UNITED
NATIONS, June
23 -- Despite
the human
rights issues
in Bahrain,
the UN has
invited over
700 people to
a four day
event there
entitled
“Transformative
e-Government
and
Innovation.”
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon issued
a statement
which does not
mention human
rights.
Often
in Bahrain,
presenting
himself as Ban
Ki-moon's main
adviser, is
Terje
Roed-Larsen.
He is not even
a full time UN
employee: his
main job as as
director of
the International
Peace
Institute,
which has
opened an
office in
Bahrain that
is funded by
the
government.
Inner
City Press repeatedly
asked the UN
to confirm or
deny that
Roed-Larsen
took his
UN-paid
staffer
with him to Bahrain
on what he
called a
“personal”
trip. The
UN
belatedly
confirmed it,
without
explaining the
use of UN
funds on a
personal trip.
Nor has
the UN
explained how
this is not a
conflict of
interest: a
part-time UN
Under
Secretary
General taking
money from a
government to
open an office
the NGO he
heads in that
government's
capital.
On May
23, Inner City
Press asked
Ban Ki-moon's
three top
spokespeople:
“because
I'd
rather ask it
in this format
than at a noon
briefing: can
you confirm or
deny that a
staff member
of Terje Roed
Larsen in his
role under
Resolution
1559 was the
subject of
legal
(criminal)
problems and
has left the
US, where he
was based at
UN HQ? If
confirm, is he
still a UN
staff member?”
Ban's
spokespeople
answered other
questions in
that e-mail,
but not this
one. And so on
June 1 and on
June 8, Inner
City Press
posed it
again. Other
questions were
answer but not
this one.
Apparently,
the UN thinks
if it just
ignores some
questions they
will go away.
The
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
has begun
exploring
differences in
responsiveness
of various
parts of the
UN system.
For
example, while
the Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations and
Ban's
Spokesperson's
Office have refused to
answer on who
on June 14
killed an
Ethiopian UN
peacekeeper in
Sudan, the
Office for the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs has
stated it was
the SPLM-North
rebels, and
has replied
to
@FUNCA_info
to this
effect.
Now @FUNCA_info has asked
the UN Public
Administration
Network, which
is blithely
promoting the
event in
Bahrain with photos
of woodwork
at its
National
Theater “did
UN consider or
speak on human
rights in
Bahrain before
putting this
event there?”
But UNPAS has
not responded,
at least not
yet. Watch
this site.
Footnotes:
Not
only FIDH
but also Human
Right Watch
last week
issued
scathing
reports about
Bahrain's
human rights
record,
including that
“unregistered
organizations
are 'illegal'
and joining
one is a
criminal
offense under
the penal
code. In May,
parliament
amended the
Public
Gathering Law
to ban
demonstrations
near 'lively
places, and
places that
have a
security
nature.'”
But
HRW, whose Ken
Roth meets
with Ban
Ki-moon then
refuses Press
requests that
he disclose
even just a
list of the
issues he and
HRW raised,
has had little
to say about
the UN holding
this PSA event
in Bahrain.
Has the
UN sunk so low
that less is
expected of it
on human
rights then,
for example,
the Formula 1
auto racing
circuit?
Finally,
for
now, the UN
Department of
Public
Information's
most
recent move
appears to be
to in essence
declare the Free UN Coalition for Access an
“unregistered”
organization
and try to
force the
take-down of its sign, while
leaving up two
signs of
the favored UN
Correspondents
Association (also
known as the
UN Censorship
Alliance).
Is this the
type of
governance the
UN is going to
Bahrain to
learn?
, 
