CPAFFC Delegation Attends 56th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference

At the invitation of the NGO Section of the Department of Public Information (DPI) of the United Nations, the CPAFFC delegation attended the 56th Annual DPI/NGO Conference at the UN Headquarters in New York, from September 8 to 10, 2003.

UN Annual DPI/NGO Conference

This year's 56th Annual DPI/NGO Conference was co-sponsored by the NGO Section of DPI under the UN Secretariat and the Executive Committee of the NGOs in association with the DPI. It is a major NGO conference held at the UN Headquarters. The first conference was held in 1947. The theme of this conference was "Human Security and Dignity:Fulfilling the Promise of the United Nations". More than 2,600 delegates from 687 NGOs in 93 countries were present at this conference, and it was the first time for the CPAFFC to attend the conference after it was approved as an associated NGO with DPI in June 2003.

The United Nations attached great importance to this conference. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent his congratulatory message to the conference and showed up in the large-scale reception for the delegates. Hosted by Mr. Shashi Tharoor, under secretary-general for communications and public information of the U.N., the Opening Plenary Session of the Conference took place in the General Assembly Hall. Ms. Louise Frechette, deputy secretary-general, delivered the welcoming speech. She pointed out that this conference was aimed at implementing the Millennium Development Goal jointly signed by 149 state leaders in 2000. The world today needs the U.N. and a strong civil society more than ever before, and both need each other better. She encouraged the NGOs to exert more influence on the governments in order to strengthen the ties between the civil society and the U.N. Mr. Jan Kavan, president of the 57th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Ms. Joan Levy, chair of the NGO/DPI Executive Committee and Mr. Renate Bloem, president of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONCO) made a remark respectively. Mr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, chair of High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on UN Civil Society Relations, made a keynote speech. He said that their mission was to review the guidelines and practices regarding civil society's relations with the United Nations in order to formulate recommendations for enhancing such interaction. He also said that most of today's conflicts were no longer between national states but rather within states or between states and uncivil groups or networks. There was no possible solution for problems of such complexity without a revitalization of the UN and a strengthening of global governance as there was no alternative to dialogue and negotiation. Civil society was a key promoter of multilateralism because it had the capacity to argue, to denounce, to propose, to experiment, and to innovate. The citizen contribution for global governance must be better understood and valued.

This conference covered a wide range of topics on various aspects of society. After the opening session, other sessions, 31 workshops and 6 panel discussions were held in the following three days, during which personages from NGOs, academic field, private institutions and media, high-level officials from different governments and the U.N., delegates from civil society made keynote speeches on such topics as eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, enhancing basic education, promoting equality between men and women, raising the social status of women, pushing forward environmental protection and sustainable development.

This conference was featured by the presence of more delegates from developing countries, who took a considerable part of the speakers. Their speeches rather fully voiced the wishes of the people of different countries. They called for pushing forward democratization and legalization of international relations, maintaining diversity of world civilization and coexistence of different cultures, opposing unilateralism and power politics, denouncing the imposition of so-called "democracy" by some countries on others; they also appealed the cancellation of arms race between powers, providing more aids to the education of underdeveloped countries and helping them shake off poverty; they called on the developed countries to stop creating pollution within the developing countries, who should also strengthen their efforts to prevent and harness nuclear pollution to ensure the health of their peoples.

Meeting with Mr. Paul Hoeffel, Chief of NGO Section of DPI

Mr. Paul Hoeffel, chief of NGO Section of DPI, met with our delegation alone on the afternoon of September 10. He expressed his wish that the CPAFFC would pass on the information about the U.N. to our local associations so that more organizations in China would know about and participate in the activities taking place within the UN. He also said that he would like to see speakers from more countries in the world to show the international atmosphere of the U.N. China, a country with a long history, has become more and more influential on the Iraqi issue. The U.N. needs to hear the voice of China. He hoped that the CPAFFC could assist in recommending speakers from China to the next NGO/DPI conference.