NGOs are non-profit, private organizations consisting of private groups of religious, scientific, cultural, philanthropic, technical or economic orientation
They are neither inter-governmental agreements nor do they involve direct government participation.
The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations adopted the resolution in 1950, whereby they defined the non-governmental organizations as ‘any international organization which is not established by inter-governmental agreements’
In short, it is independent of the governments .
Non-governmental organizations is not a homogeneous group. The long list of acronyms has developed around the term NGO. They are:
- International NGOS (INGOs)
- Business oriented international NGOS (BINGOs)
- Environmental NGOS (ENGOs)
- Religious international NGOS (RINGOs)
- Government-operation NGOS (GONGOs)
- Quasi non-governmental organizations (QUANGOs)
NGOs work to improve the policies, enhance the work pattern, improve and implement the welfare and development schemes of the Government and causes of human welfare
NGOs serve as organization to advocate, promote and monitor human right issues education, health, environment and other welfare and development aims, objects and issues
They operate, organize, manage , support and run programs, activities, projects and works at local regional, national, international levels according to the requirements and operational capacity of the organization
At the international level, the champions of human rights are most often the citizens and the NGOs, rather than the government officials
Functions of NGOs are as follows:
- Mobilization of Public Opinion
- Collection of Information
- By providing direct service
- Legal Assistance
- Human Rights Education
- Filing of Writ Petitions
- Communication to the Commission on Human Rights
- Processing of Information
- Dialogue with Governments and International Bodies
Leading NGOs in India that work on human right issues are:
- The Centre for Development and Human Right
- Help Age India
- Voluntary Health Association of India
- Action Aid
- Confederation of Human Rights Organizations
- Human Rights Protection Group
- Ensaaf
- People’s Union for Civil Liberties
- People’s Watch
Leading NGOs across the world:
- Amnesty International
- Human Rights without Frontiers
- The Human Rights Action Centre
- Human Rights Watch
Author: Mahima,
1st year faculty of law , university of DELHI