflects in part the fact that there is
a disproportionate percentage of English speakers who have access to
computers and computer communication resources, and in part that the
prevailing character set for computer communications is "ASCII", the
American Standard for Character Information Interchange, a standard
that is not well suited to handling either accented characters or
character sets other than the English alphabet.
23. In conjunction with the English language bias noted above, in
addition to the need -- noted above -- to increase electronic
communications access from developing countries by non- governmental
organizations and by governments, there is a need for attention to be
paid to emerging international standards for a far more comprehensive
character set with the ability to incorporate complete character sets
from all known written languages.
E. Modalities for consultations
24. The High Level Segment of the 1994 Session of the Commission on
Sustainable Development, and the recent World Hearings on Development
convened by the General Assembly President both featured new
modalities of consultation. The Economic and Social Council, its
functional Commissions, Conference Secretariats and other United
Nations bodies should be encouraged to explore new modalities of
consultations in order to increase the effectiveness of consultations
and to facilitate more broad-based input into United Nations
proceedings.
25. In particular, this Working Group is itself encouraged to be
creative in exploring a variety of modalities of consultations with
non-governmental organizations and with governments in order to do
justice to its mandate.
26. Among particular modalities of consultations that could be
explored, in addition to the previously noted provisions for regional
consultations with non-governmental organizations, are:
a. Procedures for an interactive bulletin format, such as that
developed and implemented by the International Synergy Institute
during the preparations for the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development and subsequently refined at the 1993
Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago; these procedures
provide for a systematic compilation, organization and presentation of
concise statements. A more detailed description of these procedures can
be provided to this Working Group.
b. The convening of a "People's Assembly" on the lines that
have been proposed by the International Network For a United Nations
Second Assembly; such an assembly could provide a quasi-parliamentary
structure within which non-governmental organization could deliberate
and formulate recommendations to the Economic and Social Council or to
other United Nations bodies.
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Notes:
* The International Synergy Institute had given a document number to this
statement to assist in its identification, and to draw attention to the need
to recognize that all documents and statements presented at United Nations
proceedings should be acknowledged as part of the "document environment" of
the proceedings. The Secretariat objected to the use of a document number
that could have created the impression that this statement was an official
document of the Open-ended Working Group, particularly since the format in
which the statement was printed was similar to the format of official
documents; on the basis of that objection the document number was pencilled
out on the copies that were distributed. In the oral presentation of the
statement, a brief explanation was given as to why the document number had
been given and why it had been deleted.
1/ These issues have been addressed in greater detail in the interventions of
the International Synergy Institute at the 1993 Session of the Commission on
Sustainable Development -- Applying Information and Communication Technology
for Sustainability: Organizing Information Provided to the Commission, and
Transfer of Information and Communication Technology (CSD/1993/NGO/ISI-1),
June 1993 -- and at the Inter-sessional Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on
Technology Transfer and Cooperation of the Commission on Sustainable
Development -- Dissemination of this Working Group's Papers in Electronic
Format, February 1994. Also relevant is International Synergy Institute's
correspondence to the Secretariat of the Department of Policy Coordination
and Sustainable Development on guidelines and procedures for electronic
dissemination of documents from the 1994 Session of the Commission on
Sustainable Development.