SECTION III B. The Official UN Conference

The number of accredited NGO delegates permitted to attend
the official UN Conference was limited to two from NGOs of 
national scope and five from NGOs of international scope.
NGO accreditation to the Conference was automatically granted
to those NGOs with Consultative Status with ECOSOC and to those
that had been accredited to the 1993 Commission on Sustainable
Development.All other NGOs had to apply and submit 
documentation to demonstrate their "relevance and competence"
to the work of the UN FWCW.Guidelines for review established 
by the General Assembly resolution 48/108 were as follows:  

The NGO was national or international in scope. 
Its activities and objectives were clearly relevant to the UN FWCW. 
The NGO supplied complete information to the Secretariat for
review.The NGO was incorporated in the state where it maintains
its headquarters.

NGOs needed accreditation to participate in the UN FWCW Official 
Governmental Preparatory Conferences as well as at the UN FWCW
in Beijing.  At the 38th session of the Commission on the Status
of Women (CSW) held in New York in March 1994, only 99 NGOs
were accredited.The three Tibet NGOs that had applied were
not recommended for accreditation.The unofficial reason for 
denial given to these NGOs was that they were not "incorporated
in China".The three NGOs included:
  
International Campaign for Tibet, United States.  
International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet,United States. 
Tibetan Women's Association, India.

By the 39th session of the CSW in March 1995, about 1,200
NGOs had submitted applications to the Conference Secretariat.
Of those, 493 were not recommended for accreditation by the 
Secretariat to the CSW.  Accreditation to the 39th Session of
the CSW also automatically assured accreditation to the UN FWCW
in Beijing.The NGOs not recommended for accreditation were not
given any prior official notice as to the status of their 
application.They learned of their exclusion at the registration
desk of the CSW the day the meeting began.This group included
all eight Tibet NGOs. All eight were denied under criteria #2,
"activities and objectives clearly not relevant to the UN FWCW 
at the 39th Session of the CSW".  Apart from the Tibet NGOs, 
other groups denied access included Taiwanese and Iranian NGOs.
The eight Tibet NGOs denied accreditation to the 39th CSW included: 

Canada Tibet Committee, Canada. 
International Campaign for Tibet, United States.  
International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet, United States.  
Norwegian Tibet Committee, Norway.
Tibetan Rights Campaign, United States.   
Tibet Support Group, United Kingdom.  
Tibetan Women's Association, India. 
Tibetan Women's Organisation, Switzerland.

Responding to pressure from NGOs, on the opening day of the
39th session of the CSW,the French delegate, on behalf of the
European Union,called for a review of  the accreditation process
and for the process to be "clear and transparent". A review 
committee was established to review the rejections and to establish
a transparent process.On recommendation of the review committee,
the CSW passed resolution 49/243.This resolution extended the 
deadline for applications for accreditation of  NGOs to the Beijing 
Conference to April 28, 1995, required a transparent review process
in accordance with the criteria set forth in General Assembly 
resolution 48/108,and called upon the Secretariat to give NGOs
written notice of the reason for denial and afford them the 
opportunity to respond with further documentation. ECOSOC was 
to make the final accreditation decisions in its July session in 
Geneva.The TWD lobbying efforts contributed significantly to the 
review process established by the CSW.

In June,the Secretariat submitted to ECOSOC recommendations for 
accreditation of 759 NGOs.This list included some new applicants
and some which had previously not been recommended. 
Three Tibet NGO were amongst the 759: 

International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet, United States.  
Tibetan Rights Campaign, United States. 
Tibetan Women's Organisation, Switzerland.

Citing "concerns and reservations" by member state delegates,
ECOSOC removed 19 NGOs related to Tibet, Sudan and Iran from
the approved list. The ECOSOC President then personally 
solicited approval or disapproval for these 19 NGOs.
Eventually, 11 NGOs, which included the three Tibet NGOs,
were not approved for accreditation. Member state delegates
reported that China's reasons for denying accreditation of
Tibet NGOs were political and not based on the NGOs' relevance 
or competence. United States, European Union and Swiss delegates
made strong cases on behalf of the Tibet NGOs but eventually 
succumbed to China's pressure. Reports indicate that virtually
no support was voiced for Tibet NGOs from nations outside of
Europe,North America and Australia.In the end, all Tibet NGOs
were barred participation at the UN FWCW. 

Tibetan women did, however, participate in the official UN 
Conference. Various NGOs world-wide offered their scarce seats 
to members of the TWD in response to China's attempt to ban
Tibetan participation. The TWD is indebted to these NGOs for
providing the vehicle for TWD delegates to raise concerns 
at the official UN Conference.

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© Copyright Tibetan Women's Delegation, April 1996.