UN
General
Assembly
Fails to Oversee Ban Ki-Moondoggle & Mercenary
Deals
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March
16 -- General Assembly President Joseph Deiss has
staked a claim for global governance by the UN, which he calls the
“G-192” to distinguish it from the G-20 club of large and rich
nations.
But
in his term
so far, he allowed the already marginal General Assembly to be
circumvented even by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on matters
ranging from the budget to the UN's relations with corporations.
Earlier
this
month
in the GA's budget committee, a complaint was lodged that by adding
money and time to the UN Capital Master Plan, in this case $100
million in US Tax Equalization Funds, Ban Ki-moon had violated a
General Assembly resolution requiring that the GA be told and
approval any such change in scope to the CMP.
Inner
City
Press
asked Ban's spokesman about the criticism to what is now being called
the “Ban Ki-moondoggle” and was told to ask CMP chief Michael
Adlerstein. But Adlerstein when asked said to ask the member states.
On
March 16, Inner
City Press asked Deiss and GA spokesman Jean Victor Nkolo if Deiss
agrees with the Group of 77 that Ban violated a GA resolution in
changing the budget and time table of the CMP without GA input.
That's up to
the committee, Nkolo said. What then is the role of the
President of the GA when the GA roles is being ignored?
Deiss, Julian Schnabel, and
Jean Nkolo, loss of GA power not shown (c) MRLee
Similarly,
Inner
City
Press asked Nkolo about a UN Joint Inspection Unit report this
year that the General Assembly should assert oversight power on the
UN Global Compact, an initiative started by Kofi Annan that under Ban
Ki-moon has put a convicted fraudster, from South Korea, on its board
of directors, and most recently granted UNGC
membership to a private
military contractor, G4S, under fire for involvement in Israeli run
prisons in the Occupid Palestinian Territories.
Nkolo
said
the
Global Compact is a unit of the Secretariat -- exactly what the UN
JIU was criticizing and asking the GA to change -- and that he would
see what committee deals with the UN Global Compact. No GA commitee
does: that's just the point that the JIU should be changed.
Meanwhile,
neither
Ban's
spokesman nor the Global Compact has yet answered Inner City
Press' questions about the mercenary firm G4S's membership in the
UNGC, 24 hours after the questions were posed.
Finally
on
March
16, Inner City Press asked Nkolo if Deiss believes that meeting of
the committee on revitalization of the GA, at which greater media
access was called for, should remain closed to the public. Inner City
Press went into the committee's meeting this week and quoted and
analyzed a few statements by Japan and Peru in Twitter posts.
Then
US
Deputy
Permanent Representative Rosemary DiCarlo came up and said that the
meeting was closed to the press. A GA staffer later confirmed this.
Deiss has said he is for openness. We'll see.
* * *
As
Global
Compact Lets in Private Military Contractor, UN Quiet on
Mercenaries
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March
15, updated -- Even after the UN's own
Joint Inspection Unit
criticized the UN Global Compact as presenting “reputational risk”
to the Organization, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon through his
spokesman Martin Nesirky had no response much less a plan for reform.
Rather,
Nesirky directed Inner City Press on Tuesday to an answer
that Compact boss Georg Kell had already given.
Inner
City
Press
asked if Ban Ki-moon has any problem with his Global Compact allowing
a private military company -- read, mercenary firm -- to join,
despite being protested for involvement in Israeli run prisons in the
Occupied Palestinian
Territories.
Danish-British
private
military
contractor G4S
announced
“G4S
has signed up to the United Nations Global Compact, an international
standard which promotes socially responsible business behavior in the
areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption.”
But
“[a]ccording
to a brochure from the company...G4S
Technology
has supplied security
technology to seven Israeli prisons and two remand prisons located in
Israel and on the occupied West Bank.”
Nesirky's
response
was
to say that Ban has confidence in Kell.
In
the same
Tuesday noon briefing, Inner City Press asked for
the second time if
Ban thinks that Bahrain's use of security personnel from Pakistan and
Yemen is an example of mercenaries. If I have anything on that,
Nesirky said for the second time, I will tell you.
Kell, Nambiar & Ban, answer on G4S in UNGC not shown
So
what is Ban
Ki-moon's position on mercenaries? It appears to some to involve
double standards: he and his top officials have alleged and
criticized the use of mercenaries by Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d'Ivoire
and to a lesser extend Gadhafi in Libya, but won't answer questions
about presumptive mercenary use by Bahrain's royal family.
Meanwhile
the
Global
Compact, which put a convicted business fraudster from South
Korea on its board, now allowed mercenary firms to join it and drape
themselves in the UN flag, as the JIU has warned. And so it goes in
Ban's UN.
Update:
after
the noon
briefing, the following was sent to Inner City Press, to which follow
up questions were asked:
Dear
Matthew, The OSSG informed me that you had a few questions regarding
the JIU report...
Here
is a statement on the JIU report, attributable to Georg Kell,
Executive Director of the UN Global Compact:
1.
On two occasions (July and August 2010), the Global Compact Office
provided comprehensive feedback, including corrections, to draft
versions
of the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) report. Regrettably, the authors
ignored nearly all of this information, resulting in a document
riddled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations.
2.
Moreover, the authors failed to take into account any developments of
2010,
especially the deliverables and outcomes of the Global Compact Leaders
Summit, which is held every three years and which represents the
most important forum to give strategic direction to the initiative.
3.
As a consequence, the report is based on incorrect or outdated
information
that does not reflect the Global Compact’s strategic and operational
status quo. Stating that consideration of the Leaders Summit’s
results "fell outside the scope and timeframe of this review"
is as much an admission of the report’s shortcomings as it is an
acknowledgement of the JIU’s fundamentally flawed methodology in this
case.
4.
The report’s conclusions, especially those concerning the Global
Compact’s
mandate, reveal a lack of understanding of the type of public-private
partnership that the initiative has come
to represent and
that has been repeatedly recognized by the UN General Assembly, the
G8 and the African Union, among others. Likewise, much of the report’s
tone suggests that its authors also lack any appreciation for
the critical role business can play in advancing development, peace
and good governance.
5.
In sum, we feel strongly that this report raises serious questions
about
the JIU’s professional standards
Inner City Press
immediately responded:
At the noon briefing I asked
about the Global Compact accepting private military
contractor G4S into the Compact,
http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/86020/
despite protests about its
involvement in, for example, prisons in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories. This is what I am requesting a Secretariat response on,
for example this:
http://www.danwatch.dk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=298:g4s-teknologi-i-israelske-faengsler&catid=16:artikler&lang=en
Please advise, thank
in advance.
The Global
Compact replied: "We'll look into this and get back to you by
tomorrow."
Watch this site.
, 
