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The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison of NGO Participation in UN World Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights, and Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

Ann Marie Clark ,
Elisabeth J. Friedman  and
Kathryn Hochstetler
Ann Marie Clark
Affiliation:
Purdue University
Elisabeth J. Friedman
Affiliation:
Barnard College, Columbia University
Kathryn Hochstetler
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
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Abstract

The increased visibility of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and social movements at the international level invites continuing evaluation of the extent and significance of the role they now play in world politics. While the presence of such new actors is easily demonstrated, international relations scholars have debated their significance. The authors argue that the concept of global civil society sets a more demanding standard for the evaluation of transnational political processes than has been applied in prior accounts of transnational activity. Further, most empirical studies of this activity have focused on a limited number of NGOs within a single issue-area. Using three recent UN world conferences as examples of mutual encounters between state-dominated international politics and global civic politics, the authors develop the concept of global civil society to provide a theoretical foundation for a systematic empirical assessment of transnational relations concerning the environment, human rights, and women at the global level.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , October 1998 , pp. 1 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1998

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References

1 Others have observed that further investigation is necessary. Martin Shaw observes that “too little attention has been paid” to the “empirical analysis of [social movements in civil society] and their relevance to the global/interstate contexts.” Thomas G. Weiss, David P. Forsythe, and Roger A. Coate note that “the differences, conflicts, and tensions in the interstate order are relatively well documented and discussed; this is not true for the nonstate order.” Shaw, , “Civil Society and Global Politics,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 23 (Fall 1994), 648Google Scholar; Weiss, , Forsythe, , and Coate, , The United Nations and Changing World Politics, 2d ed. (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1997), 252–53Google Scholar.

2 Although there are many variants of the concept, civil society is made up of “some combination of networks of legal protection, voluntary associations, and forms of independent public expression.” Cohen, Jean L. and Arato, Andrew, Civil Society and Political Theory (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992), 74Google Scholar. Ronnie Lipschutz and Shaw review conceptions of civil society in international relations theory. See Lipschutz, , “Reconstructing World Politics: The Emergence of Global Civil Society,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 21 (Winter 1992), 389–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Shaw (fn. 2), 647–49.

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11 Organizations falling into the latter category sometimes call themselves social movements, but we have chosen to use the term nongovernmental organization to refer to groups with both types of aims. This term is the most appropriate choice for this article since it is also the UN designation for such groups.

12 Many NGOs, of course, use both simultaneously. Works that address social movements' political roles directly are: Hochstetler, Kathryn, “The Evolution of the Brazilian Environmental Movement and Its Political Roles,” in Chalmers, D. et al. , eds., The New Politics of Inequality in Latin America: Rethinking Participation and Representation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997)Google Scholar; and Wapner (fn. 5). See also Clark, Ann Marie, “Non-Governmental Organizations and Their Influence on International Society,” Journal of International Affairs 48 (Winter 1995)Google Scholar.

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14 Elisabeth J. Friedman observed the Vienna NGO forum; the NGO forum of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional PrepCom for Beijing at Mar de Plata, Argentina; and the Beijing conference, both the NGO forum and the official conference, as an accredited NGO representative. Kathryn Hochstetler observed four preparatory meetings of the Brazilian NGO forum for the UNCED in 1990 and 1991; a Latin American NGO preparatory forum sponsored by Friends of the Earth in Sao Paulo, Brazil; and the official and parallel meetings of the UNCED Fourth PrepCom. Throughout this article, we refer to the conferences either by their title or by the city in which they were held.

15 The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo, Egypt, and some later conferences might also fit into our conceptual framework.

The largest difference between the 1994 Cairo conference and the conferences analyzed in this article may be that the first population conferences (Rome, 1954, and Belgrade, 1964) were specialist conferences characterized by specialized, knowledge-based, consultative interactions between NGOs and governments. These conferences were cosponsored by a transnational scientific organization, the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP). Planners for the 1974 population conference in Bucharest, although themselves a group of academics and government specialists, decided that it should not be another specialist conference. Thus, the Bucharest and later Mexico City (1984) and Cairo (1994) conferences were more broadly based, but still had a significant knowledge-based component. Paul Taylor, “Population: Coming to Terms with People,” in Taylor and Groom (fn. 13), 151.

Applying our analytical categories to Cairo, our initial research suggests that the procedures governing NGO participation were not particularly contentious because alliances were built based on the shared knowledge component. With some possible exceptions, cleavages were characterized by NGO-to-government agreement on various sides of substantive issues rather than by disagreements between governments and NGOs.

16 We use official conference and PrepCom (Preparatory Committee Session) to distinguish governmental proceedings from NGO forums.

17 Sally Morphet cites estimates of 255 to 298 NGO observers. Morphet, , “NGOs and the Environment,” in Willetts, Peter, ed., “;The Conscience of the World”: The Influence ofNon-Governmental Organisations in the U.N. System (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institutions, 1996), 144Google Scholar n. 35.

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24 For example, only two representatives per accredited NGO were permitted to participate on a limited basis in the governmental conference at Mexico City.

25 See Stephenson, Carolyn M., “Women's International Nongovernmental Organizations at the United Nations,” in Winslow, A., ed., Women, Politics, and the UnitedNations (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

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28 “Final Act of the International Conference on Human Rights,” UN Resolution III, May 11, 1978, 7.

29 Both groups were coordinated by the former Irish diplomat Sean MacBride, who held simultaneous leadership positions in two major human rights NGOs. MacBride was the secretary-general of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) from 1963 to 1970 and chaired the International Executive Committee of Amnesty International from 1964 to 1974. Tolley, Howard, The International Commission of Jurists: Global Advocates for Human Rights (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), 105–9Google Scholar.

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44 “The Role of Nongovernmental Organizations,” NGO-Newsletter (October 1992), in Nowak (fn. 37), 208.

45 Azzam, Fateh, “Non-Governmental Organizations and the UN World Conference on Human Rights,” The Review of the International Commission of Jurists 50 (1993), 95Google Scholar.

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47 UN Resolution 48/108, December 20,1993.

48 Earth Negotiations Bulletin, April 10,1995, online.

49 E/CN.6/1995/L.20, April 10,1995.

50 Brundtland Bulletin 16 (July 1992), 8Google Scholar, in Earth Summit (fn. 33).

51 Manfred Nowak and Ingeborg Schwartz, “Introduction: The Contribution of Non-Governmental Organizations,” in Nowak (fn. 37), 5, 7.

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58 Compare the three-page statement by Amnesty International, “Our World: Our Rights,” AI Index. IOR 41/19/92 (December 1992), with “World Conference on Human Rights: Facing Up to the Failures,” AI Index: IOR 41/16/92 (December 1992), the 39-page document issued the same month by Amnesty International.

59 A contrast between many governments' sense of relief after the Vienna conference and NGOs' strident criticisms appears in Schmidt, Markus, “What Happened to the ‘Spirit of Vienna’? The Follow-up to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and the Mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,” Nordic Journal of International Law 64 (1995), 599Google Scholar.

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61 Centre for Applied Studies in International Organizations (fn. 34), 26.

62 See Frank Ching, “Is It an NGO, or a GONGO?” Far Eastern Economic Review July 7,1994, 34.

63 This finding contradicts Wapner's expectation that his analysis of the parallel activities of Northern NGOs on the environmental front could be extended to all NGOs. Wapner (fn. 5), 316.

64 “ELCI Global Meeting on Environment and Development for NGO-Nairobi,” in Earth Summit (fn.34).

65 Centre for Applied Studies in International Negotiations, “NGO Activities at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and the Global Forum,” 25, in Earth Summit (fn. 34). About fifteen hundred people registered at the women's tent.

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67 Amnesty International published a book on women's rights in March 1995 at the launch of a campaign on women's rights in the lead-up to Beijing. Amnesty International, Human Rights Are Women's Right (New York: Amnesty International, 1995)Google Scholar. Human Rights Watch began a research and monitoring project on women's human rights in 1990 and published the results of its five years of work in 1995. Human Rights Watch Women's Rights Project, The Human Rights Watch Global Report on Women's Human Rights (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1995)Google Scholar.

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70 Centre for Applied Studies in International Negotiations Issues and Non-Governmental Organizations Programme (fn. 34), 16.

71 Ibid., 11.

72 Stephenson (fn. 25), 143.

73 Charlotte Bunch, Mallika Dutt, and Susana Fried, “Beijing '95: A Global Referendum on the Human Rights of Women” (Manuscript, Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University, n.d.).

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76 Alan Riding, “Human Rights: The West Gets Some Tough Questions,” New York Times, June 20, 1993, 4:5.

77 “Vienna: A Search for Common Ground,” UN Chronicle 30, no. 3 (1993), 59Google Scholar.

78 Nowak and Schwartz estimate that over 70 percent of NGOs at Vienna were small Southern NGOs participating at the global level for the first time. Nowak and Schwartz (fn. 51), 8. According to a survey of five hundred NGOs that “go to, or wish to go to UN conferences in the 1990s,” 76 percent felt “restricted” by larger NGOs; 75 percent by English-language NGOs; and 71 percent by Northern NGOs. Benchmark Environmental Consulting, Democratic Global Governance: Report of the 1995 Benchmark Survey of NGOs (Oslo: Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1996) 26–28Google Scholar. See also Gaer (fn. 39), 58.

79 Peter Uvin makes the point that Southern NGOs have a good deal to gain from cooperating with larger Northern NGOs. “Third World NGOs increasingly attempt to link up with Northern INGOs [international NGOs] in order to influence rich country governments. … Northern INGOs increasingly serve as lobbyists for their Southern partners, working with them to promote policy change at the summit.” Uvin, “Scaling Up the Grassroots and Scaling Down the Summit: The Relations between Third World NGOs and the UN,” in Weiss and Gordenker (fn. 39), 167.

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83 Imber (fn. 80).

84 See “Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Held in Beijing from 4 to 5 September 1995; Including the Agenda, the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action (Extract)”—and Country Reservations—in The United Nations and The Advancement of Women 1945–1996 (New York: United Nations Department of Public Information, 1996)Google Scholar.

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86 ECOSOC Resolution 1996/31 (July 25,1996) replaces ECOSOC Resolution 1296 (1968), which formerly governed NGO consultative status.

87 Willetts points to a document (Decision 1/1) that indicated such restrictions during the Rio preparatory process and seems to have been incorporated into Resolution 1996/31. Willetts (fn. 30), 74–75.

88 ECOSOC Resolution 1996/31, July 25,1996, paragraphs 5, 6, 7,20.

89 Ibid., section IX, paragraphs 68–70.

90 Centre for Applied Studies in International Negotiations, “Report on the Participation of NGOs,” 26, in Earth Summit (fn. 33).

91 Azzam (fn. 45), 95; David B. Ottaway, “Women Having Their Way at Rights Conference,” Washington Post, June 17,1993, A39.

92 UN Document A/Conf.32/41 (fn. 19), part 3, res. 9.

93 WEDO (fn. 42), cover letter.

94 UN Document A/Conf.157/23, “Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,” June 25,1993, part 1, para. 11.

95 EESI Earth Summit Update, no. 8, April 1991, 8. See also Earth Summit Bulletin, June 16,1992.

96 Earth Negotiations Bulletin, March 1995 and September 1995.

97 See Manfred Nowak, “Written Report by the General Rapporteur, Manfred Nowak, as adopted by the Final Plenary Session of the NGO-Forum,” UN Document A/Conf. 157/7, June 14,1993, part D, para. 3, in Nowak (fn. 37), 83.