Dear friends and colleagues,

The contrast could not have been starker. At the UN Department of Public Information (DPI)-NGO meeting in Paris a couple of weeks ago, the room was filled with civil society representatives from all over the world and the conversation focussed on the centrality of human rights to development. At the UN Private Sector Forum in New York today, on the other hand, the gathering comprised mainly senior corporate personnel and human rights did not find any mention whatsoever.  

For the umpteenth time this week, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon reiterated his apprehensions that several countries appear unlikely to meet the MDG targets, warned that economic conditions and food prices were wiping out the modest gains of the past decade, and appealed to the corporate gathering for greater public-private partnership to redress the gaps. The people whose lives and livelihoods are under threat should the MDGs not be achieved are relegated to a building across the street.  

2 weeks, 2 cities, even 2 locations on the same New York Avenue - 2 disconnected universes. This issue of e-CIVICUS goes to press just as the UN High Level Event to review and generate greater impetus for the MDGs is being convened in New York . It seems glaringly obvious that if we are to meet these targets, we need to bridge the chasm between the powerful elites on one side of the street and those who live and die by their decisions on the other. And accept as a basic axiom that development that ignores human rights is simply unsustainable.

With gratitude, faith and solidarity,

Ingrid Srinath,

To send your comments, suggestions or contributions of articles to e-CIVICUS, e-mail editor@civicus.org.

For previous articles from the Secretary General, see details below: Civil  Society Challenges: 60 years on 

. Civil Society Challenges: 60 years on

. Human rights education at the UN DPI NGO conference in paris

. Citizens must be at the centre of effective aid

. Disabling by Design? - The Ethiopian Charities and Societies Proclamation

. China: Double double talk

. View from civil society: Key political challenges for social justice in Africa

. What now, Mr. Lamy?

. "If CIVICUS didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it"

. Beyond G-8: At the table? On the table? Whose table?

. Beyond G-8: Civil society challenges

. Recalling the Day of the African child

. CIVICUS 2008 World Assembly, a unique opportunity to effect real change

. CIVICUS new Secretary General appointed. 

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