The role of civil society has come to the fore increasingly in recent years as part of the nation-building process in Asia. The term "civil society" itself can cover a range of actors, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs), informal groups, media personnel and individuals.
It has great potential to contribute to the following challenges which are now at the doorsteps of all countries:
Post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)/Sustainable Development Goals.
At the turn of this millennium, the world community adopted various targets, or MDGs, to be fulfilled between the years 2000 and 2015.
They included the need to reduce poverty (those earning less than a dollar [32 baht] per day) by half, to increase access to primary education for all, to raise gender parity in education, to reduce child mortality, to reduce maternal mortality, to tackle key diseases such as malaria and HIV/Aids, to promote environmental sustainability and to build global partnerships.
While we're meeting some of these goals, others will need to be continued more effectively after 2015. A key challenge in the post-2015 phase will be to eradicate poverty absolutely and to introduce other goals, such as human rights protection, access to justice and respect for the rule of law.
South-South cooperation is currently topical and invites robust activities among Asia, the Pacific islands, Africa and South America. This could include, for example, cooperation between Africa and Asia on food security and micro enterprises.
Environment and Development:
"Rio plus 20" process and after. Links between environmental protection and the development process were established some two decades ago at a global conference in Rio de Janeiro, resulting in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and its aftermath — "Rio plus 20".
This has burgeoned into the current call for capping carbon emissions and addressing global warming. It has given rise to the international Climate Change Convention, which now awaits another international commitment to prevent a future rise in temperature not more than 2C.
This requires a commitment from all countries, with a targeted promise to tackle emissions in each country, as well as financing and incentives, particularly for developing countries.
The next treaty on the subject is promised for 2015; civil society can exert pressure for an effective accord.
In Defence of Democracy and Human Rights.
Civil society actors play an essential role as interlocutors for democracy and as human rights defenders. As groups and as individuals, this is recognised by the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (1999). In that role, the heart of democracy and human rights pulsates with non-discrimination, non-violence, inclusive participation and gender sensibility.
Yet civil society actors also need to be protected. They are attacked daily by various actors. The issue of reprisals has emerged internationally in regard to reaction against civil society efforts to protect victims.
The UN has become increasingly concerned with this menace and has set up various mechanisms, including through the UN Secretary General and a Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders, to protect civil society and related victims from reprisals.
Contribution to Peace and Security.
A continuing challenge for civil society is to promote peace and to act as a humanising bridge in conflicts. Yet this role is replete with danger in the face of hostility. This is increasingly linked with the call for accountability of the perpetrators of violations and the role of the UN Security Council and International Criminal Court to counter them.
On another front, civil society has a critical role in fostering cross-cultural understanding and peaceful relations between different ethnic and religious groups. This can also help to tackle the root causes of disaffection which might otherwise lead to extremism and violence.
A sense of empathy between a diversity of groups can and should be nurtured from a young age through pro bono activities, such as voluntary service programmes to help vulnerable groups. What of a voluntary service scheme with young Asians reaching out globally?
National, Regional and International Stakeholdership.
Civil society actors are crucial stakeholders in the development process and have a right to participate in enhancing democracy, sustainable development, human rights, peace and good governance at all levels of international and national relations. It is thus high time to have a Peoples' Assembly or Forum in the UN as part of the universal democratising process.
Likewise, at the regional level as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) moves toward 2015 as its seminal year for community building, there is a need for an Asean Parliament as well as a Peoples' Forum where civil society voices can be heard formally in the structure of Asean.
This should be complemented by the pluralising of Asean mechanisms. For instance, the Asean Human Rights Commission should open the door to more civil society input, as well as to take complaints directly from civil society actors in the case of key violations where there are no national remedies.
Nationally and locally, civil society actors constitute catalysts for a vigilant environment where partnership and participation go hand in hand in the quest for democracy, sustainable development, peace and human rights.
Vitit Muntarbhorn is a distinguished scholar at the Law Faculty, Chulalongkorn University. He has helped the UN in a variety of capacities, including as an expert and special rapporteur. This article is excerpted from his keynote speech at the Asean civil society Summit, organised by the UN Development Programme and USAID this month in Jakarta.