For the first time ever, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) were given the opportunity to address the United Nations Committee on NGOs. Our youth representative, Patrick Liu delivered a statement to both NGOs and states.

He touched upon the following:

• 1. First, in order to facilitate NGOs advocacy and make it more efficient, giving NGOs access to more of the same conference rooms as Member States is essential. Also, a larger space should be preserved for civil society organizations of all sizes and backgrounds to take the floor and share their experience during conferences, seminars or sessions of UN bodies.

• 2. Second, special attention should be paid to NGOs from developing countries and countries with economies in transition whose participation is often limited due to technical and financial difficulties. To prevent their exclusion, the agenda of the various events held at the UN should be known more in advance and less subject to last minute change to allow NGOs to minimize the cost of such participation. Furthermore, the UN online registration system can be problematic for some NGOs in locations with limited access to the internet. As one alternative, we would urge a policy change that would allow NGO federations or coalitions to directly register representatives of their own member organisations

• 3. Third, some improvements should be considered regarding the process to obtain consultative status with ECOSOC. Our suggestions include ensuring that political considerations are avoided during this process, by limiting the number of questions asked by each Member State to applying organizations, and by establishing a time limit for consideration of each application by the NGO Committee. These steps would help avoid what is too often a drawn-out process and eliminate
  the deterrent effect such delays can have on applying organizations (or those considering applying).

For further information, please view his presentation.