Pressure groups warned on public scrutiny By Rosemary Bennett, Political Correspondent
Greenpeace and other pressure groups must open up to public scrutiny or risk losing all credibility, a government-sponsored think tanks warns on Monday.
The Foreign Policy Centre, whose president is Robin Cook, chief foreign minister, said that London's Mayday riots, the siege of Seattle and the row over Brent Spar have robbed many non-governmental organisations of their legitimacy.
The report is published to mark the five year anniversary of the Brent Spar "fiasco" in which Greenpeace dramatically over-estimated the amount of hydrocarbons that could be expelled into the sea if the oil rig was scuppered.
Michael Edwards, author of the report and former head of research at Save the Children, said NGOs that agree to minimum standards of accountability should be rewarded with a place at the negotiating table at IMF and other international con-ferences.
He proposes a code of conduct for NGOs and a programme of self-regulation with independent verif-ication.
A similar system exists in the Philippines where an umbrella body, the Philippine Council for NGO certification, can recommend withdrawal of recognition and tax privileges for those who fall short of minimum standards of conduct.
Under the new regime, NGOs would be obliged to be certified by the regulatory body and sign up to standards of transparency, accountability, internal democracy and "helpful knowledge", a measure of its expertise.
Once a certified system was up and running, the accredited organisations should have rights to sit at conferences.
Mr Edwards said the World Bank had already accepted the principle of consulting pressure groups, but the next step would be giving relevant NGOs the right to monitor its Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, country by country.
However, the World Trade Organisation had further to go to reverse the "feelings of exclusion from processes and procedures" that contributed to the failure of the last round of talks in Seattle.
He proposes a special, five-year meeting of the IMF with NGOs, and calls on Tony Blair, prime minister, to host the first "World Financial Forum" in Britain.
"NGOs must put their house in order and prove they properly represent the people they claim to champion," said Mr Edwards.
"Governments have responsibility to channel the energies of NGOs so that they don't have to use tear gas, pepper spray and batons to deal with the frustrations of those who feel excluded."