On
UN Reform, Guterres Leaves
Before US Speaks, Failing
of Global
Communications
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive, Photos
UNITED NATIONS,
October 11 – When UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres held
his pre-General Assembly week
press conference on September
13, Inner City Press asked him
about reform, in light of the
Ng Lap Seng UN bribery guilty
verdicts
and new reports
of peacekeepers' sexual abuse.
Guterres responded on the
latter, see below. Now a month
later, Guterres is pitching a
reform plan that many do not
understand, and others don't
agree with. Inner City Press
went to cover Guterres'
presentation to the UN's Fifth
(Budget) Committee on October
11, but was quickly told by UN
Security, "No Press." So it
went to the photo booth and
streamed a Periscope video, here.
Guterres sat next to
Cameroon's Ambassador, here.
There were speeches by
Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago
(fresh off its elimination of
the US from the World Cup),
the EU and Australia. Then
Guterres left, before the US
spoke. There was nothing else
on his schedule for the day.
We'll have more on this.
Here's a sample Guterres
"reform" proposal: "A Standing
Principals’ Group of Under
Secretaries General (USGs) and
the EOSG, to provide
leadership for all strategic,
political and operational
functions and ensure a
coherent 'whole-of-pillar'
approach... Interaction with
the global operational support
and management departments
would be facilitated at the
level of the Standing
Principals’ Group as well as
through dedicated capacity
within the Departments at the
strategic and operational
levels, including within the
integrated operational team
[IOT] concept." Sources close
to Guterres exclusively
complain to Inner City Press
this is little more than
"Lacroix' DPKO trying to grab
the IOTs." They point to the
lame duck status of Jeffrey
Feltman at the Department of
Political Affairs as leading
to DPA "losing the turf war
with Peacekeeping." Meanwhile,
the sources say, there is
increasing frustration on the
UN's 38th floor at the
"message" not getting out,
even talk of hiring outside
communicators, rather than
holding those already getting
paid accountable. The new head
of Global Communcations,
Alison Smale, never responded
to a detailed petition to her
before
the General Assembly week, nor
to one after
the week. This is weak, and
not unrelated to the UN's weak
response on Cameroon, about which
Smale is also now hearing,
without responding. Ah,
Communications, f/k/a DPI
which evicted and still
restricts Inner City Press
which every day asks questions
and reports, in favor of
no-show state media like
Egypt's Akhbar al Yom which
has not asked a single
question during Guterres' tenure.
The UN is UNreformed. From the
UN's September 13 transcript:
Inner City Press: Matthew Lee,
Inner City Press, on behalf of
the Free UN Coalition for
Access, hoping for readouts of
your diplomatic merry-go-round
upstairs during the GA
week. I want... you
speak the lot about reforms.
It's something I tried to ask
at the stakeout but thanks for
giving me the question. This
case of John Ashe, who I know
has deceased~-- may he rest in
peace, but there was a court
decision this summer in which
basically it painted a picture
of the UN as being quite
susceptible to bribery. There
was a Chin... a Macau-based
businessman, Ng Lap Seng, was
found guilty. So, I won't go
through it all except to say,
I wanted to know what your
view of whether the UN...
beyond just some reforms to
the PGA's (President of the
General Assembly) office,
whether it has instituted
enough reforms. Your...
your... the former PGA
yesterday sitting here said
that there are crows picking
around the side of the UN.
There are a lot of business
interests... basically, they
try to buy their way into the
UN by hooking up with a small
state. So, I wanted to
know whether your reforms will
address that. And there's also
a Code Blue report out today
about sexual abuse where they
say that, of cases they've
uncovered, many of them are
not disclosed in the conduct
and discipline website. What's
your plan during this GA week
to try to address the sexual
abuse issue of peacekeeping?
Secretary-General: Well,
in addition to the sexual
abuse, as you know, we have
taken already a number of
measures. A global victims
advocate was appointed, and
four victims advocates were
appointed in the four
situations that are more
dramatic in several African
contexts. We are
preparing a compact to be
signed with Member States in
order to make sure that there
is effective commitment in
relation to this. I'm creating
a circle of leadership with
Heads of Government and State
to assume engagement of states
in making sure that everything
is investigated properly. And
so, we are really committed to
make the best we can in this
area, knowing the difficulties
and the problems and sometimes
even the... especially, my
main concern is with the
victims that sometimes have an
enormous problem in coming
with their cases because of
the risks that they might face
in different conditions with
the community or even with the
country or even if the UN
Mission is not properly
organised. So, we are deeply
committed to that. But
the best protection in
relation to abuses is the
whistleblower policy
protection. We have introduced
a first group of measures to
enhance the whistleblower
protection when I assumed
functions immediately in
January. So, it's probably my
first measure. And after
that, we have introduced a
number of other reforms, which
I believe are bringing our
whistleblower protection
policy to the state of the
art. And if that's not the
case, if there are other
things to be suggested, we are
ready to introduce them,
because that is the best
guarantee that people can
detect and denounce things
that happen and that they will
be protected if they do so.
This is, for me, an absolute
must and the best possible
guarantee an organisation can
have in relation to the risks
of abuse of power or abuses of
any other kind or of
corruption or whatever.
So this is a big concern for
me, and I think we are acting
as we can but with total
determination to address the
problem." We'll have more on
this.
***
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