All NGO Briefings at
UN to Be Webcast
The United Nations has taken a significant step in sharing
information about its wide-ranging work and interaction with non-governmental
organizations around the world thanks to the Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations.
Earlier this week, the US Permanent Mission announced that
it was a co-sponsor of a resolution that would require public meetings of the UN Non-Governmental Organization Committee to be
webcast.
The Mission’s statement touted the action as a “fight for
greater transparency” at the UN. This change is expected to bring to light
those countries that seek to block United Nations access for organizations that
defend press freedom, provide legal counsel for political prisoners, document
human rights abuses committed by their governments, and call out discrimination
of all kinds.
“Today's vote will bring increased transparency and
accountability to the United Nations. Now all of these meetings and votes will
be open for the world to see. This major win at that will greatly assist
organizations that stand up to oppressive governments around the world,” Ambassador Nikki Haley, the Permanent
Representative of the US, observed after the adoption of the resolution.
True enough. By
opening up these meetings to global scrutiny, civil society that is inside and
outside the UN system will have an opportunity to witness in action the good
and bad member-states.
But there’s also other benefits.
These webcasts should boost
NGOs’ activities on regional and global scales. They will give civil society
the opportunity to boost its interaction with likeminded groups, other
non-governmental/non-profit organizations and a variety of stakeholders on many
issues from all regions of the world.
This decision will certainly lead to more information and
best practices sharing, learning about issues of day in other regions of the
world, planning and mobilizing events that address UN projects, capacity
building, and boosting the global influence and impact of civil society – the peoples
that make up the United Nations. Youth NGO activists will also be able to share
virtually in the UN experience of discussing and resolving global questions of
the day. They will be exposed to a vast learning laboratory.
Simultaneously, UN officials and member-states that are
invited to speak at these briefings as well as NGO speakers, academia and other
experts will have the opportunity to share their knowledge and work with
colleagues from around the world.
This single resolution has the potential of expanding and
enhancing collaboration on an international level for those NGOs that regularly
visit UN Headquarters and those that don’t have such a chance.
Imagine, in a faraway region of the world, active NGOs in
dire need of new ideas about how to deal with a regional issue, can gather in
front of a widescreen computer and participate via the Internet in a UN NGO
Briefing. The effect will be beyond imagination.
As a former staff member of the UN Department of Public
Information/Non-Governmental Organizations section, I can say that it had webcast
its Thursday Briefings as often as it could – when “bandwidth” was available.
The presentations’ benefit was compounded by the questions raised by the NGOs
in attendance as well as those situated throughout the four corners of the
globe. All told, each session was an enlightening experience.
Other UN agencies, programs and projects that enjoy NGO
participation will now also webcast their proceedings. Among them the
Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the UN Economic and Social
Council.
UN events are webcast
on:
For further information about the work of NGOs in the UN
system or for a schedule of NGO Briefings, please visit these agencies:
Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental
Organizations Section
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Economic and Social Council
If you have examples of how you’ve participated in such a
webcast and what you’ve initiated afterward, let me know about it and I’ll help
you spread the word about your success.
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