Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper is to explore Amnesty International's relationship with the United Nations over time, whereby particular attention is paid to the period since the mid-1990s. The proposition of this study is that the NGO changed its pattern of activity with the United Nations depending on the prospects it perceived to advance human rights. Most significantly, over the last decade, Amnesty International has broadened its spectrum of activities with the United Nations, and today, it is basically involved in all stages of the political process; from agenda setting to policy formulation and project implementation.
I. INTRODUCTION
Over the last decade, nongovernmental organizations (NCOs) have become prominent players on the international scene. Most significantly, due to their intensive participation during the series of world conferences in the early 1990s, NGOs have been recognized as influential actors in international relations. In response, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), such as the United Nations (UN), recognized the potential of cooperating with NGOs. IGOs opened up for more activities with NGOs and created additional ways to bring them into the IGO system. Indeed, the UN sought "to be open to and work closely with civil society organizations that are active in their respective sectors, and to facilitate increased consultation and co-operation between the United Nations and such organizations.'"
Today, NGOs have manifold possibilities to work with the UN. They assist UN institutions and provide them with information on issues of concern to them, they regularly advise UN commissions and committees, and they collaborate with operational UN agencies to implement projects together. In fact, even the main UN organs take the opinions and contributions of NGOs into account. Most striking, since 1997, security Council members meet regularly with NGO representatives, often even on a weekly basis, and get briefed on current affairs by NGO representatives. Since 1999, a tripartite "global compact" has been established between NGOs, business leaders, and the UN.2 In his Millennium report, secretary-General Kofi Annan reemphasized that strengthening the relations between the UN and private actors constitutes a priority of his mandate. He seeks "[t]o give full opportunities to nongovernmental organizations and other non-state actors to make their indispensable contribution to the [UNs] work."3
The aim of this paper is to explore how NGOs reacted to...