I have been privileged for the last 17 years to be the Director of a United Nations, ECOSOC accredited NGO, PDHRE, The People’s Movement for Human Rights Learning (Formerly : people’s Decade for Human Rights Education), working both at the policy level with Member States and directly and indirectly with numerous civil society organization, those advocating their specific issues within the UN, be it at the General Assembly, the various Councils, Agencies and Committees. If civil society is to be responsible to its overarching missions and be accountable to their constituencies, we must make an effort to understand and analyze the social accountability of the UN and take actions to enforce it.   more »

Conduct a Google search on “Social Accountability” and you will mostly get references to corporate social accountability and the social accountability of the World Bank and other intergovernmental organisations; but there is little to be found on the concept as applied to the United Nations.   more »

The UN Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, signaled in his acceptance speech that the defining mandate of the UN of the 21st century is to strengthen the inter-state system so as to better enable humanity to address global challenges. In this vision, serving humanity is at the heart of the purpose of the UN. It speaks to the growing focus on ‘human security’, the shift in emphasis from reactive to preventive diplomacy, recognition that the sovereign independence of nation states needs to be qualified by the new international norm of the responsibility of states to protect their citizens from genocide or crimes against humanity, and the practical value given to partnerships with civil society and business.   more »

WEDO’s co-founder and founding President Bella Abzug noted, “The Beijing Platform for Action is the strongest statement of consensus on women’s equality, empowerment and justice ever produced by the world’s governments. It is a vision of transformation—of what the world can be for women and men, for this and future generations.”   more »

The issue of the accountability of the United Nations is complex. Consisting of 192 Member States represented by governments of very different forms of political regime from countries of diverse economic and social structures, not to mention unique histories and traditions, it is hardly surprising that no consensus exists among the UN’s membership on the meaning of political concepts and practices such as democracy, participation, accountability and good governance. And yet such political notions are firmly embedded in the discourse of the UN and today surface both explicitly and in its sub-text all the time – and are hotly contested!   more »

Alongside the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, the United Nations is at the core of today’s international governance. In the course of increasing global challenges governments have burdened the United Nations with more and more mandates and tasks. The UN system now encompasses 17 specialized agencies and related organisations, 14 funds and programmes, 17 departments and offices of the UN Secretariat, 5 regional commissions, 5 research and training institutes and a plethora of regional and country level structures (Delivering as One, Report of the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel, 9 November 2006, p. 9). Being designed as classical inter-governmental organisations (IGOs), the UN and its entities are only accountable to their member states. Specialized UN entities such as UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, WHO and FAO are playing a growing role in key sectors such as peace and security, economic development, health, education and environment, affecting the daily lifes of millions.   more »

An important aspect of social accountability is the ability of citizens to influence decisions and policies that affect them as well as hold accountable those entrusted with the exercise of political power. In order for this to happen there must be an environment in which citizens can participate in decision and policy making processes and are treated as political equals. Among the objectives of the United Nations is to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained. Citizens are likely to demand social accountability when their basic rights are guaranteed.   more »