In the new model, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) of various kinds and industry associations play increasingly important roles in negotiating, implementing, monitoring, and enforcing international environmental agreements. While such NGOs are far more numerous in industrialized Western countries, they are increasingly potent in worldwide. Some NGOs are international, others are nationally or locally based, and still others emerge for a specific issue and then disappear when the issue does.
Interactions among NGOs, governments, and intergovernmental organizations are complicated. NGOs try to influence national governments directly and indirectly through increased public awareness and pressures on national legislatures. Governments use NGOs to convey their positions to the public. Ministries or agencies within governments may use NGOs to strengthen their views in relation to other parts of the bureaucracy. NGOs provide intergovernmental organizations with important, independent communication links with national governments, and NGOs rely on intergovernmental organizations to provide information and insights that are useful in influencing national governments. In a few instances, such as the World Heritage Convention and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, nongovernmental organizations have been integrated into the international institutional structure for implementing and monitoring compliance with agreements. NGOs are routinely present at intergovernmental negotiations and hold forums that precede large intergovernmental meetings, such as in Rio and currently in Copenhagen.
Information technology is critical in the new model. New technologies empower groups other than states to participate in developing and implementing international law. They empower publics to participate in the process of governance. But the new information technologies also enlarge the gaps between those who have the technology and know how to use it and those who do not. Those who do not have the technology also need to participate effectively in the international system and to have confidence in the information generated and disseminated by others. We now have access to an increasingly wide array of information. But the potential danger is that people can increasingly choose to be exposed only to certain kinds of information and views and to avoid random exposure to different opinions. The irony is that as democracy opens up access to information and as technology enhances the variety of information available, technology also may make it easier to narrow the range of exposure. This in turn has implications for global governance and for the development of international environmental law.
Interactions among NGOs, governments, and intergovernmental organizations are complicated. NGOs try to influence national governments directly and indirectly through increased public awareness and pressures on national legislatures. Governments use NGOs to convey their positions to the public. Ministries or agencies within governments may use NGOs to strengthen their views in relation to other parts of the bureaucracy. NGOs provide intergovernmental organizations with important, independent communication links with national governments, and NGOs rely on intergovernmental organizations to provide information and insights that are useful in influencing national governments. In a few instances, such as the World Heritage Convention and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, nongovernmental organizations have been integrated into the international institutional structure for implementing and monitoring compliance with agreements. NGOs are routinely present at intergovernmental negotiations and hold forums that precede large intergovernmental meetings, such as in Rio and currently in Copenhagen.
Information technology is critical in the new model. New technologies empower groups other than states to participate in developing and implementing international law. They empower publics to participate in the process of governance. But the new information technologies also enlarge the gaps between those who have the technology and know how to use it and those who do not. Those who do not have the technology also need to participate effectively in the international system and to have confidence in the information generated and disseminated by others. We now have access to an increasingly wide array of information. But the potential danger is that people can increasingly choose to be exposed only to certain kinds of information and views and to avoid random exposure to different opinions. The irony is that as democracy opens up access to information and as technology enhances the variety of information available, technology also may make it easier to narrow the range of exposure. This in turn has implications for global governance and for the development of international environmental law.