The United Nations and civil society – 70 years working together: how do we make a difference from Geneva?

Monday, 22 June 2015 – Palais des Nations, Geneva – Room XI

Director General,
Distinguished Guests,

It is an honour for me to be the moderator in this first segment of a day filled with discussions about the United Nations and civil society actors working together over the past 70 years.

The work of the United Nations to improve our lives—-the maintenance of peace and security, the realization of development, and the promotion and respect of human rights—-is intimately and ultimately rooted in the exercise of public freedoms.

Freedoms of expression, association, peaceful assembly and the right to participate in public life is how people share ideas, form new ones, and join together with others to make informed decisions about our economic and social development. It is how we take part in civic activity: helping people take back control over their lives, the provision of needed services, and putting forward solutions to social concerns. Civic activity is about building safe, stable and thriving democratic societies.  It’s about moving us from where we are to someplace better.

And sometimes it is too easy for us to oversimplify the dynamics of social change.

Changing opinions and behaviour for the better is a long, hard, and often dangerous endeavour.  The reality is that a few good words on paper will change nothing unless we can overcome the perceived risks of sharing power or people's real fear of change.

Consequently, locally and globally, civil society actors encounter obstacles and punishments for the words they say and the work they do.

The involvement of civil society actors underpins virtually every activity of the United Nations, and so a dynamic, diverse and independent civil society, able to operate freely and safely is essential. We all must work to protect and hold the line against shrinking arenas for public participation, and we must robustly champion those practices and experiences from around the world that widen and deepen civic space.

As all of us advocate for the full enjoyment and exercise of public freedoms in Member States because of how it contributes to their development, we should also reflect upon how we can widen, deepen and improve the quality of participation of civil society in the work of the United Nations. Whether locally or globally, to limit public freedoms undermines our collective progress.

The commemoration of this UN anniversary will serve as an important assessment of our partnership with civil society in these 70 years.

I would like to thank UNOG for providing all of us the space to hold a thorough discussion today.

Among us there are distinguished experts and leaders, whom I would like to warmly welcome.

I look forward to your contributions.