Arrangements regarding accreditation of non-governmental organizations to the Second World Assembly on Ageing and its preparatory process

Decision submitted by the Chairman on the basis of informal consultations

The Commission for Social Development acting as preparatory committee for the Second World Assembly on Ageing decides:

(a) that accreditation of non-governmental organizations to the Second World Assembly on Ageing and its preparatory process should be open to:

(i) All non-governmental organizations enjoying consultative status with the Economic and Social Council;

(ii) All non-governmental organizations accredited to the first World Assembly on Ageing or to the twenty-third and twenty-fourth special sessions of the General Assembly on the five-year reviews of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the World Summit for Social Development;

(iii) All non-governmental organizations that have been accredited to the Commission for Social Development acting as the preparatory committee for the Second World Assembly, with no further examination of their credentials;

(b) Decides that other interested non-governmental organizations in the field of ageing that have not participated in any of the above forums may participate in the Second World Assembly and its preparatory processs, provided that they submit their applications for accreditation to a committee composed of the bureau of the preparatory committee and the Secretariat by 15 January 2002 and that the application should contain the following information:

(i) The purpose of the organization;

(ii) Information identifying the programmes and activities of the organization in areas relevant to the subject of the Second World Assembly and indicating in which country or countries they are carried out;

(iii) Confirmation of the activities at the national, regional and/or international level;

(iv) Copies of annual or other reports of the organization, with financial statements, and a list of financial sources and contributions, including government contributions;

(v) A list of the members of the governing body of the organization and their country(ies) of nationality;

(vi) A description of the membership of the organization indicating the total number of members, the names of organizations that are members, and their geographical distribution;

(vii) A copy of the constitution and/or bylaws of the organization.

(c) Decides further that the bureau of the preparatory committee should submit by 22 October 2001 and 7 January 2002, to the members of the preparatory committee, lists of the non-governmental organizations mentioned in paragraph (b) that submitted their application for approval; that the lists should contain information on each organization’s competence and relevance to the subject of the Second World Assembly and that members of the preparatory committee will have until 26 November 2001 in respect to the October deadline, and 25 February 2002 in respect to the January deadline, to decide on a no-objection basis regarding accreditation of these non-governmental organizations;

(d) Decides that all those non-governmental organizations whose application for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council was rejected, or whose consultative status with the Economic and Social Council was withdrawn or suspended shall not be accredited to the Second World Assembly;

(e) Urges relevant United Nations bodies, in recognition of the importance of the equitable geographical participation of non-governmental organizations in the Second World Assembly, to assist those non-governmental organizations that do not have resources, in particular non-governmental organizations from developing countries and countries with economies in transition, to participate in the Second World Assembly;

(f) Requests the Secretary-General to disseminate widely to the community of non-governmental organizations all available information on accreditation procedures as well as information on supportive measures for participation in the Second World Assembly;

(g) Decides that the above arrangements concerning accreditation of non-governmental organizations to the Second World Assembly on Ageing will in no way create a precedent for other world assemblies.