یی History of Non-Governmental Organizations and Successful Examples of Associations in the World / Mahdieh Golrooyi
Non-governmental organizations or non-profit organizations were first mentioned in Article 71 of the United Nations Charter in 1945. While there is no fixed or official definition for non-governmental organizations, they are generally defined as independent non-profit institutions that operate without government influence; although they may receive government funding.
The activities of non-governmental organizations include environmental, social, cultural, defense, and human rights activities, but are not limited to them. They can strive for promoting social or political changes on a large or local scale. Non-governmental organizations play an important role in community development, improving societies, and promoting citizen participation.
The World Bank provides a simple definition for non-governmental organizations: “People-based organizations include a variety of groups and institutions that are completely or largely independent from the government and primarily have humanitarian or cooperative goals rather than commercial ones; such as non-indigenous groups, regional or national organizations, and groups based in rural areas. Non-governmental organizations include charities and religious associations that use private funds for development, food services, family planning, distribution, and social organization. They also include independent cooperatives, social associations, water consumer associations, and women’s groups.”
However, international non-governmental organizations have deeper roots than what is commonly assumed. The term “non-governmental organizations” became prevalent after World War II through the United Nations Charter, but even before the modern era, religious orders, missionary groups, merchants, and scientific societies were crossing continents. Many of them have remained until today.
However, within the framework of enlightenment idealism, it was the revolutionary developments and contacts between the East and the West in the late 18th century that transformed the field of non-governmental organizations; in fact, the wave of protests in 2011 – from Arab uprisings to anti-corruption demonstrations in India and the Occupy Wall Street movement – is a manifestation of the immense wave of non-governmental organizations.
After the establishment of a society for the recovery of drowned individuals in Amsterdam in 1767, the “Humanitarian Societies” specialized in rescuing and reviving victims of shipwrecks were founded. While the goal of the “Humanitarian Societies” was to disseminate new revival techniques, another non-governmental humanitarian organization called the “Royal Humane Society” was founded in 1803 to ensure that all patients with smallpox have access to clean water and food.
Among the most influential non-governmental organizations of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many anti-slavery groups were formed in the Atlantic world in the decades following the establishment of the Pennsylvania Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage in 1775. These organizations not only influenced national laws such as Britain’s Slave Trade Act of 1807, but also had an impact on international negotiations. For example, the Abolitionist Lobby helped to issue international declarations on the slave trade at peace conferences after the Napoleonic Wars.
It can be said that the peace movement has the distinction of being the first organization registered by the people. The association, which was established in Scotland in 1834, claimed to be “composed of those who seek fair grounds for respect and mutual respect, who honor peace and act based on the great principle of gathering and disseminating information that desires to improve conditions, in order to improve the personal and social situation of their fellow human beings.” In the same year, Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian republican, founded the “European Youth Association” to promote nationalism, and communist revolutionaries formed the “Union of Justice” based in Paris.
While most societies had a short lifespan, the British Anti-Slavery Society, founded in 1839, remains to this day as the oldest international human rights organization dedicated to abolishing slavery. The significance of this society goes beyond this achievement. The anti-slavery sentiments in Britain were one of the factors that led to the failure of the Confederacy in the 1860s and played a role in the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Similar to the International Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840, a wave of private international congresses was sparked by the organization, leading to the establishment of non-governmental organizations in many fields in the following decades. The exclusion of women from this event also led to two delegates being removed (Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott) who then formed a Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, which was a pivotal moment in the development of the women’s suffrage movement.
However, a small number of individuals, like Henry Dunant, the Swiss humanitarian, have played a significant role in the development of non-governmental organizations. In 1855, he led the creation of the “International Committee of the Red Cross,” which was considered a prominent national non-governmental organization due to its innovative structure. More famously, after witnessing the massacre of the Battle of Solferino in 1859, Dunant founded the Red Cross movement in 1863 to provide impartial aid to the wounded in conflicts.
The number and diversity of international non-governmental organizations during the period between the 1870s and World War I saw significant growth alongside the Second Industrial Revolution. Among the more than four hundred institutions established during this time were a wide range of organizations such as the World Scientific Union, the World League for the Protection of Animals, the International Council of Women, the International Federation of Trade Unions, the International Co-operative Alliance, the International Olympic Committee, and the International Socialist Bureau.
The achievements of international non-governmental organizations in the decades before the war included successful campaigns for new treaties, such as the International Literary and Artistic Association on International Copyright and the International Federation for the Abolition of Prostitution. In addition, women’s groups played a crucial role in promoting the right to vote throughout the world.
Among the various roles played by non-governmental organizations, the following six can be considered as the most important objectives of these organizations, which are also mentioned in the United Nations Charter:
1- Development and utilization of infrastructures.
Community-based organizations and cooperatives can purchase, divide, and develop land, build housing, provide infrastructure, and manage and maintain facilities such as wells, public toilets, and solid waste collection services. They can also develop centers for the supply of building materials and other community-based economic enterprises. In many cases, they may need technical assistance or advice from higher-level government or non-governmental organizations.
2- Supporting innovative, demonstrative, and experimental projects.
Non-governmental organizations have the advantage of selecting specific locations for innovative projects and determining the duration of their support beforehand. Their main goal is to overcome some of the shortcomings that governments face in this area. Non-governmental organizations can also serve as pilots for larger government projects, as they can act faster than government bureaucracy.
3- Facilitating communications.
Non-governmental organizations use interpersonal communication methods and study the right entry points to gain the trust of the community they want to benefit from. They also have good ideas about the feasibility of the projects they undertake. The importance of this role for the government is that non-governmental organizations can establish communication with government policy levels and provide information about the lives, abilities, attitudes, and cultural characteristics of people at the local level to the government.
Non-governmental organizations can facilitate communication between people and the government, as well as from the government to the people. Communication upwards includes informing the government about what local people think, do, and feel, while communication downwards involves informing local people about what the government is planning and doing. Non-governmental organizations also play a unique role in sharing information horizontally and networking with other organizations that are doing similar work.
4- Technical support and training:
Educational institutions and non-governmental organizations can create educational capacity and technical assistance to help increase the knowledge and skills of disadvantaged groups.
5- Research, monitoring, and evaluation.
Innovative activities should be carefully documented and shared. Effective participatory monitoring enables the sharing of results with both the public and project staff. Not all people have the time and access to information about large economic projects, and civil society organizations can provide this information to the public.
6- Supporting vulnerable groups.
In some cases, non-governmental organizations become spokespersons or advocates for the poor and try to influence government policies and programs on their behalf. This can be done in various ways, from demonstration projects and experiments to participation in public forums and the development of policies and government programs, to the dissemination of research results and case studies on poverty. Therefore, non-governmental organizations play a role from supporters of the poor to implementers of government programs.
According to the mentioned cases in the United Nations Charter, non-governmental organizations can participate in a wide range of activities. Today, non-governmental organizations around the world are helping to create and strengthen democracy in three key ways:
First, non-governmental organizations, by increasing people’s awareness of their rights, lead to an increase in citizens’ respect for their own rights and those of others. After becoming aware of their rights, they strive for participatory democracy by exercising their rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association through these organizations.
Non-democratic governments do not like non-governmental organizations because of their essential services in creating awareness and empowering citizens; although they are confident that these organizations act in the best interest of the public.
They help people to be vigilant so that politicians do not misuse public funds or disregard the law. They assist people in organizing and voicing their opinions to representatives. They organize petitions or peaceful protests and take governments to court when they try to violate citizens’ rights.
Governments have three common tactics for destroying these organizations: first, attempting to discredit them in the eyes of the people by accusing them of being unpatriotic and undemocratic. Second, cutting off government funding and making it harder for them to receive financial aid from abroad. Third, harassing and intimidating them through false criminal or tax investigations.
The more diversity there is in a society, the more opportunities people will have to access facilities. This is due to the increase in transparency between the people and the government through these organizations, which will lead to an increase in public trust at the national level and in the community as a whole.
For this reason, governments in many developed countries nowadays encourage citizens to form, join, and participate in these organizations, as the benefits of their growth will be beneficial for both the government and society.
Notes:
1- Extracted from – Cousins William, “Non-Governmental Initiatives” in ADB.
The Urban Poor and Basic Infrastructure Services in Asia and the Pacific.
بانک توسعه آسیایی، مانیلا، ۱۹۹۱
Asian Development Bank, Manila, 1991.
2-
The World Bank collaborates with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the following ways:
The World Bank, 1990.
Tags
Butter Monthly Peace Line Magazine NGO peace line Peace Line 133 People's Organization Voluntary work