Message from the ICVA Secretariat: 13 March 2007

Meeting Report on Improving the Drafting of NGO Statements and Call for Feedback

E-mail Message to ICVA Members, NGOs invited to Standing Committee, and Pre-EXCOM 2006 NGO Participants

*Meeting report and call for feedback on report and discussion paper*

To: ICVA Members, NGOs invited to Standing Committee, Pre-EXCOM 2006 NGO Participants
From: ICVA Secretariat
Date: 13 March 2007
SUBJECT: MEETING REPORT ON IMPROVING THE DRAFTING OF NGO STATEMENTS AND CALL FOR FEEDBACK

Dear Colleagues,

Please find attached an ICVA meeting report on the side meeting held last week in the margins of Standing Committee on improving the drafting of NGO statements. It includes a number of further questions for discussion/reflection from the NGO community, beyond those originally raised in our discussion paper (http://www.icva.ch/doc00002087.doc). You will note that a meeting is being planned on the morning before Pre-EXCOM begins in order to ensure broad participation from NGOs to arrive at concrete conclusions from the discussions/feedback between now and then. In addition, we will try and pilot an editorial committee for the protection statement for the June Standing Committee. The experience from this pilot will also feed into the meeting before Pre-EXCOM.

The meeting report is being posted on the page on our website dedicated to Improving the Drafting of NGO Statements: http://www.icva.ch/doc00002088.html.

Again, we would like to invite NGOs to provide us with their feedback/comments on the questions/issues raised in the discussion paper and the meeting report and on ways to improve the drafting of NGO statements, in general. We will post those comments (with your permission, of course) publicly on the website so that NGOs from around the world have the possibility to comment. We will post messages in any language, but unfortunately cannot ensure their translation into English.

We look forward to hearing your feedback/comments so that we can have a constructive debate on how to improve the NGO statements.

With best regards,
ICVA Secretariat