As Malta prepares to chair the Commonwealth for the next two years, NGOs have called on the Prime Minister to promote the protection of civil society, prevent their bases from closing and ensure they have a voice.
“We cannot rely on a dicey colonial past to keep us together,” Maja Daruwala, director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said yesterday.
“We must leverage civil society if we want it to be relevant in the future. We want to pass a strong message to the Commonwealth that we expect it to engage with and protect civil society and its spaces.”
She said she hoped that NGOs working on promoting justice and human rights would be willing to take on an advocacy role by pressuring the Commonwealth secretariat and the chair to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (see box, right).
Dr Daruwala was speaking at a side event to the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which brought together NGOs from around the Commonwealth to promote more inclusive approaches to policy-making through increased accountability, transparency and consultation. This, say the event’s organisers, is a central theme for all Commonwealth governments, captured in SDG 16 (see below).
Neil Falzon, director of Aditus Foundation, said that the downside to such “side” events was that they emphasised the fact that policy-making was the exclusive privilege of governments, with civil society being forced to speak on the side and to shout to make their voices heard.
“On the upside, however, we are an independent voice to our communities with an agenda which we ourselves decide on, based on our own priorities. This side event represents a unique opportunity [for Malta] to stop being Eurocentric in our approach to human rights,” Dr Falzon said.
Dr Daruwala stressed the importance of engaging with governments and confronting them, pointing out that the only way to get governments to respond was by presenting them with objective data and facts which did not masquerade as opinion or ideology.
We cannot rely on a dicey colonial past to keep us together. We must leverage civil society if we want it to be relevant in the future
“During the last year and a half, I was distressed to see the closing down of civil society spaces unjustly and without cause,” she said, referring to cases in India which were later supplemented with examples from Kenya.
Amitabh Behar, from the National Foundation for India, said NGOs must re-think their strategies.
“In the last 20 years, have we swung too much towards advocacy and left out organising and mobilising people?” he questioned.
“We can attend conferences and participate in surveys but we will only end up with lovely documents and nothing on the ground. We need a bottom-up approach whereby we could exert pressure on respective states.”
The event was organised by Aditus Foundation, Civicus, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, JRS Malta, Integra Foundation, Malta LGBTIQ Movement, Platform of Human Rights Organisations in Malta, with the support of Open Society Justice Initiative.
What are Sustainable Development Goals?
During the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on September 25, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes a set of 17 SDGs to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030.
The SDGs build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets that the world committed to achieving by 2015. The MDGs, adopted in 2000, targeted an array of issues that included slashing poverty, hunger, disease and gender inequality, and providing better access to water and sanitation.
The new SDGs go much further than the MDGs, addressing the root causes of poverty and the universal need for development that works for all people.
Goal 16: peaceful, just societies
Goal 16 of the SDGs is dedicated to the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, access to justice for all and building effective, accountable institutions at all levels.
These are some of the targets:
• Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere.
• End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.
• Promote the rule of law at national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all.
• By 2030, significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows and combat all forms of organised crime.
• Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms.
• Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels.
• Ensure responsive, inclusive and participatory decision-making at all levels.
• Broaden and strengthen the participation of developing countries in global governance.
• By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration.