The document provides an overview of the United Nations and opportunities for civil society involvement. It discusses: 1) The UN as the most universal policy-making body that deals with peacekeeping and everyday issues across borders. 2) The UN being made up of governments, but that there are ways for people and civil society to influence the process from the bottom-up such as by participating in UN conferences and side events. 3) Key parts of the UN system like the General Assembly and opportunities for civil society to engage including by making statements to the nine Major Groups that advise the UN.

1. Growing the Commons Top-
Down and Bottom-Up
Training Part I: The United Nations,
Creator of Global Commoners
Lisinka Ulatowska
February 11, 2013

2. The United Nations…
is the organization
where Governments
meet to develop policy
on all matters that are
beyond their national
jurisdiction.

3. It is the most universal policy-making
body in history.
It deals with:
• Making and keeping the peace, and
• With every aspect of everyday life that
connects us across national
boundaries.
The purpose of this training…

4. Present Paradigm Commons Paradigm
• Enclosure of the • People steward, manage
commons by a few and produce natural and
social resources they need
to survive and thrive.
• Hierarchical
• Governance by all people
Governance by a
few according to the principle
of subsidiary and in
harmony with nature.
• Decision-making • All-win; inclusive,
win/lose transparent and for the
benefit of all.

5. Through the UN, 120 countries have gained
independence and an equal status within the UN
with all Nations large and small.

6. The United Nations is a Governmental Organization
That means:
 Governments make the decisions. Not people and
not the Secretary General (SG).
 The SG is their Executive Director and
 The Secretariat has divisions that perform back-up
services for all the areas of work the Governments
decide. They do this at UN conferences.
 We, the people do not participate in decision-making.
We must find ways to influence the process from the
bottom-up

7. The Six Organs of the United Nations
Security International Trusteeship
Council Court of Justice Council
(World Court - ICJ)
General
Assembly
Economic and
Social Council Secretariat
(ECOSOC)

8. First step in the decision-making process…
Usually a new area of work is decided by the
General Assembly (GA) where all Member
Nations have a seat and each has one equal
vote. (There are no vetoes in the GA)
They begin by commissioning a study on the
new area of work by a Commission of
Eminent Personalities. The High Level
Forum.

9. Pics of Two Official UN Docs (front & Back) of
submissions by the IPS

10. Official Languages
• Arabic, Chinese, English, French,
Russian and Spanish
• And UNESE: GA, ICJ, SG, ECOSOC,
etc.

11. Role of the General Assembly Hall at UN
• The General Assembly is the organ where all
Governments Members of the UN gather every year
for some 2.5 months to discuss and decide all
aspects of the work of the UN and its Specialized
Agencies
• Here, members may decide to hold a conference to
develop a way of looking at the issue “A Declaration”
and an “Action Plan”.
• Decide on where, the timing and whether Civil
Society will be involved and if so what type of
organizations. We are seeing a trend to openness:
contributions we might have made to this…

12. General Assembly Meetings
• Registration for the
Conference
• What you see when you
come into the room:
Interpretation, Seating
• General Debate.
Description of how a
session works
• Our job at the General
Debate with regard to
Governments

13. Communing at Rio Summit
We have two actions we need to take:
• To common with the members of our own team;
and
1. To common with Major Groups (MGs)

14. Nine Major Groups (MGs)
Children and Women NGOs
Youth
Indigenous Farmers Science
Peoples Technology
Business and Trade Unions Local Authorities
Industry

15. Statement by a Major Group
• Brevity: How we achieve this through
commoning and working as a team.

16. Working with Delegates
• Approaching delegates (putting
ourselves in their shoes)
• Our deportment, appearance and how
we make contact
• Meetings with our own delegations
• Side events

17. Off the Record
• Confidential

18. The Negotiating Phase

19. Summary
• Steps in the decision-making process
• Areas where we must work as a team to
be effective

20. Summary: Where we have input in the process
• Activities you can participate in right now

21. Summary
• Things to remember when you are
approaching a delegate