categories of consultative status remained unchanged. Resolution 1296 continues in force today as the "charter" of official UN/NGO relationships in the central field of policymaking, although a UN Working Group is currently considering its modification (A companion resolution, 1297, deals with the NGO relationship in the field of dissemination of information about the United Nations). Another important moment in the history of NGO/UN relationships was the creation in 1948 of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council, commonly known as CONGO. For nearly 50 years this coordinating body has served as a watchdog of NGO interests in the consultative system and as a framework for NGO cooperation in a number of fields of common interest. In 1972, NGO interaction with the UN system was markedly intensified with the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. NGOs were attracted to this event in large numbers, many of them without previous connection to the world body. Two important NGO initiatives at Stockholm were the NGO Forum held parallel to the official conference and the NGO daily newspaper which provided immediate (and often critical) coverage of negotiations which otherwise would have been much less open to public scrutiny, The Stockholm pattern was repeated, and expanded, at all the subsequent UN conferences of the 70s and 80son population, bard, women, habitat, science and technology, etc. Of particular significance was the Second World Women's Conference held in 1985 in Nairobi, where some thousands of NGOs -- mostly women's organizations, but by no means exclusively so -- came to manifest their determination that the UN Conference would lead to meaningful and lasting progress in establishing women's rightful roles and responsibilities. This display of woman power was not lost on the governmental delegations. With the 1990s, the NGO connection with the UN moved even more dramatically into the limelight. The precipitating event was the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) -- a conference at which, to a degree far higher than ever before, the involvement of NGOs was actively sought by the UN organizers of the official conference. The traditional boundaries of the established consultative system -- including its screening processes and criteria -- were essentially ignored, and hundreds of organizations not previously associated with the UN were encouraged to make their voices heard. In turn, the NGO role in implementing the objectives of the conference was given important emphasis in the agenda adopted at Rio. The subsequent world conferences of the 90s have to a large extent followed the UNCED model, and it would now be inconceivable for the UN to plan any global event without the active involvement of the non-governmental sector. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali, addressing NGO representatives at the UN in September 1994, made this very clear when he said:"I want you to consider this your home. Until recently, these words might have caused astonishment. The United Nations was considered to be a forum for sovereign states alone. Within the space of a few short years, this attitude has changed. Non-governmental organizations are now considered