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WORD COUNT
676
JULY 2, 2008
U.N. NOT SO CLEAN
ANYMORE – by Bea Edwards and Shelley Walden
The United Nations
was scrambling. Reports were surfacing, based on firsthand knowledge, of
U.N. peacekeepers grossly exploiting their positions by sexually abusing
destitute citizens entrusted to their care.
While a remarkably
similar story is currently unfolding, the allegations above emerged four
years ago. Former U.N. employee Dr. Andrew Thomson witnessed these
atrocities in the early part of this decade and recounted his
experiences, together with other staffers, in his 2004 memoir,
"Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures." That book not only exposed
sexual abuse by U.N. forces, but also described senior U.N. officials'
inactions in the face of dysfunctional U.N. security and rampant
financial corruption.
Thomson's reward for
coming forward with the truth? Initially, he was fired. Due to media
pressure and legal assistance from our group and others, he was rehired
months later and promoted to a position of greater responsibility. In
the wake of Thomson's revelations and the Oil-for-Food scandal, then-U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced he was working to improve
whistleblower protections for all U.N. workers. In late 2005, Annan
issued a whistleblower protection policy that was a breakthrough for
freedom of expression at intergovernmental organizations. This crucial
response had impeccable logic: given the breadth of the organization,
U.N. officials could not possibly monitor all staff all the time. The
organization had to rely on its own staffers to report on serious
misconduct and gross ethical lapses.
Fast forward to a few
weeks ago. Eerily similar allegations have emerged that U.N.
peacekeeping troops demanded sexual favors from children in return for
food in parts of the
Sudan, Ivory Coast,
and Haiti. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon immediately responded,
announcing that a thorough investigation will take place, adding that he
has a "zero tolerance policy" for these types of actions.
Unfortunately, Ban
himself has allowed exactly this type of grotesque misconduct to fester,
as he continually hobbles whistleblower protection policies and delays
establishing an effective internal justice system that would protect
U.N. workers, peacekeeping forces, and contractors from retaliation when
they report internal crimes. It is precisely these accountability
measures – which fight and deter abuse – which Ban has weakened.
In August 2007, the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP), a department rife with
allegations of wrongdoing, opted-out of the
jurisdiction of the
U.N. Ethics Office, which enforces the organization's whistleblower
protection policy. Rather than challenge this secession, the
Secretary-General issued a rule disarming Kofi Annan's comprehensive
policy, effectively allowing for all U.N. funds and programs to
establish their own codes of ethics. Many have done exactly that,
generating ad hoc ethics offices, improvised investigative procedures,
and whistleblower policies that lack guidelines or parameters.
Moreover, Ban has
proposed that certain categories of U.N. employees -- including
peacekeepers – be denied access to the new internal justice system for
U.N. personnel, which is set to become operational in 2009. This is in
direct breach of the recommendations made by a U.N. panel of external
experts, who explicitly recommended that the system apply to all U.N.
personnel, including peacekeepers.
Ban explains his
position by arguing that U.N. peacekeeping forces remain subject to the
disciplinary procedures of their home countries. This position is
unrealistic -- these forces are deployed and paid by the United Nations,
and they should be accountable, while on missions, to the United
Nations. Countries sending peacekeepers to the United Nations have no
reliable, systematic source of information about their soldiers'
conduct.
The United Nations
should effectively monitor the conduct of its forces. Ban could
strengthen whistleblower protections, extend them uniformly across the
U.N. system, strengthen and expand the jurisdiction of the U.N. Ethics
Office, and expediently establish a reformed internal justice system
that both guarantees the rights of conscientious U.N. workers and holds
the renegades accountable. But he has not done so, and he seems to be
set against it.
The world will never
know if these crimes against children could have been averted had the
Secretary-General enforced whistleblower protections for U.N. employees
instead of weakening them. Until the United Nations protects its staff
members when they report crimes, future scandals like these will be
repeated.
--
Bea Edwards is the
international program director and Shelley Walden is the international
program officer for the Government Accountability Project, a
whistleblower protection and advocacy organization in
Washington, D.C.
www.whistleblower.org
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