UN's
Rights Policy,
Ignored by
Ladsous, Is
Judgment Call,
Ban's Lawyer
Says
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
9 -- Under the
UN's so-called
“Human Rights
Due
Diligence
Policy,” it is
supposed to
suspend
assistance to
army
units when
there is a
substantial
risk of
violations of
human rights,
international
humanitarian
law or refugee
law.
But
under that
Policy, UN
Peacekeeping
under Herve
Ladsous did
NOT
suspend
support to the
41st
and 391st
Battalions of
the Congolese
Army,
implicated in
135 rapes in
Minova
in late
November.
On
Tuesday Inner
City Press
asked outgoing
UN Legal
Council
Patricia
O'Brien how
this Policy
will apply to
the evidence
against many
more
Congolese Army
units that is
included in
the recent Group of
Experts
report, the
full text of
which
Inner City
Press exclusively
put
online
on June 29.
O'Brien
had
been bragging
about the
policy, how it
has ostensibly
applied
since 2011 but
only became
public in
January 2013.
That's typical
UN:
a secret
policy that
even when made
public, is not
lived up to.
On
Minova,
O'Brien made
much of 12
suspensions -
but there have
been
only two
arrests, of
soldiers, for
135 rapes.
In
Tuesday's
session, which
O'Brien
acknowledged
was “not
Chatham
House” Rules
-- that is, it
was on the
record --
O'Brien
recited
the “provides
substantial
grounds for
believing
there to be a
real
risk of
voilations”
standard for
the Group of
Experts'
evidence.
But she also
said it is up
to the
judgment of
the military
people.
This is the
huge loophole
in the policy.
Even
well-meaning
military
people would
prefer to have
more rather
than
less troops on
their side. In
Ladsous' case,
he stonewalled
and
covered up the
Minova rapes
from November
2012 onward,
refusing to
answer any
questions
about them. Videos here. The UN's policy
hangs on these
judgments?
Ladsous
had
been promised
to take
questions at
the UN
Security
Council
stakeout on
Tuesday
afternoon,
after O'Brien
spoke in
Conference
Room
A in the
basement.
But after
standing to
the side of
the stakeout,
and after his
four
spokespeople
have sat for
ten days on
the question
of the Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy and the
evidence in
the
Group of
Experts
report,
Ladsous walked
away without
taking any
questions.
Again: the
UN's policy
hangs on these
judgments?
Watch
this site.
, 
