UN hosts 59th NGO conference

Katie Barnett Guest Writer

More than 2,500 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) gathered for a conference at the United Nations in New York from Sept. 6-Sept. 8. The 59th Annual Department of Public Information/NGO Conference addressed ways to strengthen collaboration between local communities and global institutions.
The meeting was entitled “Unfinished Business: Effective Partnerships for Human Security and Sustainable Development.”

In the closing session, Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised the participants’ hard work and encouraged them to continue to mobilize public opinion. “You have the capacity to say things that we cannot say—that I cannot say,” said Annan. “And I often love you for it.”

The conference was divided into four panels, six roundtable sessions and 34 workshops. Student journalists were specifically encouraged to cover the event.
Organizers stated in the invitation, “The coverage will inform more young people about world issues, and the work of the United Nations and its affiliated non-governmental organizations, specifically in creating partnerships for a better future.”

In the workshop entitled “Beyond Violence Prevention: Creating a Culture to Enable Women’s Security and Development,” panelist Letty Chiwara of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) pushed for “innovative ways of challenging tradition, building respect for the lives of women and girls, and investing in long-term education to reach people’s minds and hearts” in order to change the global culture of gender-based violence.

“We know that one in three women are beaten, coerced into sex or abused in the world, and often the aggressor is known to her,” said Chiwara. “In addition, 700,000 to two million women are trafficked a year; gender-based violence is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation.”

At the roundtable session “Human Security: Responsibility to Protect and the Peacebuilding Commission,” Ambassador of the United Republic of Tanzania Augustine Philip Mahiga noted that “sometimes governments fail to protect their people. Sometimes because they cannot, sometimes because they do not feel responsible, sometimes, even rarely, because they cause the suffering of their people.”
Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support Carolyn McAskie argued that in the case Mahiga described, there ought to be a “higher authority” to protect those individuals.

While Mahiga and McAskie discusssed institutional issues and initiatives, Eugenie Mukeshimana, a Rwandan genocide survivor, spoke to the need for humanity on a more basic level.
“We need to protect each other because we are human beings,” said Mukeshimana. “Our prime responsibility is to protect human life.”

NGO representatives asked the panelists for guidance. “We want to know what you want us to do. Time is running out,” said one participant.
Mahiga replied, “Do the following: identify yourselves, your causes, your organizations. Get to know each other. Use the tools of information to create awareness and networking amongst yourselves.

“Make your governments accountable—you are the constituency. You are by far the most powerful in making your governments move. ‘We are the people’ says the Charter—you are the people,” continued Mahiga. “Make this United Nations strong. Make your governments strong. Make your resources available to the UN. We are at your service.”