Dear friends and colleagues,


I appreciate once again having the opportunity to provide a summary account of CONGO activities in Vienna.

Whenever the international media carry stories about UN activities in Vienna, they mostly concern activities being undertaken by the International Atomic Energy Agency or the current status of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty - which regrettably is still not in force. The past few months have been no exception. Public attention has been focused on those very activities which regrettably have seen little improvement. To my mind the situation lays down a challenge that CONGO might be well advised to take up.

First of all the background.

With particular care and an impending sense of dismay, the Vienna NGO Committee on Peace followed the debate in the seventh review conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty last May in New York. The conference found itself unable to strengthen the treaty and most regrettably, the conference proved incapable of achieving anything close to universality of the treaty.

That this should have happened despite all the recent international developments that underscore the need for vigour is most discouraging. We have observed acts of defiance towards the non-proliferation regime taking the form of public assertions of non-compliance, a first-ever withdrawal from the treaty, the uncovering of a clandestine nuclear weapons supply network and a failure to move closer towards nuclear disarmament. Countries such as India, Pakistan, Israel and, more recently, North Korea, still remain wilfully outside the treaty: a fact that can hardly encourage other countries to submit to more international control.

The situation borders on tragic political short-sightedness or – to quote the nuclear philosopher Günther Anders– “blindness to the Apocalypse”. All the more so, as the three Western powers together with the other nuclear weapon states were content to play the role of “beati possidentes”. They clearly felt no compunction to follow the lead from the last review conference  and to set a positive trend by developing a comprehensive policy vis-à-vis the non-nuclear weapon states.


As the Ambassador of Canada put it, the “Conference let the pursuit of short-term, parochial interests override the collective long-term interest in sustaining the treaty’s authority and integrity”.


The seventh review conference was thus an opportunity sadly lost for improving multilateral and universal control of nuclear power and preventing its misuse by unscrupulous politicians and terrorists. The threat this poses should urge the best armed countries to look constructively for better solutions.

I have focused on this disappointing course of events because I am convinced that one of our most important tasks in the coming years will be to prepare for the preparatory conferences of the next NPT Review Conference. We and civil society have to remind the world of the issues at stake and propose solutions that governments apparently do not want or are unable to find themselves.


I believe it would be well worth our while to consider organising a World Conference of NGOs on “nuclear arms limitation and disarmament”, covering all aspects of nuclear threat and working out proposals to be submitted to the preparatory conferences in 2008 and 2009 and other fora.


Is there support within CONGO for such an initiative? Is the CONGO Board ready to establish a small ad hoc committee to structure and prepare such an initiative?

 

If so, the Vienna NGO Committee on Peace and the CONGO office in Vienna - given the latter’s proximity to both the IAEA and CTBTO - will contribute in whatever way possible.

In concluding this part of my report, I wish to draw your attention to the forthcoming Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to be held from 21 to 23 September in New York. It will provide an opportunity for a joint NGO statement and a follow-up to the recent initiative of the mayor of Hiroshima. Speaking about the failure of the NPT Review Conference and criticising the “selfish objectives of the members of the nuclear club”, he proposed in the name of Mayors for Peace and its 1,080 members a new initiative for the consideration in the GA First Committee.

I want to assure you that the Vienna NGO Committee on Peace will be happy to cooperate in these matters closely with its CONGO counterparts.


The presence of other UN organisations in Vienna has proved a boon in other areas.


As I reported last time, the Vienna Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice has focused on the issue of organised crime and its prevention.  On October 27/28 we will hold a Regional Crime Prevention Forum for NGOs from Central and Eastern Europe in the Vienna International Centre concentrating on human trafficking, corruption and urban crime.


The main objective of this initiative is to grant NGOs working in those fields and opportunity to describe the problems they face and the inputs they require. A particular concern at the forum will be identifying ways and means of securing more support for those NGOs – either through improved co-operation within the NGO community or through closer ties with international organisations working in the field, especially the Vienna-based UNODC.


It is planned to have the forum adopt an NGO position paper describing the challenges that NGOs face, the strategies they wish to implement, the cooperation they seek and the assistance they require. Once adopted, the position paper will be submitted to governments, as well as to the forthcoming session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other international bodies active in the field of crime prevention in all its various forms.


Among the ideas being mooted for inclusion in the position paper is that of setting up a permanent network of NGOs active in combating organised crime as well as holding similar fora in other regions.


The second idea was already aired at the previous session of the Commission and included in a preambular paragraph of a resolution adopted on the strength of the CONGO initiative in Vienna. If it is accepted as being relevant on a global scale, it will open up a window of opportunity for CONGO involvement in a number of regional initiatives, especially in Latin American and Africa.


The fact that Vienna hosts a number of organisations devoted to safeguarding fundamental human rights has also lent impetus to the activities of the newly established NGO Committee on Human Rights.


It launched its activities on 28 April 2005 with a talk on the highly topical theme of terrorism and human rights by Mr. Alex Schmid from the Vienna-based terrorism prevention branch of the United Nations. The main points of Mr. Schmid’s presentation are contained in a document we have distributed here.


The newly established committee plans to go from strength to strength.

 

Among its major future activities will be a round-table discussion on the draft for a European Fundamental Rights Agency to be set up in Vienna.  Special attention will be given to ways and means of including civil society in its activities and making it an effective instrument – as the “European Social NGOs formulated it: “we need a watchdog, not a poodle!”

 

The round table will be chaired by Prof. Manfred Nowak, well known here in Geneva as the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. The findings will be transmitted to governments and European decision-making bodies for their active consideration. Copies of the invitation can be found at documents distribution.


For next year the Committee is considering a panel discussion with international participation that will address the current international situation relating to the freedom of the media. The focus will be on what can be done to prevent violations against the freedom of expression.

Though situated on the banks of the Danube and in the heart of Europe, Vienna is also a focal point for issues related to outer space thanks to the presence of the United Nations body concerned with such issues.


The Vienna CONGO Office is in the process of establishing closer ties with that body, ultimately with a view to organising in 2006 for NGOs a panel discussion on outer space with emphasis on the peaceful use of outer space in the light of threats to the same and the numerous military initiatives.

 

The idea is to familiarize NGOs with space technology in fields like environment monitoring, climate change, exploration, sustainable development, navigation, transportation and security as well as with problems in these fields and to give them the possibility to make their remarks.

 

We hope that many international NGOs will participate in that initiative and we invite you, members of the Board, to to give us your support and advice.


A key to all these new activities is undoubtedly the presence of CONGO in the VIC complex. It offers the benefit of closeness to the major organisations, but also – and more importantly – it ensures a permanent presence for CONGO. There is a direct correlation between visibility and effectiveness – and happily we are gaining acceptance as partners in the process of strengthening ties between civil society and the United Nations.



Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friedrich Gehart

29.08.05