Invitation
Dear colleagues and friends,
The Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), with its partners, has the great pleasure to invite you to the Civil Society Forum to the ECOSOC High-Level Segment to be held in Geneva from 29 – 30 June 2006. The aim of the Forum is to allow NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC and other relevant Civil Society Organizations to make the best possible impact on the dignitaries’ deliberations (High-level Segment, 3-5 July) on the issues of employment and decent work.
Many civil society activists believe that globalization requires an appropriate international framework that would help implement the Millennium Declaration, including the Millennium Development Goals, and ensure the respect for human rights and more particularly the core labour rights that are employment and decent work. ECOSOC, as the coordinating body for development policies at the international level, should boldly take up its strengthened mandate and strive for a consensus on how to best guarantee these rights. NGOs have often advocated for a paradigm-shift from a market-based approach to a human-rights approach to development: is that realistic? Is it possible to make globalization a win-win situation for workers, both in the North and in the South?
As umbrella association of NGOs in consultative status, CONGO has organized for several years NGO fora prior to the ECOSOC sessions, such as the one on rural development in 2003 . This year we intend to tackle the issue on the HLS agenda - employment and decent work - under the following main clusters:
1. Globalization and its impact on decent work, both in developing and developed countries (with a special focus on labour migration);
2. Creating an enabling environment at the national level conducive for growth and employment creation (with a special focus on the informal sector);
3. Employment for the women, the youth and the elderly;
4. Human rights and employment for vulnerable groups: indigenous peoples, people withdisabilities and people living in post-crisis situations;
5. Employment in the rural and urban areas;
6. New forms of employment (including e-employment).
Every cluster will be organized around several workshops - proposed by the organizers and by interested participants - which will produce concrete recommendations. The recommendations will be endorsed by the clusters and the plenary. Speakers, selected by each cluster, will participate and interact with the High-level Segment on Wednesday 5th July. Our aim is to have a very focused and fruitful interactive discussion with the dignitaries, following the model of the hearings of the General Assembly with civil society (June 2005) .
Additionally, there will be other possibilities of interaction with dignitaries and senior UN officials during the breakfast roundtable discussions of 3rd and 4th July and the possibility to take the floor, for some NGOs, during the HLS itself.
We invite you to join us for this challenging event and to suggest your own workshops and/or speakers under the above mentioned clusters. Issues that cannot be accommodated within the selected clusters can be addressed in parallel events during the lunch break.
Unfortunately our resources are scarce, but we have the possibility to fund the participation of some key panellists from developing countries.
We look forward to your active participation and kindly invite you to register for the Forum through the registration form available at www.ngocongo.org.
With my very best regards,
Renate BLOEM
CONGO President |
