Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 7 • Number 19 • 28th May 2003
WTO Limits NGO Access To Cancun Ministerial
At an informational session hosted by the Mexican government in Geneva on 27 May on logistics for the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun (10-14 September), the WTO Secretariat and the Cancun Organising Committee informed attending non-governmental organisations (NGOs) of accreditation and logistical matters for Cancun.
Citing the limited capacity of the Cancun Convention Centre (CCC) and the "massive" number of NGOs that have applied for official registration, WTO Director of External Relations Alain Frank told NGOs that the WTO had decided to place strict limits on both the number of representatives an NGO can register and the number of these registered representatives that will be permitted to enter the Convention Centre, where the Ministerial will take place.
A 3-and-1 approach
According to Frank, and to a 23 May letter sent to every NGO considered eligible for registration, each accredited NGO will be allowed to register three representatives. Of these three, only one will be allowed into the Convention Centre at any given time. The three representatives will each be issued badges allowing them free movement in the high-security zone that will be set up around the Centre, but will have to share a single ’sur-badge’ required for entry into the CCC.
Once inside the Convention Centre, NGO representatives and members of the press will have access to the main plenary and briefing rooms, space permitting. Neither will be allowed into the reserved for ministers and delegations only, which will occupy floors 1 and 2 above the ground floor.
Frank said that the WTO was expecting approximately 3000 delegates, and similarly-sized contingents from the press and NGO communities. According to the Cancun Organising Committee, the capacity of the CCC is approximately 5000. It is not the largest such facility in Cancun.
Despite the NGO limitation, there are no formal limitations on the number of representatives that Member country delegations or press organisations can register to gain access to the Conference Centre (the Press Centre will be located inside the CCC).
The announcement to limit access was not well-received by civil society. According to one NGO representatives, "the WTO has still not learned how to deal with the idea that when Ministers make legally binding agreements with serious implications for democracy — that the public has the right to listen, engage and react. At first they told us that we could have four participants per NGO. Now they tell us ‘three with only one representative having access to the Convention Centre where the meeting is taking place.’" Two years ago, at the last Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, only 647 NGOs — with one person per NGO — were granted access to the venue.
One Geneva-based trade observer noted that the limitations on NGO access could well have unforeseen consequences. "It’s not the accredited, analysis-oriented NGOs on the inside that they [the WTO and the Mexican government] need to be concerned about, but rather those on the outside. But if they limit access to the Convention Centre to just one NGO representative, there will be a whole lot more out on the street as a result."
An NGO Centre will be set up at the Hotel Sierra, a 20-minute walk from the CCC. It will be open from about 7-8 A.M. to midnight, according to the Cancun Organising Committee. A large room (capacity: 456) is also being reserved at the Fiesta Americana, two minutes from the Convention Centre. Ministers and the WTO Secretariat will be able to use this room for briefings. It will also be equipped with television screens showing some of the proceedings from inside the centre, and will be accessible to all accredited NGOs.
The 23 May WTO letter includes formal registration forms. These registration forms, which require photos of the three representatives, must be returned to the WTO by regular mail no later than 30 June at midnight, GMT. Each NGO has been assigned a code that will allow the registration of three hotel rooms at preferential rates. Reserving additional rooms at the special rate is possible, but will require a letter declaring responsibility for all extra rooms and the people within them. Unregistered individuals will not have access to four so-called ‘red zone’ hotels (Camino Real, Fiesta Americana, Hyatt Regency, NH Krystal) located near the CCC. The Cancun Organising Committee urged those who intend on attending the Ministerial to book hotels as soon as possible.
During the Conference, the Ministerial Conference website will be updated with daily news bulletins and an update on the day’s events, both official and unofficial. As in past Ministerial Conferences, ICTSD will also publish daily updates on the negotiations in English, French and Spanish editions.
Melba Pria, the Mexican government’s Director of NGO relations for the WTO Ministerial, can be contacted at mpria@omcmexico.omc.mx.
For further information also see ICTSD’s Cancun Ministerial webpage.
ICTSD reporting.