November 3, 2009 - List of non-governmental organizations in consultativestatus with the Economic and Social Council as of 1 September 2009 - E/2009/INF.4 (PDF)

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United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

The sessions (COP 15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is open to Parties of the Convention and Observer States (Governments), the United Nations System and observer organizations duly admitted by the Conference of the Parties. In addition, accredited press is allowed to cover the proceedings of the Convention.

Source: www.cop15.dk

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Code of Good Practice for Civil Participation in the Decision-Making Process

Upon a recommendation of the Council of Europe's Forum for the Future of Democracy, the Conference of INGOs launched the drafting of a Code of Good Practice for Civil Participation in the Decision-making Process. The principal objective of the Code of Good Practice is to define a set of European principles and guidelines for NGO participation in decision-making processes that are to be implemented at local and national level in Council of Europe member States. Several regional NGO consultation conferences were held throughout Europe in 2008.

Source: Council of Europe

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UN Human Rights - A Handbook for Civil Society

Working with the United Nations Human Rights Programme: A Handbook for Civil Society is a new, user-friendly and authoritative publication on United Nations human rights bodies and mechanisms - explaining how they work and exploring the many important ways that civil society actors including NGOs can contribute to their work.

This publication is addressed to the civil society actors who, every day in every part of the world, contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights, and it ultimately aims at enabling more people to access and make claim to their human rights through effective use of United Nations human rights bodies and mechanisms.

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The first venue by which non-governmental organizations took a role in formal UN deliberations was through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). 41 NGOs were granted consultative status by the council in 1946; by 1992 more that 700 NGOs had attained consultative statusand the number has been steadily increasing ever since to 3,052 organizations today.

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Each NGO in consultative status with ECOSOC can designate representatives to obtain passes for the UN premises, valid until 31 December of each year. A maximum of 5 such passes can be issued for New York, 5 for Geneva, and 5 for Vienna, in addition to the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and the President or Chief Executive (2 additional passes).

We have created a page that will guide through the process of how to obtain a UN Grounds Pass.

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