What benefits can my organisation gain from the ICO General Assembly?
The ICO General Assembly provides leaders, activists, civil society organisations and minority group representatives a platform to raise issues that are being faced by their people. Once key issues are raised ICO will then work with minority group representatives to have their voices heard on the global stage, primarily at the United Nations.
The ICO General Assembly provides its members with access to the United Nations subsidiary bodies, and the human rights mechanism. This will allow members of the Assembly to access practical tools to share their inputs with a range of regional experts at ICO on submissions to the UN to address these issues raised at the Assembly and propose recommendations.
In order to represent its members to ensure their voices are heard and issues are raised and addressed, ICO can:
– Field representatives at the UN in New York, Geneva and Vienna who participate in conferences and meetings of UN bodies, providing testimony and statements
– Participate in Human Rights Council sessions
– Make submissions to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process
– Contribute to the Special Procedures mandate holders, including: 1) special rapporteurs, 2) independent experts, 3) working groups
A) How does this process work?
ICO works with its members to provide access to the United Nations subsidiary bodies and human rights mechanisms. To do so, we start with the following steps:
– Collect necessary information and data
– Select a focal point for your UN submission such as: minority rights, indigenous rights, right to development, land rights, religion of belief and more…
– Filter information and create a report, by hosting meetings between ICO experts and its members to discuss how best to utilise date for the report
– Once it’s approved, the ICO team will submit your contribution to the relevant UN body and also publish it on our website and social media.
2. Can ICO facilitate fielding representatives from minority group organisations at UN conferences and meetings in Geneva, New York and Vienna?
Fielding representatives at in-person conferences and meetings at the United Nations is something that we have had great success with in the past and will strive to offer to members of the Assembly. However, this is more likely to happen for members with a history of working with ICO or organisations who have a background in diplomacy or academic work. However the process is subject to the ICO Board approval, as we need to get a temporary UN badge, which will allow your access to the UN campus together with one of the ICO’s permanent representatives and we can only get a limited number of badges each year.
3. When and where is the annual ICO General Assembly held?
The annual ICO General Assembly is an online event as this allows its members to participate without visas or flights.
The event is held towards the end of the year as this allows members to raise key issues to set the agenda for the following year.
The 2023 General Assembly is set to be held on November 1st.
4. What could we do to prepare for the General Assembly event?
Preparing a list of priority issues that you would like to raise will be useful for your participation in the event.
You may wish to select a number of key thematic issue areas to raise, as well as discussing the context and evidence behind these issues.
For example, Cultural Rights issues – ‘children from our indigenous group are being marginalised in schools and our cultural rights are being ignored as local schools refuse to offer any teaching in our native language. This means that our children do not receive access to the full educational experience as they cannot understand certain lessons in an attempt to exclude our cultural traditions, leading to feelings of marginalisation.’
Further information regarding the schedule, structure and event logistics will be distributed to all participating members prior to the event. This information will also be available on the ICO General Assembly website.
5. What exactly will the 2024 Agenda, determined by the annual Assembly, contain?
The agenda will be structured by the core thematic issues raised by the members of the Assembly.
Within this structure, based on the thematic issue areas raised in the Annual General Assembly, the ICO team will then work with the United Nations and stay up to date with key Human Rights mechanisms; relevant upcoming events; and key submission dates/deadlines. These will then be added to the ICO agenda events calendar which can be found on the website.
Members will then work with the ICO team to participate in these UN mechanisms to raise these key issues on the international stage.
6. How can I get in contact with the ICO team?
The team at ICO are always available to be contacted at:
generalassembly@internationalcommunities.org
We would be happy to schedule a meeting to discuss anything you may wish to raise before the annual assembly, so please do get in touch.