On 17 April 2023, ISHR sent its annual submission to the report of the UN Secretary-General on reprisals and intimidation against defenders engaging or seeking to engage with the UN and its human rights mechanisms. The submission presents a disturbing pattern of intimidation and reprisals in 23 countries.
On 17 April 2023, ISHR submitted its annual submission to the report to the UN Secretary General on reprisals and intimidation against defenders engaging or seeking to engage with the UN and its human rights mechanisms.
The ECOSOC Committee on NGOs has just completed its Regular 2023 session. Despite change in the Committee’s composition, long standing issues of politicisation and systemic inefficiency remain.
Over 200 NGOs with consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council provide strong recommendations to enhance access and participation of NGOs with the UN.
A vote by States at the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has granted consultative status to nine civil society organisations that had previously been arbitrarily deferred by the UN Committee on NGOs. The vote ends a record 15 years of deferral for one of the candidates.
On Wednesday 7 December, ECOSOC Member States will be asked to vote on the accreditation of 9 NGOs that have been arbitrarily blocked from UN participation, including one that has been blocked for 15 years - the longest in the history of the institution.
In the last session of the current term of the NGO Committee, States continue to express concern over excessive politicisation of the Committee while some NGOs continue to be deferred for over a decade through arbitrary questions.
This week ECOSOC members could break years of deadlock for civil society participation at the UN through a vote that would give consultative status to six civil society groups.
The ECOSOC Committee on NGOs has adopted its report bringing the first session of 2022 to a close. The session saw heated exchanges around a vote to accredit 5 deferred NGOs a well as serious consequences of under-resourcing of the NGO Branch.
On Wednesday, 13 April, members of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) elected 19 members to the UN Committee on NGOs, a body frequently criticised for restricting civil society participation at the UN.
