WTO Ministerial Section • Volume 5 • Number 38 • 6th November 2001

Last-Minute Arrangements For NGOs


At a briefing session for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on 31 October, the WTO Secretariat outlined arrangements for the upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference.

The NGO Centre will be five minutes walk from the main Conference rooms hosted at the Sheraton Hotel in Doha. Shuttles will regularly connect the area of the hotels with the conference site.

In a situation where delegates are already concerned about their safety, tight security should come as no surprise, a trade source said. As a matter of safety, the venues of the conference and the surroundings will be accessible only for those carrying the specific accreditation badge. Similar to previous Ministerial meetings, NGOs will be allowed to attend only the plenary session of the conference without the right to speak. However, the Secretariat said NGOs will be able to interact informally with delegations as had been the case at the Seattle conference. NGO representatives and press will be able to enter the same areas although journalists will have priority in accessing press conferences.

The Secretariat will provide the NGO Centre with some 40 computers and printing facilities, six photocopying machines, phones and faxes. The NGO Centre offers one 400-seat hall; two 100-seat rooms and two 40-seat rooms that can be booked by NGOs (contact Bernard Kuiten at Bernard.Kuiten@wto.org).The WTO Secretariat has also asked the organising committee to set up tables and notice boards close to the negotiating area, which will allow NGOs to announce their activities and distribute their documents. Delegates’ mailboxes — used in the past for delivering NGO documents to negotiators — are likely to be inaccessible this time for security reasons.

Officials from the WTO will brief registered NGOs daily from 9 to 10 am about the proceedings of the Ministerial. WTO Director General Mike Moore will hold the introductory briefing on Friday morning.

The Secretariat is also planning to organise several workshops on issues of interest to NGOs such as Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and Trade and Development. The venue and time of these events have not yet been released.

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