CIVIL SOCIETY

Civil Society

Civil Society

Introduction

The existence of civil society organisations stems from the exercise of individual human rights; notably, the freedom of association, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. One of the important roles of civil society organisations is to contribute to holding accountable the other two main components of society: the government and businesses (market). With today's globalised world, characterised by an increased power and influence of corporate companies (transnational corporations), the eroding capacity of individual nation states' governments to regulate the market, the challenge to civil society organisations in the exercise of this fundamental role is a daunting task and new and creative ways must be found for success.

Discussion

In the recent past there have been notable efforts by civil society organisations across the world to address this challenge through transnational civil society movements. There are however serious challenges to civil society organisations as they stand up to live up to the challenge of their own legitimacy, transparency and accountability, let alone address inherent challenge of new ways of organising to act at he global scene.

Globalisation and civil society organisations

Globalisation - defined here as a “set of processes that re-order the spatial organisation and flow of economic, political, and social activities within and across regions and nation-states - exerts political impacts that affect nation-states; economic impacts that affect the markets, profits and wages of global nations and peoples; and social/cultural impacts that affect the human rights and human security of the vast majority of the people on the planet”1. According to Michael Edwards and John Gaventa,2 global problems will need global solutions, … yet global governance in its current state with changes introduced in the form of a patchwork quilt of agreements negotiated between governments, corporations and citizen's groups is at the same time celebrated as the birth of a true global democracy and a source of worry for many who view those changes as democracy's subversion by ever-more powerful special interest groups.

With globalisation, decisions that affect virtually all human beings everywhere and for many generations in their lifetime are increasingly being taken by a few and there is an ever increasing democratic deficit at both domestic and international levels, efforts to mitigate this negative trend and the important role of civil society organisations in this effort cannot be overemphasized.

However, as civil society engages in this exercise and becomes increasingly prominent not only at the national level but also globally, there are increasing calls by governments and critics of civil society that question the legitimacy, transparency and accountability of civil society. There are many efforts underway to address this challenge such as the efforts of a diverse group of international NGOs that have agreed an International NGO Accountability Charter in 2006. The charter illustrates civil society's commitment to ensure that it maintains the highest ethical standards possible and that it never takes the high level of public trust that it enjoys for granted. There are several other efforts of civil society to ...