Well,
I had my day with the "beast" <ROFL>..
Funny, the UN seemed pretty nice.. I wasn't even scared <G>.. I even learned quite a bit about the UN itself..
Unfortunatly, I could NOT get my hands on a hard copy of the NGO list. Everyone I talked to said they are out of stock currently, and having new ones printed up.. (Gee, I wonder why <G>)...
And, I didn't even try to get to the library because of all the security.. They were just crawling everywhere.. Every room had a police officer in it, just standing there, even if the room was empty!!!
I had to actually walk 3 blocks to get to the United Nations, as they won't let anyone in a car within 3 blocks of the complex (including taxi's)..
Like I said, I didn't even try getting to the library.. If we want to find anything there, I'll be happy to go back when things settle down a bit there.. But, I didn't want the beast to shoot me <ROFL>..
So, here's my report:
The UN's General Assembly was supposed to start on Sept 11, but because of the attacks, the assembly actually started Sept 12, in which the member states immediatly adopted a resolution denouncing terrorism, and the acts of Sept 11..
There are 189 nations that are members of the UN.. The flags of every nation is displayed outside the UN complex in english alphabetical order, starting with, you guessed it, the flag of Afghanistan...
There are only 2 countries in the world that are not "member states" of the UN, because they voted not to become member states..
They are Switzerland and VATICAN CITY.. I thought that was interesting... Maybe we should ask the pope if he believes that the UN is the "beast" also? Hmmm....
A member state cannot be 'forced to resign'.. The only way a member state would leave the UN would be if the state itself withdrew.. I.E. They cannot kick Afghanistan out..
In 1999 the UN adopted a resolution telling the Taliban to turn over Bin Laden because of the US embassy bombings of 1998.. When that didn't occur, the UN passed a resolution imposing sanctions on the Taliban..
I did purchase a 1992 UN yearbook.. That is a whopping 1300 or so pages, so it may take me some time to read through it, but the lady at the UN bookstore said that that may list the new NGO's of the year in their yearbook.. She said even if they didn't, they probably refer to the UN document that announces them, as they are pretty complete (Let's just hope they don't mislead like some other yearbook we know).. So, I'll see what I can find..
I did find this on the train on the way back from the UN..
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Reports to the Secretary-General -
In response to a 1991 request of the commission on human rights, the Secretary-General in January 1992, reported on the progress made in carrying out the plan of activites. He described action taken by the United Nations bodies, coordination of the United Nations activites under the Decade, Sseminars, training courses and workshops, the status of the Trust Fund for the Programme for the Decade and implementation of activites for the Decade, including Seminars, publications, studies and future activities.
In accordance with the Economic and Social cCouncil requests of 1985 and 1991, the Secretary-General submitted in June 1992, his annoual report summarizing activites carried out of planned by Government, United Nations bodies, specialized againcies, and regional, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to achieve the Decades objectives.
As requested by the council in resolution 1992/13 of July 20, the Secretary-General submitted to the General Assembly in September a report on the implementation of the Progreamme of Action for the Second Decade and a draft programme of action for a third decade (1993-2003). He stated that the activites that were not completed for the second half of the second Decade owing to a lack of resources could be integrated into a propsed progeamme for a third decade. It was suggested that the goals and objectives of the third decade be those adopted by the Assembly in 1973 for the first Decade. The elements of the programme of action for the third decade were: action to combat apartheid; action to combat racism and racial discrimination at the internaltion, national and regional levels; basic research and studius on racism and racial discrimination; coorination of and reporting on the implementaiton of the programme and evaluation of its activities; and annual consultations between the United Nations, specialized agencies and NGOs to review and plan decade-related activies.
Human Rights Commission Action -
On 21 February 1992, the commission commended all states that had ratified or acceded to the international insdruments relevant to the decade and appealed to others to do the same. It asked Governments, International organizations and NGOs to increase and intensify their activities to combat racism, racial discrimination and apartheid and appealed for generous contributions to the trust fund.
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Excuse my typo's and if we think it may be important, I'll be happy to scan this and give it to someone..
Now, I have no idea what the H)(#&)&)* they are talking about here, but it certainly sounds like NGO's are expected to take an active role in the UN stuff... (remember, this is about Human Rights, which the Watchtower signed up as a Human Rights NGO). Have no idea if this would pertain to them or not, but hey, it certainly shows that some NGO's are taking an active role, and are asked to do so...
It comes from "Yearbook of the United Nations 1992" ISBN: 0-7923-2583-4, page 709 & 710...
I also got the brochure "NGOs and the United nations Department of Public Information: Some questions and answers" - June 1997 edition
I'll look at that later...