Background

Why we aim for ECOSOC status

Getting ECOSOC status allows NGOs to participate fully in the UN system. Without it, they are confined to the sidelines - unable to submit questions, attend UN sessions or hold side events in their own name.

This impression is shared by others like the Human Rights House Foundation, that called ECOSOC the “21st century censorship bureau” in an article from May 2014 on the Index on Censorship. States who are committee members are controlling the review process to defer applications, such as asking (often repetitive) questions that go beyond the scope of what  NGOs are required to submit with their applications.

The Committee on NGOs reviews applications for ECOSOC status twice a year. CRIN first applied in 2010, and has been deferred every time by what we believe are tactics employed by some States to deny access to NGOs critical of governments and select their own jury at the UN. CRIN has been deferred six times (the latest in May 2014), and has gone through eight rounds of questioning by States - often on the same issue, which we have addressed over and over again.

CRIN works with governments to help achieve recognition, respect and enforcement of children’s rights. However, we are often critical of how States treat children - and do not believe we could be a legitimate human rights NGO without doing so.

We have done our best to address States’ concerns throughout the ECOSOC process, and this has been documented below.

It may be a risk to our application, but we can no longer remain silent. We are frustrated and deeply concerned about the power States are wielding over those who speak out against human rights abuses. Transparency and legitimacy in the UN system is at stake if States are able to continue blocking access to NGOs they feel threatened by.

Summary of CRIN's application process

CRIN submitted its application for special consultative status with the Committee on NGOs in 2010. Since then, the Committee has repetitively deferred the application by posing 15 questions – 7 of them coming from one Committee member: China. For the past 4 Committee sessions, China has repetitively asked CRIN to change content on the organisation’s website regarding Tibet, noting that the correct UN terminology (“Tibet, Autonomous Region of China”) should be used to reference the geographic region.

Over a year ago, CRIN addressed this issue by noting that the organisation had updated all of its own material to reflect correct UN terminology. However, they highlighted the fact that a section of the CRIN website is dedicated to hosting archived reports submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child by a wide variety of NGOS, not all of which are endorsed by CRIN. Language in those reports cannot be changed by CRIN as a host site, but CRIN informed the Committee on NGOs that they had added a disclaimer on the site stating the inclusion of such reports in no way implies CRIN endorsement or agreement. This has not satisfied the delegation of China and it continues to defer the organisation’s application by asking the same question each session.

Selecting the jury: CRIN’s ECOSOC history

Application submitted 28 May 2010.

Seventh Deferral

Tenth round of questions and answers

Response to open letter

Open letter

[1 July 2014]

CRIN sends a joint open letter to the Committee on NGOs.

Sixth Deferral

[6 JUN 2014]

The Committee on NGOs publishes its report of the latest session (from 19-28 May and 6 June 2014) with a list of NGOs whose applications will be deferred. CRIN is included on the list. 

Ninth round of questions and answers

[24 May 2014]

Dear NGO representative: 

I wish to inform you that the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations reviewed your application during its 2014 Resumed Session, being held from 19 to 28 May 2014. 

Upon its review, the Committee requested the following clarifications from your organization: 

1) Your website contains articles containing reference to Tibet which do not use the correct UN terminology (Tibet autonomous region of China). Please correct those mistakes.

Kindly provide your response as soon as possible in order to allow the Committee to reconsider your application for ECOSOC consultative status.

IMPORTANT: Please respond to the above question(s), in English or French, by using the following link: 

http://www.un.org/ecosoc/ngo/contact . Choose the "2014 Resumed Session" category to upload your response.

With kind regards,

Andrei Abramov 
Chief, DESA NGO Branch 
United Nations

Eighth round of questions and answers

[9 MAY 2014]
The Child Rights Information Network (CRIN) takes the concerns from the representatives of China very seriously, and we would like to reiterate that we respect China’s territorial sovereignty and integrity. Our organisation does not have any programmes or hold any positions with regards to Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

With regards to previous questions from the Committee, we apologise for any mistakes we have previously made in terminology and have made the necessary updates on our new website.

We are willing to work with the Chinese Delegation to answer any other questions, or clarify any concerns the Delegates may have.

Fifth deferral

[19 FEB 2014]
Dear Sir/Madam,

This is to inform you that the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations at its 2014 Regular Session,

decided to defer consideration of the application for consultative status of your organization.

The committee will continue its review during its 2014 Resumed Session, tentatively scheduled from 19-28 May 2014.

You will be notified about the session in due course and a letter of invitation from our office will follow thereafter.

Yours sincerely,

Andrei Abramov
Chief, NGO Branch
United Nations

Seventh round of questions and answers

[7 NOV 2013]

It has been noted that the organization changed the references to Tibet in its website. However, it is still not aligned to United Nations terminology. Please review your website to make sure the correct terminology is used: "Tibet, Autonomous Region of China".

[14 JAN 2014]
Thank you for your question. Would you please pass on our sincere apologies to the committee for any mistakes we have previously made in terminology and are now making the necessary updates. Our website has recently relaunched and the correct terminology should be in place across the site shortly.

[26 JAN 2014]
1. The organization makes references in its website to the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Kindly clarify what position the organization takes with regards to this region.

Fourth deferral

[18 JUN 2013]

Dear Sir/Madam,

This is to inform you that the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations at its 2013 resumed session, held from 20 to 29 May 2013, decided to defer consideration of the application for consultative status of your organization, Child Rights Information Network - CRIN.

The committee will continue its review of the application during its 2014 regular session, tentatively scheduled from 21 to 30 January 2014. You will be notified about the session in due course and a letter of invitation from our office will follow thereafter.

With kind regards.

Yours sincerely,

Andrei Abramov
Chief, NGO Branch

Third deferral

[11 FEB 2013]

Dear Sir/Madam,

This is to inform you that the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations at its 2013 regular session, held from 21-30 January 2013, decided to defer consideration of the application for consultative status of your organization, Child Rights Information Network - CRIN.

The committee will continue its review of the application during its 2013 resumed session, tentatively scheduled from 21-30 May 2013. You will be notified about the session in due course and a letter of invitation from our office will follow thereafter.

With kind regards.

Yours sincerely,

Andrei Abramov
Chief, NGO Branch
 

Sixth round of questions and answers

[25.04.2013]

1. From China: "This Committee still finds problems in the organisation’s website with respect to United Nations terminology in relation to the issue of Tibet. Kindly do the necessary corrections."

We have updated all references in our own material and in the content of our website to the correct United Nations terminology. Not all of the material on our website is produced by CRIN - we do, for example, include an extensive archive of alternative reports submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child by a wide variety of NGOs, not all of which are endorsed by CRIN. While we cannot change the language of these documents ourselves, we have added explanatory notes to clarify that these reports are included for purposes of archival completeness, as a tool for researchers on UN processes and that their presence does not imply endorsement or agreement with any aspect of their content by CRIN.

2. From India: "The organisation published a leaflet as part of its campaign entitled Ending Inhuman Sentencing of Children where it indicated that India has sentences of death, life imprisonment and corporal punishment for children. As this is not factually correct, kindly do the necessary correction in the organisation’s website."

As indicated on the leaflet, for each country that we have included on the list, we have made additional legal notes available on our website including the criteria and justification for their inclusion and notes from our legal research. In the case of India (we have specified that the inclusion of India on the list refers to Jammu and Kashmir), it is still not clear that all three of the inhuman sentences covered by the campaign (death penalty, life imprisonment and corporal punishment) have been abolished for all children in all territories. In the case of the death penalty and life imprisonment, for example, while prohibition exists at a federal level, the legal situation of this punishment for children in Jammu and Kashmir is unclear. Likewise, while both the federal and Jammu and Kashmir systems do not include corporal punishment as a legitimate sentence for children, they do not explicitly prohibit it either. This raises the possibility that it may continue to be administered, lawfully, through the parallel traditional justice systems such as the Pipon system.

Before we published our country reports for the campaign, we did contact the Indian government to verify the accuracy of our findings, but unfortunately we did not receive a response. If the Indian government can confirm that these sentences have been definitively abolished for all children in all situations in every part of India, we would be very pleased to remove them from the list. As mentioned above, we have specified on the website that in the case of India, we are referring only to Jammu and Kashmir. The campaign page no longer links to the leaflet and we have no immediate plans to reprint the leaflet.

Fifth round of questions and answers

[25 JAN 2013]
1. Please do the necessary corrections in the organization?s website and publications in order to align to United Nations terminology when referring to the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

[28 JAN 2013]
We have now updated our website and publications to use the correct terminology.

2. Please provide a written commitment to respect United Nations terminology when referring to certain regions of China.

A written commitment to this effect has been supplied to the Chinese delegation.

3. Please provide what position the organization has with regards to the question of Tibet.

CRIN has no official position on the status of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, except for a pledge to respect the principles of the United Nations Charter and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all member states.

4. Please elaborate why the organization, whose main attention is supposed to be monitoring the situation in the sphere of protection of rights of a child, is so selective. Its website shows certain information and, at the same time, omits very serious and important facts coming from official sources as from civil society. For example, CRIN website published information about the approval of the Dima Yakovlev Law in Russia, prohibiting American citizens to adopt Russian children, and omitted very important information related to the destiny of Russian children. Dima Yakovlev was one of them, who died in the USA as a result of inappropriate actions taken by his adoptive parents. There was no information on the organization?s website regarding the reaction of the US judiciary system to these cases. This Committee would appreciate if you show this information on your website, thus making its content more balanced.

Information on the case of Dmitri Yakovlev has now been added to our database, along with contextual information on the proceedings of the case and the international responses to the outcome.

5. Please elaborate further on the relationship the organization maintains with the Sudanese NGO “Sabah Association for Child Care and Development (SACCD)”.

CRIN has no relationship with the SAACD, except for listing their contact details in our directory and giving them the opportunity to post reports and other materials to our website. Listing an organisation on our website should not be taken to imply a working relationship, joint projects, material support or endorsement of that organisation's positions or work by CRIN.

6. Please explain the relationship the organization maintains, if any, with the UNICEF office in Sudan.

We currently have no programmes in Sudan as such. We have been in contact with UNICEF Sudan as we have with most UNICEF offices around the world. UNICEF was one of our founders and long time supporters and have almost always had a representative of UNICEF on our Management Board.

7. Please explain the relationship the organization maintains with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children.

We work closely with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Marta Santos Pais. We were very much involved in the UN Study on Violence against Children, we campaigned for the establishment of her position and her appointment. Our Director co-chairs the International Council on Violence against Children, a group of 18 international and regional civil society organisations working closely with Marta Santos Pais' office. Until a year ago, CRIN provided web support to Marta by posting all her press releases, statements and reports on our violence website. Marta has been a close friend and supporter of CRIN's work for many years.

Fourth round of questions and answers

CRIN attended session in January 2013.

NGOs whose application is being reviewed may register to attend the session. The NGO representative gets the opportunity to answer questions directly to Member States, usually towards the end of the day. This is not a prerequisite and any questions posed by Member States are also sent in writing to the NGO.

Second deferral

[13 JUN 2012]
Dear Sir/Madam,

We are writing to inform you that the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations at its 2012 resumed session, held from 21 to 30 May 2012, decided to defer consideration of your application for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council.

Should there be any outstanding questions for your organization, we will contact you again in the near future.

The Committee will reconsider your application at its 2013 regular session, to be held from 21 to 30 January 2013. We will provide you information on the upcoming session in due course.

Additional information on the work of the Committee is available from our website, www.un.org/ecosoc/ngo.

We appreciate your patience.

Yours sincerely,

Andrei Abramov

Chief, NGO Branch

First deferral

[14 MAR 2012]:
Dear Sir/Madam,

We wish to inform you that the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations at its 2012 regular session, held from 31 January to 8 February 2012, decided to defer consideration of your application for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council.

Should there be any outstanding questions for your organization, we will contact you again in the near future.

The Committee will reconsider your application at its 2012 resumed session, to be held from 21 to 30 May 2012. We will provide you information on the upcoming session in due course.

Additional information on the work of the Committee is available from our website, www.un.org/ecosoc/ngo.

We appreciate your patience.

Yours sincerely,

Andrei Abramov

Chief, NGO Branch

Third round of questions and answers

[2 FEB 2012]
Please adhere to the correct United Nations terminology when referring to “Taiwan, Province of China” in the website of the organization and provide further clarification to your NGO with regards to the issue of Taiwan.

[2 FEB 2012]
I sincerely apologise for CRIN's error in not using the proper terminology. We are sincerely sorry and have made the necessary changes on our website. We have changed the wording to: Taiwan, Province of China. See our website, on our country listing: http://www.crin.org/reg/countries.asp#ctryT. We are in the process of changing all mentions on the site accordingly.

We do not have any activities or programmes in the Province otherwise.

Second round of questions and answers

[14 DEC 2011]
1. Please explain how your organization could attend several meetings of United Nations bodies when you did not have consultative status with ECOSOC.

[14 DEC 2011]
We work in partnership with many organisations, including for instance, UNICEF or Save the Children, so they have often provided us with a pass for meetings such as the Third Committee in NY in October, or the Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva.

I hope this clarifies things.

First round of questions and answers

[15 FEB 2011]
1. Question 15: Do the membership rules of your organization allow both individuals and organizations to be members? If yes, please provide a list of the member organization(s). The response was: “Membership is open to organisations only, however all our services are available for free to any individual interested in our work.”

Please provide such list of the member organization(s).

[18 FEB 2011]
Only organisations can become members of our network.

2. Question 18: Are other organizations affiliated with your organization? If yes, please provide a list of these organizations. The response was: “Yes because we are a membership organisation (although our members do not have any decision-making power). The members of our Council represent, for the most part, other international NGOs.”

Please provide such list of these organizations.

Please find attached our latest Members list. Some individuals that are from international or national organisations (NGOs and independent human rights institutions) are elected as Board members. They include:

Peter Newell (Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children) - Chair
Mike Annison (Christian Aid)
Gema Vicente (Amnesty International)
Bill Bell (Save the Children UK)
Knut Haanes, Deputy Ombudsman, Norway
Eva Geidenmark (Save the Children Sweden)
Andres Guerrero (UNICEF)
Elda Moreno (Council of Europe)