No
Confidence in
Ban Ki-moon
Resolution
Released After
5 Days, Ban
Hadn't Seen
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 29 --
The UN Staff
Union on
January 24
passed a
resolution of
"no
confidence" in
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon.
Inner
City Press exclusively
covered the
vote and
meeting,
in which Ban's
responded to
Inner City
Press at his
press
conference two
days
previous that
those who
oppose his
proposals are
"selfish."
On
January 25,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's
Associate
Spokesman
Farhan
Haq for the
Secretariat's
response to
the
resolution,
which
criticizes
Ban's spending
on travel and
UN
Peacekeeping
waste.
Haq
replied that
the
Secretariat,
and Ban,
hadn't yet
seen the
resolution.
Since then,
Ban has been
among other
places in
Davos,
Switzerland.
Now
five days
later, the
Staff Union
leadership has
released
the
resolution,
here.
Some
of the delay
was occasioned
by the Staff
Union's
leadership
having
proposed a
weaker
resolution.
Here is the
Staff Union
president's
gloss:
Dear
all,
The
resolution
starts by
saying " the
staff..." at
UNHQ, NY,
etc...so it is
quite clear
who made the
decision.
Even
though I
personally
don't like the
text and do
not think the
procedure of
bringing a new
text to the
meeting and
having it
accepted is
legal, the
fact is that
it happened,
it is done, it
is
past. And even
if we had kept
our original
draft, I am
positive that
the final
result would
have been the
same, i.e., a
vote of no
confidence.
Staff
members are
very, very
upset, with
the SG,
specially
after he
called
us selfish. It
was an insult
on various
levels which
compounded
other
insults -
budget cuts,
non papers,
downsizing. We
have been
receiving
innumerous
calls and
e-mails
requesting the
resolution to
be
circulated and
it already
took us too
long to do
that.
Ramona,
Fred
and I
discussed this
until late
last night.
The resolution
will
be circulated
this morning.
Besides some
language
editing, the
only
change regards
the SG travel
section, since
the
proponents,
despite
many requests,
never provided
us with the
source of the
figure they
quoted, and
there was a
decision
during the
meeting to
couple the
figure with
reference to
the source. So
without one,
we cannot have
the other.
The
meeting had a
quorum and
staff spoke.
We will
continue to do
our job
to the best of
our ability.
Best,
Barbara.
Watch
this site.
, 
