"The state has inescapable obligations to fulfill, as the guarantor of fundamental rights, as well as administrator and promoter of collective well-being. Civil society now has a new space which is not just the space of private, but also the space of public affairs. Not coercion-related public affairs, but ethics-related public affairs. The great challenge now facing both the government and society, without prejudice to their individual natures, that assign different roles to them and in many cases different, unavoidable and untransferable obligations, is to promote all possibilities of consensus, identify areas of convergence and work hard to advance the common causes that we all identify as top priorities."

Gustavo Bell Lemus, Vice President of Colombia,
NGOs National Conference, Cali, May 12, 1999