All Activities / 1. INTRODUCTION - Non-governmental organizations

1. INTRODUCTION - Non-governmental organizations

THE ROLE IN CIVIL SOCIETY (NGO) and CONSUMER PROTECTION

 

1. Introduction

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) emerged and made various regulations on issues such as health, family planning, environment and civil formal education, general rights and responsibilities, human rights, patient rights and consumer rights, which emerged as a result of the establishment of democracy. From time to time, they can be established to act together on certain issues that occur in the society (such as the Association for the Protection of Patients with SMA), to act together as a result of injustice or violations (such as the Animal Rights Protection Association, the Consumer Protection Solidarity Association).

NGO means non-governmental organizations. A non-profit organization can be defined as an NGO. The main purpose of non-governmental organizations is to make social activities. The source of funding for these institutions may be public or private sources. In general, NGOs are private voluntary organizations that obtain funds through donations.

Voluntary and self-organized civil society is defined as a social life space that exists autonomously from the state. For this, it should be able to act as independently as possible from the desired political and commercial institutions.

However, the problem here is that sometimes commercial enterprises and sometimes the public try to control these institutions for various reasons and try to eliminate their activation.

-Civil society is “a society or societies outside the state, not planned and established by the state, not under state control”

They are institutions that are not under the tutelage of the state and that control the actions of free associations.

It means that citizens who have come together voluntarily, act independently from the intervention of the state or a central national power.

It is a type of organization that contributes to the development of democracy, is non-profit, can act separately from the state, and can influence the political will and administration by forming public opinion.

In the light of these definitions, civil society emerges as a type of organization that aims to influence the decision-making process of individuals who come together voluntarily, without being dependent on the centre, and contributes to democracy with this role.

A point that draws attention here is that the preservation and maintenance of the existence of civil society is a situation that can only happen in democratic environments.

It has become an important tool for improvements in democracy in developed countries and against Autocratic regimes in developing countries. A livable and sustainable democracy is only possible with the survival of civil initiative.

The ability of NGOs to protect their own assets, develop their power, and achieve their goals as required can only be achieved in democratic administrations. At this point, NGOs help individuals to ensure the rule of law by organizing in various fields, not only by "supervision" in a democratic state of law.

The aim of such institutions is to reduce poverty, increase employment, work for the public interest in literacy, family planning, population, environmental protection and non-formal education, women's rights, children's rights, consumer rights, and general rights.

NGOs dealing with consumer rights and responsibilities are an important part of life. It can be said that NGOs are closely related to democracy in Turkey, as democracy is established in society and provides an opportunity for NGOs.

Today, NGOs have assumed important roles in various fields in daily life. Citizen organizations have a long history in developing countries in general, and in Turkey in particular. In many countries they have received very different names.

Sometimes, in some countries, governments have tried to control social groups with some regulations.

After the 1980s, the democratization process began in developing countries. With the establishment of the democracy process, people have entered more freedom speeches and freedom organizations. Thus, people formed civil societies on issues such as women's rights, children's rights and the rights of other disadvantaged groups, environmental protection, and access to health services.

Elimination of illiteracy in the field of education has been the priority of civil initiative. For this purpose, women's empowerment, functional literacy, civic literacy, protection of disadvantaged, vulnerable groups, education, etc. worked primarily on these issues.

Parallel to these, the idea of ​​free market and globalization started to get stronger day by day. This process has helped strengthen the private sector.

With the disappearance of the planned and centrally controlled economy, the free market economy became stronger. However, since private sector businesses operate for profit, they focus on profit without calculating the cost of these, without giving importance to the environment and people's health and well-being. As a result, private enterprise has focused on these excessive profit-based objectives and environmental costs.