1. PREAMBLE

   The 20th General Assembly of the Conference of NGOs:

   1. supports the proposal announced by the United Nations Secretary General at the meeting of the Conference of NGOs Board in July 1997 to convene a United Nations NGO Forum of the Millennium in the year 2000;
   2. welcomes the Secretary General's invitation for the Conference to work closely with him on the preparation of this challenging and complex event;
   3. affirms the fundamental importance of widespread consultation with NGOs so as to achieve the active and cooperative participation of organizations representing diverse constituencies, in the preparation of the Forum, in the determination of its goals, and in the definition of its modalities of operation.

2. BASIS FOR CONSULTATION

   The Conference invites the Board and its officers to take into account the following considerations during consultations with the Secretary General and his secretariat colleagues, with the General Assembly, with NGOs and other groupings of NGOs and with governments:

   1. The Forum should reassert the spirit of "We the peoples" which led to the creation of the United Nations in 1945, and mobilize organizations of people for participation in the work of a reinvigorated United Nations facing the global challenges of the 21st century.
   2. The Forum should build upon the summits and world conferences convened previously by the United Nations, particularly during the 1990s, and their associated NGO fora. Those summits defined an agenda for addressing major global challenges. Implementation of that agenda by governments, non-governmental organizations and the UN system requires the mobilization of public opinion and public action. The agenda of the Forum should be an agenda for mobilization and implementation.
   3. The Forum should provide for inter-action between the UN and NGOs in a spirit of partnership. It should be much more than an occasion for the dissemination of information. It should be an occasion for participation.
   4. The Forum should have the possibility of addressing declarations and/or messages to the Millennium Assembly, the session of the General Assembly to be convened at the level of Heads of State and Government in the same year, or to the Secretary General or other United Nations organs. This proposal should not restrict possibilities for intervention by individual NGOs.
   5. The possibility of addressing such declarations and/or messages to the UN and governments requires an agreed basis for the representative legitimacy of the Forum. The establishment of that representative legitimacy requires in turn a broad consensus on the composition of the Forum.
   6. The Conference of NGOs believes that the composition of the Forum should be worked out on the basis of broad consultations among NGOs, in particular those with consultative status at the United Nations through ECOSOC and those which participated actively in the summits of the 1990s. In this respect the experience of international and regional NGOs and NGO networks will be most valuable.
   7. In the course of such consultations, the Conference should seek an agreed formula for the composition of the Forum based on representation of international, regional and national NGOs.
   8. There must be fair and balanced representation from all regions of the world, in particular with respect to industrialized, newly industrializing, developing and least developed countries.
      1. In cooperation with the UN and Member States, a solidarity fund should be established to enable the participation of NGOs from developing countries, especially the least developed. In the interest of equity it would be preferable for such a solidarity fund to be established, for criteria to be established for assistance, and for decisions regarding assistance to be taken by a body established for that purpose with representation from the UN, donors and NGOs.
      2. Communication technology could be used to involve peoples around the world in the Forum, through inter-active video links established in cooperation with UN Information Centres, and through the use of the Internet to involve NGOs from all regions in preparatory consultations.
   9. While manifesting a major effort to mobilize public opinion and public action, the Forum should at all times respect the diversity of NGOs in general and of its constituents in particular. To that end, the Conference proposes that a declaration and/or message should opened for signature by all interested participating organizations, before being communicated officially to the UN Secretary General and the General Assembly.
   10. The Forum must be independent of governments and freedom of expression should be respected at all times: These principles of independence and freedom of expression must underpin the organisation of the Forum, including the composition of delegations and the procedures for election of spokespersons, chairpersons and others with responsibility for its work.

3. ACTION

   The Conference mandates its Board and officers to:

   1. engage in early discussions with the Secretary General and his office concerning the initiation of a process of broad consultation with and among NGOs, as described above;
   2. consult with other NGO groupings and networks, and through NGOs' own meetings, with a view to establishing an international facilitating structure with participation from all regions;
   3. investigate, drawing on the experience of the UN summits, the possibility of establishing a secretariat to assist in the organisation of the Forum, and of raising the necessary funds and in-kind support, with clearly established and transparent lines of responsibility and accountability;
   4. give early consideration to ways in which the proposed regional committees of the conference could be involved in preparation of the Forum;
   5. explore in the context of the consultations described above such concrete questions as place and timing, as well as implications for the convening of the 2 1 st General Assembly of the Conference of NGOs.

A first report of progress made on the above items should be presented to the Board at its first meeting in 1998.

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