On 15 March 2000, the General Assembly took a decision (54/467) in accordance with which interested non-governmental organizations that neither are in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council nor were accredited to the Fourth World Conference on Women and its preparatory process may apply for accreditation to the special session. Applications, containing the following information, should be sent to Ms. Koh Miyaoi, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations, New York, NY 10017, USA, Fax: 212-963-3463; Email: Beijing5@un.org, no later than 5 April 2000. It will not be possible to consider applications that are incomplete or received after this date.

Information that need to be included in the application:

1. The purpose of the organization;
2. Information identifying the programmes and activities of the organization in areas relevant to the subject of the special session and indicating in which country or countries they are carried out;
3. Confirmation of the activities of the organization at the national, regional or international levels;
4. Copies of annual or other reports of the organization, with financial statements and a list of financial sources and contributions, including governmental contributions;
5. A list of the members of the governing body of the organization and their countries of nationality;
6. A description of the membership of the organization, indicating the total number of members, the names of organizations that are members and their geographical distribution;
7. A copy of the constitution and/or by-laws of the organization;
8. A completed pre-registration form prepared by the United Nations secretariat.

A Committee composed of the Bureau of the preparatory committee for the special session and the Secretariat will submit by 10 April 2000 to the members of the preparatory committee a list of the non-governmental organizations that submitted their applications for approval. The members of the preparatory committee will have until 10 May 2000 to decide on the accreditation of these non-governmental organizations based on each organization’s competence and relevance to the subject of the special session. Letters will be sent by 15 May 2000 to those non-governmental organizations whose applications have been approved for accreditation. These letters will be sent to the representatives of the non-governmental organizations proposed to attend the special session and listed on the pre-registration form, subject to the conditions set out in the following paragraph.

In view of the large number of non-governmental organizations invited to attend the special session (approximately 4,000 organizations have been invited in accordance with the previous decision of the General Assembly contained in resolution 54/142) and recognizing the commitment and contribution of the NGO community to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, it is anticipated that a very large number of NGO representatives will wish to attend the participation and representation of NGOs in the special session. Safety and space considerations, however, may require the Organization to limit the number of NGO representatives who may attend the session to three or less persons per organization. It has been advised by the Security and Safety Service that the maximum number of representatives of non-governmental organizations who can be registered to attend the special session is 2,000. It is thus requested that each organization lists its proposed representatives in order or priority in the attached pre-registration form. Once the number of representatives of non-governmental organizations proposed to attend the special session is established, a final decision will be taken on the number of participants per organization that will be registered. Confirmation letters will be sent only to those participants approved for registration to the special session.

Please note that those non-governmental organizations whose application for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council was rejected or whose consultative status with the Council was withdrawn or suspended shall not be accredited to the special session.

An international NGO Committee, "NGOs for Women 2000", has been established to facilitate communication about the special session. Members include representatives of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO) and the three NGO Committees on the Status of Women (in New York, Geneva and Vienna); regional NGOs; NGO networks; and NGO issue-based caucuses. For more information on various NGO events around the special session, please contact Ms. Sudha Acharya, "NGOs for Women 2000" Focal Point for Beijing+5, Tel: (212) 986-6117, Fax: (212) 687-7352, Email: Beijing5ngo@aol.com.

Please note that all travel and daily subsistence costs and arrangements for travel, accommodations and visas shall be the responsibility of the participants themselves.

Additional information about the special session is posted and regularly updated on the Internet site of the Division for the Advancement of Women: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/beijing+5.htm.