UN breaks ties with NGO

The UN Committee on NGOs last week withdrew the accreditation of a Swiss-based NGO, Christian Solidarity International (CSI), after accusing it of hosting SPLM leader John Garang at the UN Human Rights Commission’s annual session in Geneva. CSI earlier this year announced that it had bought the freedom of some 1,050 child slaves in southern Sudan at US $50 per person. The UN accused it of violating rules of accreditation by sponsoring testimony from Garang at the Human Rights Commission’s session, under the name of his own “unaccredited organisation,” Reuters reported. CSI described the UN’s move as “undemocratic” and it has asked that the decision be reversed at the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) meeting in Geneva in July.