A South African man has been chosen to sit on United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan’s a panel that will examine relations between the world body and civil society.
Kumi Naidoo, the secretary general and CEO of Civicus ‒ the World Alliance for Citizen Participation — was chosen by Annan to sit on the high-level 12-member panel at the UN headquarters on February 13.
Naidoo’s organisation Civicus said on Monday the panel comprised representatives of governments, the private sector and civil society organisations and was headed by former Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso.
Civicus, which moved its headquarters to Johannesburg in 2002, said Annan established the panel as part of a broad set of reforms designed to help the UN respond more effectively to the challenges of the 21st century.
Civicus said the panel was, according to Annan, set up to examine current practices for civil society engagement with the UN and to recommend how to make the world body’s activities more accessible to civil society.
Naidoo, a Rhodes Scholar who holds a doctorate in political sociology from Oxford University, is a former anti-apartheid activist who played a role in bringing about the first democratic elections in South Africa.
He subsequently became the founding director of the South African NGO Coalition and has since worked at the grassroots level organising around social justice and economic development issues.
He joined Civicus as its secretary general in 1998. Civicus, an international alliance of civil society organisations in more than 100 countries, promotes the rights of citizens to be actively involved in decisions affecting their lives and communities.
It was founded in 1993 to nurture the foundation, growth and protection of citizen action throughout the world, especially in areas where participatory democracy and citizens’ freedom of association are threatened.
In addition to Naidoo, panel members include: Bagher Asadi of Iran, Brigitta Dahl of Sweden, Peggy Dulany of America, Andre Erdos of Hungary, Asma Khader of Jordan, Colombian Juan Mayr, Malini Mehra of India, Mary Racelis of the Philippines, Prakash Ratilal of Mozambique and Aminata Traore of Mali. – Sapa