The General Assembly of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), met in Vienna from 6-8 November 2000 and considered the theme: The United Nations/NGO Dynamics in the 21^st Century: Together for Social Justice, Equality and Peace. Three roundtable discussions were held resulting in a series of recommendations for the attention of the in-coming CONGO Board. These discussions included recommendations in the following areas:

• UN/NGO Relations
• Racism
• Poverty

We welcome both the vision and the spirit of cooperation evidenced in both the Millennium Forum and the Millennium Summit Declaration extending the opportunity for NGOs to address along with the General Assembly these historic documents. In his address to us, the President of the General Assembly stated that the principal framework for the work of the current General Assembly is the implementation of the Declaration. He called upon us and the larger civil society to be an active partner with the UN in this process.

As we face the future, CONGO seeks to increase its outreach to NGOs in developing countries whose contributions are essential to our vision of a truly inclusive global community. We recognize that this requires both commitment of resources and an openness to partnership and to mutual responsibility. In addition, we pledge ourselves to achieving gender equality and encouraging the role of women as central to the development process.

Most of all, CONGO has earned the rights that its members were granted in Article 71 of the UN Charter and further codified in ECO/SOC Resolutions 1968/1296 and 1996/31…by working with our partners in a transparent, democratic, ethical, responsible and accountable way. We have learned from the past, we celebrate our accomplishments, and we approach the 21st Century "Together for Social Justice, Equality and Peace".

Discussion Group I: UN/NGO Relations

Recommendations to the in-coming CONGO Board are grouped in four areas:

Consultative Status of NGOs - Increased Access of NGOS to all UN Bodies:

• Continue dialogue on NGOs formal access to the General Assembly and main committees. This should be regulated by rules similar to those addressing access and participation granted by Consultative Status to ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies (Resolution 1996/31).
• Base access of NGOs to major UN events including world conferences and preparatory processes on standardized and non-discriminatory rules of procedure.
• Continue to dialogue with and to work with the ECOSOC Committee on NGOs to assure a fair, open, and collaborative approach to all issues of accreditation.
• Facilitate a study on the changing needs and possibilities of NGO participation following the opening of accreditation to national NGOs. Some of the issues identified were: limitation of access of NGOs to meetings because of numbers, the lack of funding for NGOs from developing countries.
• Advocate for UN-NGO liaison units having more resources.
• Improve access to documentation and to information for NGOs.
• Coordinate procedures related to access to UN buildings so that NGOs are not treated differently from other UN colleagues and partners.
• Remind us all that the history of UN/NGO relationship is based on Article 71 of the United Nations Charter. It is therefore a right, and does not depend on goodwill from Governments or the UN Secretariat.
• Fight to safeguard this consultative right and follow carefully any developments linked to this right, such as access, UN Committee on NGOs, common guidelines in all UN Centres, information and briefing of NGOs, Governments and UN Secretariat. CONGO should continue as before, encouraging the "tripartite" dialogue between Governments/NGOs and the UN Secretariat staff.

• Facilitate a concerted effort to reach out and build follow-up in the regions to implement the commitments made by governments at world events and parallel NGO events. Mobilize those who can implement plans of action at the national level.
• Link follow-up action by NGOs, including indigenous peoples, around such existing UN events as UN funtional Commissions.

• Urge that CONGO members become better informed about the Global Compact (a recent UN initiative with the private sector) in order to assess its relevance and to monitor the process.

• Address the issue of "Government" NGOs.
• Remind NGOs that we must accept responsibility for our actions if we are to keep our credibility.
• Seek feedback on CONGO's operational effectiveness and work with the ECOSOC Committee on NGOs to encourage their seeking similar feedback.

• Recommend more uniformity in accreditation throughout the UN system including the specialized agencies (using ECOSOC as a model).
• Encourage some form of accountability of the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund to ECOSOC.
• Endorse the campaign to support the rights of UN workers in order to safeguard the independence of international civil service. Likewise, CONGO should support all efforts to safeguard the health and welfare of UN system staff, UN humanitarian workers and NGO partners in the field.

As a new century begins, NGOs must confront the questions raised in the preparatory work leading up to the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance to be held in South Africa in 2001. "Are we sufficiently inclusive? Are we non-discriminatory? Are our organizations and our programs based on the principles enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights?"

Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and all kinds of related intolerance persist in the new century and this persistence is rooted in fear: fear of what is different, fear of the other, fear of the loss of personal security. While fear is in itself ineradicable, together we strive to assure that its consequences are not ineradicable.

We therefore call on the incoming CONGO Board to take very rapid steps to deal with this issue.

• Appeal to all member organisations to be sensitive to intolerance and xenophobia and to participate in the South Africa World Conference to extent possible in promoting, advocating and accepting diversity as a gift and value for the one human family.
• Urge NGOs to utilise the UNESCO Declaration on Racial Discrimination and to call on teachers, trainers, study leaders in formal, informal and non-formal education and training to implement the goals of the Declaration.
• Urge NGOs to lobby with their governments or other education authorities to eliminate racism, xenophobia, discrimination and other forms of intolerance from all textbooks.
• Call on NGOs to develop "Shadow Reports", in coalition with other NGOs, to submit them to the UN, and to use those shadow reports in constituency education.
• Encourage NGOs to lobby their governments to regularly, transparently, and completely report to the UN monitoring committee on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
• Urge NGOs to lobby their governments to withdraw all reservations to the Convention, in particular to Article 14, which permits individual and group complaints to the UN Committee.
• Advocate NGOs calling on their governments to ratify the UN Convention for the Protection of Migrant Worker and their Families.
• Urge the UN General Assembly to recommend to all Member States the adoption of the draft Protocols on the Trafficking of Women and Children and on Migrants aiming to fight racism and intolerance at all levels.

In the Declaration and Agenda for Action of the Millennium Forum, eradication of poverty is described as a violation of human rights. "With some 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty, it is the most widespread violation of human rights in the world." This human rights perspective underscores the tragedy and the disproportionate occurrence of poverty among so many disadvantaged groups…the young, the elderly, women, indigenous people, the disabled as well as those who suffer from hunger and malnutrition and from deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

We call on the in-coming CONGO Board to promote awareness and acknowledgement of NGOs and their unique ability to reach the poor and the extremely poor. With empowerment as the primary goal, we recommend the following:

• Appeal to NGOs to incorporate into their work the understanding that human rights are fundamental and that empowerment of the poor is a goal in itself (as well as a tool for self help and community development). NGOs should encourage participation and partnership with the poor at all levels. They should expand their networking and use of communications technology to leverage development objectives that could make a difference:
• Lobby governments and the UN system to involve those NGOs who can give voice to the voiceless and who can advocate of behalf of the disadvantaged and underrepresented.
• Assure a gender equality perspective in all endeavours.
• Promote formal and non-formal education and training as essential prerequisites to the escape from poverty.
• Advocate social and legal reforms that emphasise the following:
  rights to land, property and inheritance, phase-out of child labour, enhancement of preventive health care services, (notably HIVAIDS and other diseases), sanitation and access to clean water, access to health information and education technologies.

  Advance the status of women and men, especially in rural areas, through use of microcredit (and macrocredit) and the necessary support infrastructure.

  Promote in the UN system and other bodies a social awareness and an understanding of the ethical significance of the policies and actions of the private sector.

  Consider the role of CONGO in the preparation of the Conference in 2001 in Brussels on the Least Developed Countries.

  Advocate proactive policies of governments and the private sector to mobilise human and financial resources.

  Support the work of politically and economically empowered women, such as members of the Women's Global Economic Summit. CONGO should work to advance a paradigm shift from the purely economic to ethical, community and family values.

  Encourage a process of integrating these strategies through implementation of the international instruments such as the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the ILO Fundamental Principles and Declaration on Rights at Work.

  Strengthen ties and improve communication with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation with respect to policies on the poor.