DRAFT

OFFICIAL MINUTES OF THE ISC – SUNDAY, 29 July 2001, from 9 am

1. ATTENDANCE AND APOLOGIES

17 out of 20 members with voting rights present, J. Bennett, M. Parsons and S. El Bikri were absent.

2. WELCOME AND OPENING

Mercia Andrews welcomed all present and declared the meeting opened.

3. CHAIR AND RAPPORTEUR OF THE MEETING

Albert DeTerville was elected Chair of this meeting.

Major Kobese with the assistence of Mirek Prokeš will be responsible for minuting.

TIME-FRAME AND AGENDA OF THE MEETING

The time frame of the meetings has been set as follows:

- Sunday 29^th July 9 am – 6 pm or later, Palais Wilson

- Monday 30^th July 3 pm – 6 pm, UNO Room XXII, 6 pm – 9 pm, UNO

- Tuesday 31^st July 3 pm – 6 pm

- Wednesday 1^st August 3 pm – 6 pm

AGENDA

The agenda was adopted with amendments (see Annex B).

PROGRESS REVIEW

The following documents were tabled:

Map of Durban and General Conference Layout Plan (from NGO Liaison Unit)

Report of the WCAR NGO Forum Secretariat

Consolidated Income Statement for the period Jan 1 to June 30, 2001

List of events planned by NGOs

The physical set-up of the NGO Forum and WCAR

Laurie Wiseberg explained the situation, capacity, and accessibility for NGOs and time-availability of different venues in Durban during the NGO Forum and WCAR. Important:

1000 passes for NGOs will be available for the access to the WCAR itself.

There will be no bank of computers with Internet access available for NGOs (just for media in the Media Centre during the WCAR).

The incomes and expenses were discussed, including the following important issues:

EU (through OHCHR, not in the Secretariat budget) allocated 850.000 USD to the UN (scholarships for 350 NGOs), a little bit difficult process of approving and transferring the money.

From the UN the NGO Forum Secretariat received 86 900 USD which was part of the funding that came from the EU.

Still outstanding: around 1.20 0.000 USD, especially the interpretation for the NGO Forum is not covered. The Cuban gov’t offered to provide 50 interpreters – to be clarified for which languages)

Dianne Luping suggested to start a campaign to raise funds for a broader participation of NGOs to create a Platform of Solidarity for the issues US government wants to exclude from the WCAR: Palestinians, Dalits, reparations for slavery and colonialism.

It is unacceptable for ISC that the WCAR has not received funding as budgeted and promised. It is not possible to let the South African alone to finance the whole event. Mohamed Haji-Kella, Nimalka Fernando and SANGOCO will work out a press statement on that for the press conference to be held on the 2^nd August morning.

It was clarified that participation of the ISC members in the WCAR NGO Forum will be financed by the NGO Forum Secretariat. Laurie explained that the UN does not want to promise any funding as it has used money allocated for two ISC meetings. She will report to the ISC as to the amount that is available for those members unable to finance their stay during the governmental part of WCAR.

REGISTRATION FOR THE NGO FORUM

Almost 5000 people have registered and 1000 are still in a process of being captured, ca 70 % of them have not paid registration fees yet. Further participants (not registered), mainly "daily" ones from South Africa, are expected. SANGOCO tries to negotiate "daily passes" for WCAR for such cases.

Mercia and Vera will prepare a briefing letter with information about this, about visa, medical insurance, vaccination, etc., to all participants to be sent out a.s.a.p.

LOGISTICS FOR THE NGO FORUM

Accommodation and transport

It will not be allowed to build own tents in Durban. There will be 8000 rooms available, 2000 of them in the center, the rest within 30 kms distance. SANGOCO will take care for a good transportation to the venues of the NGO Forum (8 am - 10 pm), the South African government then to the venue of the WCAR. Some NGOs will have to re-allocate their accommodation after the NGO Forum. The participant’ badge entitles for free transport.

SANGOCO has got 198 beds in the center of Durban for the ISC and other coordinating committees, experts and other "dignitaries" of the NGO Forum. Turners will confirm accommodation to participants once the RSA government has been able to hand over all the beds that will be occupied by NGO participants. Turners is also in a process of identifying hotels that are not in the governmental top list so as to allocate to NGOs, these are 2-star hotels in the city center.

Volunteers

A process of identifying volunteers is taking place and NGOs, tertiary institutions and other organizations in Durban have been approached to provide volunteers at their own cost. Some offers to provide volunteers have been received from overseas-based organizations. It was decided that a breakdown of required expertise and responsibilities should be designed and submitted to the ISC so that its members could assist in the recruitment of further volunteers. The WCAR NGO Forum Secretariat will only cover accommodation and stipend for volunteers and they will have to take responsibility for their travel costs.

Participants’ pack and catering

Badge, information pack, map of Durban, programme of the NGO Forum, Draft Declaration, Plan of Actions and all the necessary information on the conference. Information booths will be opened, so as to assist the participants during the NGO Forum.

The participants can buy food themselves at the venue of the NGO Forum. According to the statistics of the food preferences in the registration forms, kosher, vegetarian and other meals in different price categories will be offered.

Spaces and technology

Kingsmead Cricket Stadium (2 plenaries, 2000 places each, and 8 tents, 500 each, stage) is going to be underused. NGOs plan many activities outside. The Programme sub-committee should find ways of fully utilizing all the tents. It was suggested that the possibility of moving some workshops to the tents during the time they are not utilized should be explored. The workshops will take place in the vicinity of the Durban City Center.

Office space: offices to be provided to the following:

Secretariat of the NGO Forum

Draft Committee

International Youth Committee

The Secretariat should publish information about the availability of technical accessories.

Internet café will be equipped with printers (for NGOs) and they may access the media center during the NGO Forum.

Medical care

There will be a first aid center for the NGO Forum participants.

Participants will have to come only with their own medical care insurance!!!

They should make an inquiry about the vaccination recommendations for South Africa in their countries of origin (UN staff will come vaccinated against yellow fever)..

Visa

Visa for participants will be provided for free at all RSA embassies against the invitation for the WCAR or the confirmation of the NGO Forum registration.

Security issues

There is a right for assembling in RSA. Organizers of demonstration must follow some regulations. The Secretariat will ask the police to follow a code of conduct worked out by the Security Sub-committee in order to assure the civil rights and to exclude provocations. An infopack for NGOs as potential organizers will be issued by the Secretariat, covering this as well as a ban of hate speech, arms at demonstrations and workshops, etc.

Workshops

More than 200 parallel events planned during the NGO Forum have been proposed by NGOs. There are only 4 days and 50 venues available. The organizers will be asked to confirm their events and to provide for details. The Programme Sub-committee (Delia, Myrna, Stella Tamang, Berhane, Palmira, Major, Mercia and Laurie) will try to complete the list (brief descriptions of each event, venue, languages). The list of events will be disseminated by e-mails to the organizers and by posting it on the SANGOCO website to give time for corrections on it by 2^nd August. No new proposals will be accepted.

The Programme Sub-committee should prepare a report for ISC by 2^nd August identifying gaps and duplicities in the programme, problems with timing, venues and interpretation.

Exhibition

All the necessary information is available at www.wcar.sangoco.za

ACCREDITATION OF NGOs FOR WCAR

9.1 Laurie Wiseberg informed that UN HCHR Office has confirmed the accreditation of 1300 NGOs, about 500 applications are pending for purely technical reasons, only one was challenged by the Conference of Islamic States and should be decided in the 3^rd PrepCom. The list of the accredited NGOs and NGOs with consultative status is at www.hchr.org

From the 1300 NGOs, only 30 are from South Africa.

Some delegations include even 40 to 50 names, giving altogether around 2000 participants for WCAR while only 1000 can be allowed at a time into the plenary room. Sharing is necessary, eg. one pass for NGO, two passes for NGO with a consultative status.

NGOs will be allowed to hold a 3 minutes’ speech in the plenary, representations of caucuses as well as the Youth Summit and the Caucus of Indigenous Peoples are to be given more time for their presentation.

Each governmental delegation will have only 4 seats on the floor. Some places will be held by the most important INGOs. Everyone also will have a seat on the gallery.

NGOs should give more passes to the representatives of targeted groups on the days when the respective issues should be discussed (or denied to be discussed) by the governments.

9.2 ISC supports the request of NGOs from the Occupied Palestinian Territories to be listed as "being from Palestine" and not as "via Israel" by way of a resolution/letter to the UN High Commissioner Ms Robinson. ISC will draft also a letter asking her for a special accreditation for more South African NGOs.

PROGRESS REPORT ON SCHOLARSHIPS

The Asia/Pacific region has finished the selection, the list has not yet arrived

The same goes for Europe

The Americas have come to a problem: they allocated 45 scholarships to USA, Canada and Mexico (15 each), the NGO Liaison Office has changed it to 5 each, giving the rest of 30 scholarships to Latin America and the Caribbeans

Africa: 250 scholarships (from the Danish Government) were originally allocated to SADC (Southern African Development Community, 14 countries), the 70 scholarships via UN for other countries. There are 300 scholarships that have been raised from the National Development Agency, in South Africa, and these are only to be allocated to South African NGOs of which 100 of these go to the South African youth. Only 243 persons have applied and the committee is trying to reach to people that have not applied, more especially in vulnerable and marginalized communities.

The scholarships will be distributed by HRI for North America and Caribbean, by the Latin American Information Agency for Latin America, by IMADR for Asia/Pacific and by SANGOCO for Africa and Europe.

On the next meeting each region must provide information on the number of youth organizations that have been allocated in each region.

CLOSURE

Myrna Cunningham was elected to chair the next meeting. The Chair closed the meeting at 6:15 pm.

These minutes were adopted by the ISC at its meeting on the 30^th July 2001.