Global Policy Forum - June 2000
Organizations like Oxfam, Greenpeace, Amnesty
International and thousands of others serve the public on a national and
international scale. Known variously as "private voluntary
organizations," "civil society organizations," and "citizen
associations," they are increasingly called "NGOs," an acronym that
stands for "non-governmental organizations." The United Nations system
uses this term to distinguish representatives of these agencies from
those of governments. While many NGOs dislike the term, it has come into
wide use, because the UN system is the main focus of international
rule-making and policy formulation in the fields where most NGOs
operate.
Charitable and community organizations, separate from
the state, have existed in many historical settings, but NGOs are
primarily a modern phenomenon. With the extension of citizenship rights
in Europe and the Americas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
people founded increasing numbers of these organizations, as instruments
to meet community needs, defend interests or promote new policies. The
French writer Alexis de Toqueville emphasized the importance of what he
called "political associations" as institutions of democracy, uniquely
numerous and influential in the United States at the time of his famous
visit in 1831. New legal rules for private corporations, emerging at
this same time, provided modern juridical authority for the
organizations and increased their defenses against state interference.
No comments:
Post a Comment