United Nations: After years of delays, six human rights organisations, including the foundation that runs the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, have finally received permission to raise concerns and participate in discussions at the UN body overseeing economic development and social issues.
The UN had pushed for a vote on the six groups in June in the UN Committee on Non-governmental Organizations, which handles requests for accreditation to the UN Economic and Social Council, known as ECOSOC. But a majority of the NGO committee's 19 members voted to end debate on the six applications — which again meant no action. The US, Italy, Sweden and Estonia then introduced a resolution seeking a vote in ECOSOC, which has 54 member nations. That took place Thursday and Russia asked for a recorded vote, rather than letting the decision happen by consensus. The result was 23 countries in favour, 7 against and 18 abstentions. Russia opposed granting what is known as consultative status to the six rights groups, as did China, India, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
The six groups now join thousands of NGOs with consultative status at ECOSOC. The six organisations which won ECOSOC approval for consultative status are: the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Diakonia in Sweden, No Peace Without Justice in Italy, the Estonian Institute of Human Rights, and two US-based groups — the Syrian-American Medical Society and the Wikimedia Foundation.
The foundation runs Wikipedia.