Civil G8 2006: NGOs seek to form global agenda

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International Forum “Civil G8 2006” has set off in Moscow, reports REGNUM correspondent. The forum is the civil society prelude to G8 Summit in St. Petersburg.

The forum will discuss problems of global energy security, professional education, HIV/AIDS prevention, social and economic policy making for the sake of sustainable development, human rights protection, biodiversity protection and opposition to the GMO expansion, and the business-society interaction. The conclusions of the forum will be handed to the G8 presidents as recommendations for their relevant work.

While opening the forum, the coordinator of the National Working Group of the Civil G8 Advisory Council, the chairwoman of Russia’s Presidential Council for the Support of Civil Society and Human Rights Protection Institutions Ella Pamfilova said that the key topic of the forum will be civil society, its interaction with governments and mechanisms of monitoring the fulfillment of G8 resolutions.

The member of the National Working Group of Civil G8 Advisory Council, the president of the Social Compact National Project Institute Alexander Auzan noted that “people often take the work done by society and business for government’s achievements.” Hence, he pointed out that society should effectively organize itself and engage in active interaction with governments. “It is important that we should stop just reacting to the agenda we are offered and start perceiving ourselves as a new source of agenda,” Auzan said. He reminded the audience that NGOs and governments have agreed that the agenda of the next G8 Summit will be formed on the basis of NGOs’ recommendations. “The horizon of governments is often limited by electoral cycle, while civil society is responsible for time continuity. Hence, it is highly essential for us to raise and to discuss global policy problems,” Auzan said.

“G8 should not turn into a closed cartel. It should listen to what people in other countries say,” Secretary General of SIVICUS NGO (World Alliance for Citizen Participation) Kumi Naidoo (SAR) said. NGOs should continue to pressure the G8 governments into implementing their decisions, first of all, on global poverty reduction – a process launched in 1995 but developing much slower than expected.

The chairman of the Committee for World Parliament, the chairman of the Global Governance Group (France) Olivier Giscard d’Estaing said that business society, NGOs, and religious organizations are, perhaps, more influential in the world today that governments are. That’s why the sides should cooperate.

“We should not keep demanding something from governments, we should offer our services and cooperation,” d’Estaing said. He noted that civil society can be really indispensable in reducing social tension and raising security through civil education.

Attending the forum are representatives of a whole number of global NGOs: CIVICUS, Social Watch, International Association of Consumers, World Women Council, WWF, International Organization for Poverty Reduction, Greenpeace International, Transparency International, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch.

“Russia is represented by all those NGOs who have something to say,” Pamfilova said: particularly, “Memorial” Human Rights Center, Publicity Protection Foundation, Independent Legal Expertise Council, Civil Assistance Committee, Social Verdict Foundation, Social Partnership Foundation and a number of NGOs from the regions.

The forum is finishing its work July 4. Russian President Vladimir Putin is supposed to speak at the forum on that day as the president of G8 acting chair-state.