Chapter 5

NOTE: TO READ THE FULL CONTEXT OF QUOTES CITED CLICK HERE

In this chapter "3W" starts off by saying that the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) produces a special brochure for it's Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). This brochure acts as an introduction to new NGOs and stipulates the requirements of being an NGO. However, in a previous chapter he said The Society could not have agreed to meet any criteria because no such agreement existed since none was necessary. So which one are we to believe, did they agree to "special criteria" or did they not? Both statements can't be true. Well, we know from the DPI handbook there are requirements and we'll examine them shortly.

We're told that They (critics) claim that this requirement was in place since before 1991, and has remained unchanged ever since. Is this claim true? We don't need to explain the principal purpose of the DPI/NGO relationship do we? CLICK HERE

"3W" quotes the 2005 DPI handbook saying:

“What are the Criteria for NGOs to become associated with DPI? The NGO must support and respect the principles of the Charter of the UN and have a clear mission statement that is consistent with those principles..."

Then he goes on to say Apostates often use the above quote, and repeat it endlessly as “proof” of the Watchtower Society's support of the UN. Yet this appears in the 2005 brochure, do we know if it appears in the older brochures? We already stated that we have a copy of the 1994 brochure, so does that phrase appear there? No, not at all. The main question to be asked is why did he quote page 6 of the 1994 DPI handbook and leave out page 7? What does page 7 say? Read below...

In all fairness, he does (reluctantly) quote page 7 further down in this chapter but the reality is that it took some coaxing on the part of others for him to even mention page 7. On the world's largest JW related forum (JWN) the poster "cabasilas" says this to "thirdwitness" back in 2006:

Thirdwitness, Your site said the 1994 brochure did not say anything about the need for associated NGOs to support the UN. I pointed out how you left out page 7 of that brochure and only cited page 6. Will you update your website to correct the error?

To read the full dialogue CLICK HERE

Though he responds with If this is an error yes it will be changed and updated. I will have to look at that, it took him over two years to even update his website. I took note of this back in 2008 (on the Topix forum) after his site went down. See below...



However, if you go to the "changelog" on his website, there's no mention of ANY updates being made in 2008, particularly September 9th. We're left to wonder what he changed but didn't want to mention. CLICK HERE and scroll to the bottom to view the "changelog". On a side note, concerning the word support (the United Nations) mentioned on page 7 of the 1994 DPI handbook, "3W" gives us a dictionary lesson of what the word means. Thank you sir, we needed that.

"3W" quotes the 53rd General Assembly of the United Nations saying:

"...the United Nations has entered a new era in its relations with NGOs and other civil society actors. The Economic and Social Council recognized this changed relationship when it adopted resolution 1996/31. Many agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system have followed suit. The Secretariat, for its part, has tried to adapt to this new situation in creative and innovative ways and will pursue its efforts in this field. The United Nations is committed to seek the participation and contribution of NGOs in its work. New approaches, attitudes, methods and responses are required throughout the United Nations system if we are to meet this challenge effectively”

By bringing this to our attention, he's walked himself into a corner here. He uses this mid '90's resolution 1996/31 as proof that the WBTS didn't have to support the UN-since he says this was a later requirement for NGO's well after 1991-2-while at the same time claiming that association criteria had changed in 1991-2, the exact reason why the WBTS says they joined in the first place! You just can't have it both ways. To recap, the NGO association criteria stayed the same from 1968-1996. To verify CLICK HERE

There's a whole lot of guessing in this sentence...Perhaps receipt of this booklet (UN brochure) was sporadic, perhaps it was not sent every year. Perhaps the Watchtower Society didn't even receive one when their status was granted in 1992. Can one put much faith in such statements? I don't think so.