The United Nations and Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) - Seventy-Five Years of Consultations, Collaboration, and Contributions (1945-2000)

Authors

George E. Edwards, UI McKinney School of Law, Indiana University

Abstract

At the San Francisco Conference where the United Nations Charter was negotiated, participants and observers included representatives of “societies and organizations”—non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The precise number and identities of those NGOs is unclear, but 42 of the participants were consultants to the U.S. delegation that successfully lobbied for the Charter to include an official relationship between the U.N. and NGOs, and the promotion and protection of human rights. NGOs thus had a profoundly positive impact on the creation of the United Nations. For the first 75 years of the U.N.’s existence, NGOs have played an invaluable role in supporting the U.N. in its multi-varied missions, directly by acting in furtherance of the U.N.’s stated purposes, including regarding human rights, and indirectly by helping affiliated NGOs fulfill their own missions.

Recommended Citation

George E. Edwards, The United Nations and Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) - Seventy-Five Years of Consultations, Collaboration, and Contributions (1945-2000), 33 Pace Int'l L. Rev. 327 (2021)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58948/2331-3536.1413
Available at: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pilr/vol33/iss2/7