UNANZ Forum 2003 -  Wanganui Culture of Peace Sculpture
- Civil Society Forum for UN
World Civil Society Forum 2002 - WCSF Workshop on Governance

UN Regeneration for Peace and Equity

UNGA-Link Discussion Paper (July 2003)

Towards a United Nations and Peoples

"The fact that we are confronted by new problems means there is a need for a drastic change in the UN. We must prepare ourselves for the third generation of international organizations...[This] will not come about by changing the composition of the Security Council, or revolutionizing the operation of the General Assembly, or reinforcing the Economic and Social Council...[It] must be the result of a drastic change in the overall concept. The change needed is to obtain the participation of non-state actors in international affairs." (Ottawa Citizen, 7 April 2003)

[NOTE: Extract from 740 word article of which the Ottawa Citizen has copyright.]

(2) World Campaign for in-depth Reform of the System of International Relations

This campaign was launched in June 2003 by Ubuntu, which is led by Federico Mayor (former Director-General of UNESCO). The campaign is in line with Dr Boutros-Ghali’s thinking, but the latter concludes his Ottawa Citizen’s article as follows: "...perhaps this is the beginning of a process of change, and it will take 20 or 30 years until this change is integrated into the system."

Moreover, we have to take into account that from 1945 onwards the UN has rejected calls for a UN Parliamentary or a Second (Civil Society) Assembly and even for a World Civil Society Forum. [A collection of 27 abstracts of such calls is available through CAMDUN on request.]

(3) A World Civil Society Union with Observer Status at the UN General Assembly

A first step in the "participation of non-state actors in international affairs" occurred in November 2002 when the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which is an NGO in consultative status with ECOSOC, was granted observer status at the General Assembly (GA) with the right to circulate its official documents to the member-states.

Civil society should take the next step. The World Civil Society Forum (WCSF) in Geneva in June 2002 incorporated in its recommendations the proposals of UNGA-Link UK for an observer presence at the GA to be sought by a World Civil Society Liaison Body, composed of international civil society organizations (CSOs) with a capacity to function as "representing associations" (Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s term), such as: WCSF, Ubuntu, Association of World Citizens/World Citizens Assembly, CIVICUS, CONGO, Forum for World Peace, Millennium/Global Peoples’ Assembly, Montreal International Forum, The People’s UN, World Federalist Movement, WFUNA, World Social Movement.

UNGA-Link UK proposes (2003) that, in parallel with IPU, the ‘Liaison Body’ should be named World Civil Society Union. The Union could require an independent regulatory board to ensure best practices of its constituent representing associations and thus to justify its observer status at the GA. We urge other advocacy CSOs on global governance issues to press the UN’s High-level Panel on Relations with Civil Society (www.un.org/reform/panel.htm) to support this proposal and to recommend that such a WCS Union should be granted observer status at the GA. Deadline for responding to the Panel’s Questionnaire is 1 October 2003, and for a submission is preferably 1 November (and absolutely before end of 2003). Inquiries: civilsocietypanel@un.org