ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that marginalized groups are not without prospects but have means and ways to make themselves heard. In a period when anti-globalization protests dominate the headlines, the answers to the questions remain open. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can be interpreted as the response of the legitimizing system to the disequilibria created by the combination of the political and the economic systems in the search for power and the pursuit of their particular interests. The history of the NGOs remains to be written; the phenomenon can look back on less than 150 of existence. The International Movement of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent is probably the oldest NGO that was devoted to questions of Human Rights, long before they were universally recognized. NGOs and grassroots movements are in a way the same kind of organization—both are non-governmental—and pursue similar goals, yet people prefer to make a distinction between them.
