NEW |
UN
Regeneration-UNANZ
Forum 2003
- Wanganui
Culture of Peace Sculpture
World
Civil Society Forum 2002 -
WCSF Workshop on Governance
This 2-day Seminar, arranged by the United Nations Association of New Zealand (UNANZ), took place in the Parliament Buildings, Wellington. Hon Phil Goff welcomed all present and gave an account of the Government's response to the UN Security Council's resolution (no 1373) following the September terrorist attack, that sets out a blueprint for action which every UN Member State would have an obligation to implement.
A wide variety of speakers, representing different spectra of civil society; from former NZ Ambassadors to the UN, the military and peacekeepers, industry and business to the environment, student leaders and NGO representatives, highlighted many interesting and diverse aspects and points of view regarding the three main themes of the conference:
Each day ended with lively discussions, first in small
groups where drafts texts to resolutions or recommendations would be formulated
which would then be brought to the final plenary session on the second day for
approval.
Among these recommendations were one based on the Brahimi Report regarding UN Peace-building (from Dame Ann Hercus' address), and one on common responsibilities, based on the Commission on Global Governance Report "Our Global Neighbourhood"(from Gita Brooke's address).
In the initial brochure the UNANZ expressed the hope that 'the forum will result in greater appreciation and public awareness of the many issues encompassed by the United Nations, which concern us all, and provide an opportunity for better understanding of how civil society at large can contribute to and cooperate in the strengthening of the UN'.
It was generally agreed that the Seminar was a great success; that the discussions had been challenging and stimulating, and that 'civil society' had been very well represented, both among the speakers and the participants of the conference. The organisers are currently compiling a comprehensive report which will include the contributions of participants and all the recommendations in their final form.
Dame Laurie Salas, co-organiser of this event and former WFUNA Vice-president, at the outset urged the participants at the seminar 'to undertake to begin, or to continue, a commitment through the forum or in any other way, to further the cause of making the UN work and eventually achieve its objective of maintaining peace, security and justice, and finally removing the scourge of war from future generations.' She laid emphasis on the two recommendations of the Millennium Summit Declaration and the Millennium Forum Declaration, resolving respectively, 'to give greater opportunity to the private sector, NGOs and civil society in general, to contribute to the realization of the UN Organisation' goals and programmes; and 'to support the creation of a Global Civil Society Forum to the General Assembly, provided that such a forum is conducted democratically and transparently and is representative of all sections of civil society and all parts of the world.'
Dame Laurie enumerated the various movements working actively towards the goal of civil society representation at the UN and elaborated on the World Civil Society Forum and its aims, leading to the creation of a permanent forum for civil society at the United Nations. There was a need to maintain vigilance in carrying out the intent of the General Assembly and the Security Council resolutions and at the same time in educating ourselves and others across the education spectrum about UN programmes - development, refugee, environment, human rights, disarmament, children, women, social policy. She would like to see the Charter taught in every school, stressing that 'the United Nations was still humanity's best hope'.
Terence O'Brien, a former NZ Ambassador to the UN, traced the emergence and development of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in a globalising world, where the role of the state was being re-shaped and reduced, and how the international dimension of civil society had, until the recent past, been largely focused on the activities of NGOs concerned with single issue advocacy. International civil society, he considered, included NGOs but was 'more spacious and comprehensive.' High-level summits provided a ready target for highly visible dissent by increasingly active NGO groups which, for widely different reasons, opposed various parts of the liberalizing agenda.
To create and sustain a democratic civil society involved various challenges. The proliferation of democracy itself defied a universal model. In many countries it could be destabilizing, which explained why home-grown NGO foundations remained sparse in transitional countries and why a truly international civil society therefore remained in its infancy as an authentic universal influence. But just as there was more than one model of capitalism, so also was this true of democracy.
Regarding UN reform, O'Brien pointed out that the need for this had been around for nearly as long as the UN had existed. Improvements had been secured, but some skepticism derived from an instinctual belief in the sheer unmanageability of a global system comprising nearly 190 members. and notably among west Europeans there existed a concern that their privileges and entitlements would inevitably be eroded by an authentic reform intended to reflect the world as it was now. 'Many crocodile tears are shed in many capitals about UN reform.'
NGOs or single issue advocacy groups could not validly be regarded as representative of civil society. Civil society embraced social movements which were larger and more comprehensive. Their influence, including within their own homeland, could therefore be appreciably greater. It was therefore for civil society collectively to determine the best methods for influencing international institutions by self-regulation, while building upon precedents created with governments at the national level, such as including NGOs on official delegations, or institutions, such as NGO partnership in environmental debates.
Did international civil society, and associated NGOs actually accelerate the process of globalisation by effacing boundaries and uniting people in common causes, or impede it by fostering enclaves of resistance to defend against global trends, perceived as undesirable or threatening? Or did it do both things at the same time? Were the efforts of international civil society serving actually to strengthen democratic accountability by governments or insitutitons, or did individual NGOs intrinsically suffer from a democratic deficit, essentially representing the preferences and goals of their founders and their supporters who were answerable, basically, only to themselves? Such questions should be kept before our eyes as a constant reminder of the need for self-analysis and examination.
O'Brien posed 'one last big question'. Had the events of September 11, 2001, introduced a totally new and unforeseen element into the equation and, as a result, would a revitalized, properly resourced, effectively mandated UN System be fashioned to meet the challenges of the 21st century?
A serious and revitalized collective international effort must harness the resources and aptitudes of civil society, nationally and internationally if the grossly unequal political and material conditions that existed in a globalising world were to be surmounted.
Terence O'Brien stressed that a strengthened United Nations required, first and foremost, a change of basic attitudes on the part of all countries. A greater measure of democratization of international institutions and their work was indispensable for global management in the 21st century. This was one of the messages from the tumult in the streets of Seattle, Genoa, Gothenburg, Nice and other places in recent times. This change would be driven by the embracing social movements such as those concerned with environment, women's rights and peace that now challenged states and international agencies. The multiple issues and problems were already linking people regardless of the particular nation states in which they were born or brought up. This cosmopolitan quality of co-operative non-government behaviour that respected diversity was, concluded Terence O'Brien, the real and evolving basis for international civil society and global citizenship.
Gita Brooke on behalf of
Peace Through Unity
made the following contribution to the seminar:
I've been listening as I know we all have with such deep interest to the previous speakers and I realize I need to tell you that the only possible justification for my standing here, is that I could be seen as one member of that majority of ordinary people who must become ever more actively involved in the harnessing of the vision of a global neighbourhood.
Because as speaker after speaker has stressed in different ways, without the resolve and commitment of us people, the vision will simply not be realized. The choice is either to continue to repeat old habitual patterns with their predictable and familiar outcome; or decide to break the mould. Individually and collectively we must decide: will we or will we not work for a world of good neighbourliness? And following this decision comes an even more challenging and crucial one: Will I myself, whatever the challenges, be a good neighbour?
Because when it comes to the crunch, it is all about relationships, and good and trusting relationships depend on the values we choose to express in a sustained way.
Holding the vision
It is really difficult to stay in touch with the vision of one humanity in all its many-facetted splendour; when you see the tearful panic-stricken eyes of the North Ireland school children, shielded by their parents, trying to reach their school through the barrage of insults and abuse from other parents; when you see the desolate refugee camps with homeless people, welcome nowhere on a planet belonging to no one more than another; when you hear of thousands upon thousands killed in ethnic cleansing or through the single-minded destructiveness of a handful of persons who have lost all hope of a meaningful future in this life, aiming for glory in the next. Neighbourhoods, villages and towns everywhere are harbouring people with such predatory and barbaric behaviour and bearing the brunt of their action.
These kinds of tragedy on whatever scale prey on our hearts and minds and can make us fearful and at a loss what to do. But we must not allow the scourge of terrorism to poison or cripple our spirit. As the president of the UN General Assembly (Han Seung-soo) said on United Nations Day this year: 'Let us always remember that the terrorists' capacity for evil is infinitesimally smaller than humanity's collective capacity for good'. There is a great need for us to be much less timid about goodness.
Global thinking
I truly believe that when the concept of globalisation began in earnest to affect our minds humanity did in fact break the mould of an old and outdated mindset. The way we think can no longer stay the same. All issues of relationships are under public scrutiny and going through the difficult process of being re-defined; sovereignty and community left open however reluctantly by some to be given new meaning. The vision of the UN Charter's preamble can at last be realized and people throughout the world can now collectively go to the task of creating a world in which they can to use the words of the preamble: 'live together in peace with one another as good neighbours.'
The report, published in 1995 by the Commission on Global Governance, called 'Our Global Neighbourhood', emphasizes the difference between the concept of global government and global governance, saying that governance should be seen as: 'the sum of the many ways individuals and institutions, public and private, manage their common affairs. It is a continuing process through which conflicting or diverse interests may be accommodated and cooperative action taken.'
We, the members of a local community, must now learn to see ourselves also as members of a global one, whose scope and dimension we have yet to comprehend and embrace. And together we shall need to find peaceful and innovative ways of bringing together all the conflicting and diverse interests of a multinational, multicultural community of peoples and creating tools and structures through which the common good of all can be served.
Core values
The commission calls for a common commitment to uphold core values which they name as: respect for life; liberty; justice and equity; mutual respect; caring and integrity. I believe these values sum up the sentiments of most, although perhaps not all, of the many conventions, resolutions and declarations adopted, some even ratified, by most UN member states. So these basic values are thus to a large degree already at least in theory accepted by the global community and its leadership. But the gap between theory and practice, between thought and action, vision and its realization, is every bit as wide, if not wider, than the yawning gap between the rich and the poor, gluttony and deprivation.
Today's world presents a living testimony to the saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.. We are all contributors to the great divide created by unfulfilled promises, by good intentions not acted upon by half-heartedness. But as His Holiness the Dalai Lama said in relation to the recent tragedy in New York: 'let us seek not to pinpoint blame, but to pinpoint cause.' He also suggested that if we want a better world for future generations we shall have to become spiritual activists, right here, right now, and cause such a better world to happen. It is we, the individual human person, who must be the cause and catalyst for transformation.
The New York catastrophy certainly brought home to people everywhere the vulnerability of any neighbourhood to the impact of a dangerously unbalanced state of world affairs. The devastating effect of the atrocious act of a few individuals, first and foremost upon the lives of the thousands of people who went about their daily business that September morning, but also on society as a whole, is still to be fully realized. That it has taken us this long - so many centuries and generations of wars and acts of atrocity - is a responsibility that humanity must suffer and shoulder together.
Common responsibility
The Commission on Global Governance
identifies seven main responsibilities which it believes all people should share
together. These are:
Could this recommendation which forms part of the commission's
'Call for Action' be given emphasis in some way at this seminar? Perhaps in
the form of a resolution or commitment? In my view, it comprises the good, sound
and down to earth common sense of us all, on which we depend for right, responsible
and well-tempered and timed action.
As public awareness and understanding
grows and expands, the primary role of us people will be to intensify our influence
on people in power, through the increasingly enlightened decisions we make both
individually and collectively. Furthermore, the riches of diverse experiences
and practices of the peoples of the world will become an invaluable and constant
resource for a developing global community.
The United Nations is the natural forum for such a complementary working relationship between the nations and the peoples of the world in a two-chamber assembly a truly democratic partnership for peace.
Harnessing the vision
In theory we know of the inter-connectedness and inter-dependence of all living things in our hearts we know what is right and we have a common vision of a global community of good neighbours. We have in fact all it takes to create a whole new civilization all but sufficient will to cause it to happen.
We are still struggling I think to re-define sovereignty and community; the relationship between one and the many between the individual and the whole. While the rights and freedoms of the individual are becoming known worldwide, individual responsibility is, as perhaps it should be, depending less on written law and more on values and on heart : a personal resolve and commitment to make a difference to the dysfunctional relationships within the world community.
Until we the peoples, as individuals, give power and substance, body and soul, to the creation of a global neighbourhood of friends, it won't happen. Let us therefore harness the vision and so cause it to happen.
| |
|
|
[ Support ] | [ Resources ] | |