How to Apply for
Consultative Status
Ve rsion française
Please follow the steps below to complete your application for consultative status online.
1. Profile
registration
Your organization must have a registered
profile before starting the application for
consultative status. Before registering your
organization, please check first, if your
organization has not already been included.
Many organizations that have participated in
United Nations sponsored conferences have been
added to this database.
- Add your organizational profile
- Login here with your existing profile
- Click here if you are not sure if your organization already has a profile
2. Online application:
Questionnaire + Summary + Supporting
Documents
As the next step,
after you are notified that your profile
registration was accepted, your organization
has to submit the application, containing the
online questionnaire and summary, and the
supporting documents.
The online application form can only be
accepted in the two UN Secretariat working
languages: English and French. All required
documents submitted excluding publications
should also be translated in English or
French. If a document is too long, a
translated summary may be accepted.
Components of supporting documents are:
- Copy of constitution/charter and/or statutes/by-laws and amendments to those documents (pursuant to paragraph 10 of ECOSOC resolution 1996/31).
- Copy or certificate of registration. According to resolution 1996/31 an organization "should attest that it has been in existence for at least two years as at the date of receipt of the application by the Secretariat". Please provide a copy of the registration paper or, if your country does not require registration, please provide other proof of existence.
- Copy of most recent financial statement and annual report.
- Optional: Copy of examples of your publications and recent articles or statements.
- Optional: Organization chart (if available).
- Click on the Consultative Status tab to start filling out the application form.
- Supporting documents can be uploaded by using the Documents tab.
3. NGO Branch
screening of applications
The period
between 1st June and the date the Committee
meets is dedicated by the NGO Branch to review
the applications. During this time the
NGO may be contacted and asked for more
information or clarifications. Only after
reviewed by an officer and considered
complete, an application is submitted to the
NGO Committee.
When an
application becomes part of the agenda of the
NGO Committee a letter is sent to the NGO
informing them of the
upcoming session and inviting to send no more
than two representatives to be present during
the session. The presence of
NGO representatives in the room is in no way
mandatory and it does not
imply any advantages. NGOs simply have the
right to be present when their applications
are being considered.
Considering the cost involved in traveling to
New York most NGOs do not attend the first
time they are being
considered. If the application raises many
questions from member countries and gets
deferred to another
session, NGOs might consider useful to be
present at the following session in order to
be able to reply in
person and avoid being deferred again.
Among other requirements for obtaining
consultative status are the following:
- Applying organization's activities must be relevant to the work of ECOSOC;
- The NGO must have been in existence (officially registered) for at least 2 years in order to apply;
- The NGO must have a democratic decision making mechanism;
- The major portion of the organization's funds should be derived from contributions from national affiliates, individual members, or other non-governmental components.
4.
The Committee on
Non-Governmental Organizations
The Committee meets twice a year to
decide which NGOs applying for consultative
status it will recommend
to the ECOSOC Council. During its Session, the
Committee may ask questions to the NGO. Such
questions are immediately
sent to the NGO by the Secretariat and should
be replied by the NGO as fast as possible in
order to help the Committee
make a decision and avoid getting deferred to
future sessions.
The Committee
Recommends
The
Committee recommendations are published in a
report and submitted to the next ECOSOC
meeting for final approval.
Official notification is sent to all reviewed
NGOs, informing them about the Committee's
recommendation.
The
Committee may decide to defer an application
review until the next session, pending
clarifications and answers to
questions asked to the NGO.
5.
ECOSOC Final Decision
When the Council
finally approves the Committee recommendation
to grant consultative status to an NGO,
official notification is sent
by the Secretariat. NGOs granted General or
Special consultative status
must submit to the Committee on
Non-Governmental Organizations, every fourth
year, a brief report of
their activities, in particular regarding
their contribution to the work of the United
Nations (Quadrennial
Report).