[Lac] Fw: [Working Methods] interesting paper on NGO conflicts at durban conference

[Diego Saravia]

interesante
Greetings all,

I have been looking for reports and analysis of NGO organizational 
structures and conflict-resolution from other UN processes all day.  So 
far I have been mostly unsuccessful.  If others know of any studies, 
please send along the sources and links.

I did just re-read a report prepared by WFM on conflicts among NGOs at 
the Durban racism summit  ( 
http://www.wfm.org/ACTION/racismconf1101.html ).  It's good reading, if 
only to remind us of what challenges other conferences faced.  One 
paragraph that struck me was on the issue of caucuses:

> ...the basic element of the NGO forum was the caucus. Only the 
> caucuses voted in the plenary, submitted texts, ran the thematic 
> commissions during the forum discussions and formed the component 
> parts of the Declaration and Program of Action. Despite the centrality 
> of caucuses to the Forum, there were never any clear rules, or indeed 
> any written rules, about who could form a caucus or how a caucus could 
> be formed. In practice any group of individuals could signify to the 
> organizers that they wished to form a caucus based on region or victim 
> group or theme (the Palestinian cause ended up having four caucuses: 
> the Palestinian caucus, Arab and Middle East Caucus, Environmental 
> Racism, and Colonialism and Foreign Occupation Caucus). There was much 
> confusion in the process of setting up the caucuses, several groups 
> felt disenfranchised, and were allowed to form caucuses after the 
> deadline (on condition that there were at least ten people in the 
> caucus), then this decision was repealed and some had to disassemble. 
> The situation with the thematic commissions was equally problematic. 
> Finally there were over 40 caucuses but only 25 thematic commissions. 
> Some caucuses had to join commissions they did not run. Voting in the 
> commissions was a perplexing as voting in the plenary. The rules 
> circulated stated there would be a majority vote if there was no 
> consensus, but they did not stated a majority of whom: the relevant 
> caucus or anyone that happened to be in the room.

Thus we see that civil society in the Durban conference faced some of 
our key questions, namely:

1. who can constitute a caucus
2. how decisions are made in plenary
3. who drafts NGO consensus documents

Regards,

-- 
Diego Saravia 
dsa at unsa.edu.ar

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