THE WORLD URBAN FORUM

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

The World Urban Forum –an open-door, idea-generating event focused on an international problem --deserves appreciation as concept and fact.  But this, the third World Urban Forum, deserves celebration.  Its events roster  - inclusive as it is of a wide array of perspectives - is a tribute to the United Nations response to the dynamics of a changing world.

We the nation states
The UN Charter’s is written in the name of “We the Peoples;” that is, we the nation-states,  not we, the small “p” peoples of villages and cities. The only acknowledgement  of other sectors is found in Article 71 of the UN Charter which provides for consultation with non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

But, as it happened, expert non-governmental advocacy seriously influenced decision-making by the nation states from the beginning and people’s participation has slowly grown.

We the NGOs
In 1968, CONGO, representing NGOs who were refused participation in the Commission on Human Rights meeting in Teheran, organized “a parallel NGO forum in Paris, which was attended by UN officials, government representatives, and NGOs. Since then, CONGO has been instrumental in organizing NGO parallel fora at key UN conferences.” Read more

And since then, NGOs have expanded their influence. “41 NGOs were granted consultative status by the council in 1946”.   By 1992 the number was 700.  Today, 13 years later, the number has increased almost four fold.  2, 719 organizations have ECOSOC status, the Huairou Commission being among them..

But, as the organizers of the World Urban Forum seem to understand , numbers count, but they aren’t everything.  It’s also a matter of who the NGOs represent.

We the Voiceless
In 1995, when the Huairou Commission was founded at the “parallel for a” of the 3rd World Conference on Women at Beijing, grassroots women and their voices were located 30 kilometers from the Conference site (in the town of Huairou).  When they wrote up proposals to the Conference, they had to have them carried by other women’s organizations.  Grassroots women did not speak for themselves. Read more

Thanks to the steadfast work of grassroots women leaders from around the world and the vision of some leaders in the UN and UN-HABITAT, the Huairou Commission is now honored to be the official women’s group at World Urban Forum3.

We the People
Huairou celebrates the welcome it has enjoyed from WUF3 sponsors.  It is proud of the many events that are sponsored by women and that address women’s issues

This appreciation is not only in the name of its own constituency and those of other previously marginalized groups who have been brought into the event, but, more than anything, for the promise that WUF3 makes to all those who dream of some form of local/global governance that will engage the participation of those inside nation states.

 

_______________________________________________________________________________