“Civil society is under threat, but so are States”
Zoltán Dujisin
Joyce Yu, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of United Nations Volunteers talks about the challenges to narrow the void between government and civil society.
Joyce Yu, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of United Nations Volunteers talks to Terra Viva about the challenges to narrow the void between government and civil society
How do you manage the tensions between the government and civil society groups you work with?
A: We have the mandate of 189 states to promote voluntarism for development, which means we can tell individual countries ‘you said we can promote voluntarism’, and we do that by enabling legislation and a human rights regime protecting civil society. We try to support non-political, indigenous traditional forms of voluntarism linked to development, since this is what resonates with governments.
But why do non-governmental-organisations still complain of a lack of consultation?
A: The UN has always had its accredited international NGOs, but NGO dialogue with the UN has improved greatly especially since the 1985 women’s conference. The UN has learned there are millions of community-based organisations which can improve its work. There have been good examples such as HIV/AIDS, but when you get into issues of basic human rights or trade that are high-priority to the governments then doors begin to close.
So there is no level playing field?
The idea of a level playing field is outmoded. If you use this term it means the power relationship is defined by the powerful, but the power of citizens and civil society has proven to be able to have clear alternative voices. What they require is the specialization and professionalization that has happened with international NGOS, which are sometimes smarter than governments.
Civil society actors have complained today that IGOs are only sometimes their allies. What do you think?
Civil society is under threat, but so are states, which have an important role on human rights, security and trade issues that cut across the needs of a population. We need to protect both the interests of civil society and the states. Of course sometimes the very governments who torture and outlaw NGOs are sitting on our governing boards. It’s not a contradiction, it’s a structural reality.
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