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Beyond Greening: Reflections on Tourism in the Rio-Process | PositioningpaperEffectiveness criteria for non‐judicial grievance mechanisms 5In order to ensure their effectiveness, non‐judicial grievance mechanisms, both State‐based and non‐State‐based, should be:(a) Legitimate: enabling trust from the stakeholder groups for whose use they are intended, and being accountable for thefair conduct of grievance processes;(b) Accessible: being known to all stakeholder groups for whose use they are intended, and providing adequate assistancefor those who may face particular barriers to access;(c) Predictable: providing a clear and known procedure with an indicative timeframe for each stage, and clarity on the typesof process and outcome available and means of monitoring implementation;(d) Equitable: seeking to ensure that aggrieved parties have reasonable access to sources of information, advice andexpertise necessary to engage in a grievance process on fair, informed and respectful terms;(e) Transparent: keeping parties to a grievance informed about its progress, and providing sufficient information about themechanism’s performance to build confidence in its effectiveness and meet any public interest at stake;(f) Rights‐compatible: ensuring that outcomes and remedies accord with internationally recognized human rights;(g) A source of continuous learning: drawing on relevant measures to identify lessons for improving the mechanism andpreventing future grievances and harms.However, any voluntary mechanisms such as Article 10 should not detract from the duty ofgovernments to protect human rights. Governments must also provide access to redress forvictims through robust regulatory frameworks and judicial mechanisms that ensure theprotection of civilians, including against human rights abuses committed by third parties. Thisincludes transnational corporations and business enterprises operating extraterritorially, andthus relates to many private sector tourism stakeholders. Where states have failed to adoptlegislation that would impose extraterritorial liability on multinational corporations for thebreach of human rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises provide apotential alternative tool for holding companies accountable for human rights abuses. Theyare applicable to all companies from OECD countries.Mechanisms of CSO involvementA number of key documents, including the Stakeholder Empowerment Project (2009) 65 , theCardoso Report 66 and the Aarhus Convention 67 provide examples of key documentation oncivil society empowerment and the need for meaningful engagement of civil society in all UNprocesses at the decision making level.The UNWTO should consider its positioning within the wider UN system. For example, acloser alignment with treaty-monitoring bodies, such as the Human Rights Committee, couldfoster new lines of communication, support and intra-UN agency understanding on issues oftourism development, human rights and civil society engagement.Almost all UN agencies have a civil society "focal point" whose role is to ensure mainstreamingof civil society into agency processes and effective communication with CSOs in this regard.The CSO Focal Point is usually a staff member of the particular agency, programme or fund.65The Stakeholder Forum (2009), The Stakeholder Empowerment Project: Stakeholder Forum for a sustainable future,www.stakeholderforum.org/fileadmin/files/Thepercent20Stakeholderpercent20Empowermentpercent20Project.pdf66The Cardoso Report (2004), A/58/817, http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N04/376/41/PDF/N0437641.pdf?OpenElement67Aarhus Convention (1998), www.unece.org/env/pp/documents/cep43e.pdf92
Beyond Greening: Reflections on Tourism in the Rio-Process | PositioningpaperTheir role is to act as a point of information for all civil society actors working around theissues, and also to innovate new interfaces with civil society (i.e. hearings, dialogues, advisoryboards, partnerships, etc.).Many UN agencies have "civil society hearings" with relevant ministers, where CSOs cansubmit evidence for or against specific policy processes and have a general influence overdecision making e.g. UNAIDS, Civil Society Hearing during the High Level Meeting on AIDS,2008 68 .Roundtables allow decision makers to explore issues more fully with smaller groups but alsofor civil society and other stakeholders to interact with the decision makers. When carried outeffectively they can generate high quality discussion in a "safe" and "risk free" environment.Multi-stakeholder dialogues are useful in identifying points of convergence and divergenceamongst a range of stakeholder groups. A key objective of multi-stakeholder dialogues is toenhance levels of trust between the different actors, to share information and institutionalknowledge, and to generate solutions and relevant good practices.Global civil society forums have become a popular method for gathering stakeholders, sharingknowledge and developing policy statements amongst different actors. They often run justprior to the intergovernmental high level meeting so that a set of recommendations, adeclaration or a statement can then be passed on and included in the high level segment.Four models of CSO-UN agency cooperationFour existing models of civil society organisation (CSO)-UN agency participation andcooperation provide examples from which the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)could draw in seeking to develop its own mechanisms to increase CSO participation inUNWTO processes. In addition, Stakeholder Forum’s "Stakeholder Empowerment Project"(2009) provides a wider contextual background to this discussion. It includes an evaluation ofa comprehensive set of case studies exploring models of civil society engagement in UNprocesses and institutions. The report also includes a "Stakeholder Empowerment Handbook".1. UNEP and the Global Civil Society ForumThe United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) aims to protect the environmentthrough engaging with a multitude of stakeholders who share the same purpose. Working on aglobal scale it seeks the expertise of specialists to develop its strategy at the policy level. TheAnnual Global Civil Society Forum (GCSF) under UNEP became the main entry point for theparticipation of NGOs/CSOs in UNEP’s work at the governance level. Within this forum, civilsociety comes under the collective term of "The 9 Major Groups". These are:• farmers• women• the scientific and technological community• children and youth• indigenous peoples and their communities• workers and trade unions68The Stakeholder Forum (2009): Case Studies: Hearings, The Stakeholder Empowerment Project: Stakeholder Forum for a sustainable future,Chapter 2, pp.15-20. www.stakeholderforum.org/fileadmin/files/Thepercent20Stakeholderpercent20Empowermentpercent20Project.pdf93
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