III-j. Civil Society Organizations
There are many bodies concerned with human rights, at the global level, regionally, and within nations. National governments and the international agencies created and operated by their member governments are described as governmental organizations. The others are described as civil society organizations, CSOs. They have been called nongovernmental organizations, NGOs, but there is now an increasing consensus that they should be known by what they are, not by what they are not.
Corporations are not governmental organizations, but they are generally not included in the CSO category. International ones are often called MNCs (multinational corporations) or TNCs (transnational corporations).
The International Committee for the Red Cross, which has special responsibility for implementation of international humanitarian law, does not fit the usual categories. Although it is a nongovernmental organization, it has some powers that approach those of governments. And although it operates internationally, it is not truly international because the committee members are all Swiss. However, its staff is international.
Several different kinds of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) have significant influence on human rights, for good or ill. There are international industry-related groups, sometimes described as business international organizations, or BINGOs. BINGOs are contrasted with PINGOs, public-interest international nongovernmental organizations. Some PINGOs are GONGOs, government-organized nongovernmental organizations. When we speak of nongovernmental organizations in this tutorial, we are generally thinking of a particular type of PINGO, international human rights advocacy organizations. Of course all these acronyms will have to be updated as, terminologically, CSOs supplant NGOs.
CSOs working on food and nutrition can be sorted out in many different ways. Some are more concerned with direct service delivery, and some focus more on advocacy. Some are explicitly human rights oriented, while others are not. There are many human rights advocacy bodies within nations, such as the American Civil Liberties Union. A few that function internationally (ICSOs) are listed in Table III-4. Websites for some of them can be found through the Concise Guide to Human Rights on the Internet. Information on many international CSOs, and also on international governmental organizations (IGOs) may be found in the Yearbook of International Organizations.
Table III-4
INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS FOCUSING ON HUMAN RIGHTS
AAAS Human Rights Action Network
Amnesty International
Association for the Prevention of Torture
Centre Europe Tiers-Monde
Comprehensive Human Rights Initiative
Defense for Children International
Dred Scott Society
End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism
Foodfirst International Action Network
Friends World Committee for Consultation (Quakers)
HURIDOCS
International Catholic Child Bureau
International Commission of Jurists
International Confederation of Free Trade
International Council of Voluntary Agencies
International Federation of Human Rights
International Service for Human Rights
Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights
Minority Rights Group
Lutheran World Federation
Parliamentary Human Rights Foundation
Pax Christi–International Catholic Peace Movement
Physicians for Human Rights
SOS-Torture
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
World Alliance on Nutrition and Human Rights
World Organization Against Torture
Some of these international human rights advocacy organizations deal with issues covered by just one of the international human rights agreements, while others are broad-spectrum organizations. Some have close working relationships with the UN bodies.
The United Nations has a Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS), "an interagency unit of the United Nations system which promotes cooperation between the UN system and non-governmental organizations on economic and social development issues." With offices in both New York and Geneva, NGLS is part of the UN system, and thus is not itself an NGO or CSO.
Some CSOs serve as bridges between international government agencies and other CSOs. For example, there is an NGO Committee on UNICEF that helps to link NGOs (CSOs) concerned with children with UNICEF’s activities. Some umbrella groups of this sort focus on human rights. There is an NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It meets regularly in Geneva and works to facilitate implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Child. It has various sub-groups, including, for example, the Sub-Group on Sexual Exploitation of Children.
The question of which CSOs and other organizations should be described as human rights organizations is discussed shortly, in Subsection III-l.
Continue to III-k. Informal Civil Society
Subsection III-i last updated on September 26, 1999