La Lettre

Special Issue - The new letter of the FIDH
Number 4- May / June 1999

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Information accountability Action

FOCUS ON Great-Britain: A report denounce “a culture of institutionalised racism” in the police MEMBER ORGANISATIONS IN ACTION Palestine: Campaign to Implement the IVth Geneva Convention in the OPTs THE FIDH IN ACTION European Union: The protection of Human Rights in the European Union. A new Charter of fundamental rights? The European Union and asylum law : for a Europe of tolerance THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE Guatemala: The report entitled ‘Remembrance of silence’ or the truth restored WOMEN’S RIGHTS Western Europe: Domestic violence, an all too common reality PRESERVE UNIVERSALITY Challenges: New challenges for human Rights? HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Urgent appeals

1999-2000 : a turning point in the history of the international civil society The international civil society has been exploding over the last fifteen years : the number of NGOs represented at the First World Conference on Human Rights in Teheran in 1968 was very low, but its number had increased to nearly 1,000 at the Second World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993. During the Rome negociations on the adoption of the future international criminal court, they were nearly 800, grouped together in two major coalitions. Everybody unanimously agreed that their role had been decisive. This formidable increase in the number of NGOs has been accompanied by a real transformation which is far from being completed given the constant effort coming from human rights activists in order to make their action more professional and more technical. It is precisely this ‘maturity’ which explains the place they have won at the negotiations which led to the adoption of the statute of the ICC in Rome on 17th July 1998. It is this supplementary credibility which explains that they have been identified and recognised as genuine interlocutors by governmental delegations, from both the southern and northern hemisphere countries. At the same time, there are increasing threats limit the role won over the years by NGOs. Over the last few years, in the forum of the UN Commission on human rights, NGOs have been, directly or not, a target of draft reform propositions or so-called ‘rationalisation of procedures’. They have always been used as perfect scapegoats by repressive regimes which form a majority at the Commission and which use NGO’s weaknesses as part of their diplomatic strategy to prevent the Commission from interfering with their so-called ‘domestic’ affairs. This whole movement necessarily implies that the status of NGOs be progressivelly assured or even in some cases institutionalized, under very precaucious conditions. NGOs have demonstrated their capacity to act as indispensable alert signals for the international community ; they have proved the quality of their observations. By consolidating their position within the international community, there may thus be a way towards achieving greater integrity in bilateral and multilateral relations. William Bourdon Secretary general of the FIDH

 

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