ICP
Asked UNSG Guterres Why He
Won't Release Speech, Spox
Says UN Is For States, No We
The Peoples?
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Series
UNITED NATIONS,
May 26 – Inner City Press
asked UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres why he hasn't
released his budget speech, or
reform plans on May 25, the
day after Guterres' spokesman
Stephane Dujarric refused to
provide the speech to Inner
City Press when it asked.
Guterres paused then said it
should be public, seeming to
believe that Dujarric had, in
fact, released it. Video
here. But he had not and
has not. And on May 26
Dujarric's deputy Farhan Haq
again refused,
video here,
saying that the UN responds to
member states (not We the
Peoples). It was Dujarric who
evicted Inner City Press, and
has kept it restricted in its
movements in the UN for the
144 days so far of Guterres'
tenure. On May 25, Inner City
Press asked Dujarric again, video here
On May 26, Inner City Press
asked Dujarric's deputy Farhan
Haq, video here,
UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: Jeffrey
Feltman said that the proposal
for the new office has been, I
guess, approved by the
Advisory Committee on
Administrative and Budgetary
Questions. And since
yesterday in this room, the
idea was that's all
confidential, I wanted to just
know, first, is it true, did
Mr. Feltman say that? Is
it true that ACABQ has signed
off on it? And if it's
true that the UN can speak
about ACABQ, can we get a copy
of the Secretary-General's
speech to ACABQ given earlier
this week?
Deputy Spokesman:
No. The, the speech was
basically about the budget
proposals which are available
as a document, as Stéphane
pointed out earlier this week.
Inner
City Press:
I, I searched it, and it said
document not available on the
UN document site. I’d
like the speech.
Deputy Spokesman: You
know, you can deal with my
colleagues with the document,
but there's no remarks to
share for the public.
Regarding the particular
proposal, there's a proposal
that's going to go before the
General Assembly, and you'll
be able to see what happens
once they consider it.
Inner
City Press:
Right, but I guess it goes
back to [inaudible]
question. In most
Governments in the world, an
executive like the
Secretary-General, the
executive branch, will
announce publicly what its
proposals are. Just the
fact that to only announce it
after it's been approved by
the Member States doesn't seem
to make sense if you're
pronouncing reforms and if
there's public interest in how
the UN works. What's the
problem with releasing the
speech?
Deputy Spokesman: This
is not a Government.
This is an organization
bringing together
Governments. And what we
try to do is engage in
dialogue with governments in
order to flesh out these
proposals. Ultimately,
it's not finalized until the
various governments agree on
this. You simply can't
argue that something's not
transparent if it goes to 193
Governments. That's a
lot of people. It's not
a secret process by any
means. All of them are
involved in this discussion.
Inner City Press: But, I've
heard the Secretary-General
say he wants to open up the UN
to civil society and the
public and we the people, so I
guess I'm just wondering, is
there something in that ACABQ
speech that's so confidential
that it can't, as I took him
to understand on the steps,
just be released and made
public?
Deputy Spokesman:
No. It's not
confidential, but it's part of
a dialogue with Member
States. And we try to
engage the Member States
directly in that
dialogue.
So, public
be damned? UN May 25
transcript here:
Inner City Press: I just
now asked the
Secretary-General about what I
had asked you yesterday, about
whether his speech at ACABQ
can be released and whether
his reform proposals will be
released. He seemed to,
maybe I misunderstood and you
can look at the video, but he
seemed to think that it had
been released so I wanted to
ask you, can it be
released? Also… Go
ahead.
Spokesman: The budget
documents for the proposed
reform are public documents
and those are available and
that is basically what he
presented, the outline of
which he presented to the
ACABQ yesterday.
Inner
City Press: Two
questions: Is there a problem
with releasing, I'm sure there
was a written and about it was
off-the-cuff what he said to
ACABQ; and, secondly, I've
seen and published a document
called safety and security
pillar model A regarding three
ASGs, a mixture of political
affairs and peacebuilding, a
variety of delegations, and
maybe there wasn't time to
explain the whole thing,
basically the idea is if he is
proposing reforms, why aren't
these proposals public as they
are in most countries…?
Spokesman: Well, I
think, first of all, these
reforms, especially ones that
have to involve, that involve
budgetary issues, first have
to be approved by the Member
States and there is an ongoing
discussion on the peace and
security architecture, and
once things are formally
proposed, I'm sure they will
be shared. All the
budget documents I think are
under, I was told, A/72/6, and
those are all available in
detail.
Question: This chart, I
guess what I'm saying, having
seen the chart…
Spokesman: I haven't
seen the chart, so I…
Inner
City
Press: There
was a meeting yesterday, so
maybe you can ask them.
There seemed to have been a
meeting that went to 6:10
yesterday upstairs.
Everybody was in it, Mr.
Lacroix, Mr. Feltman, you
know, the whole team was
there, and my understanding is
this chart was discussed, so
I'm asking you…
Spokesman: What I'm
telling you is that whatever
meetings may have occurred
upstairs on reform between the
Secretary-General and his top
aides, those are informal
meetings and I have no
documents to share from those.
Inner
City
Press: Can
you just look at the tape of
what he said there?
Spokesman: I did look at
the tape. I did, it
feels consistent to me.
Inner City Press: Well…
Spokesman: Ali?
Inner City
Press saying "double talk" was
not transcribed by the (double
standards) UN. Later on May
25, an NGO representative who
corresponded
"secretly" with Dujarric to
get Inner City Press evicted
and restricted was allowed
onto the UN's second floor
without the UN minders imposed
on Inner City Press. This is
UNtransparent. Even facing
budget cuts, the UN remains as
untransparent as ever, even
more so. On May 24 Inner City
Press asked Secretary General
Antonio Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
for a copy of Guterres' budget
speech or budget, but none was
given. Later on May 24 the
head of the Advisory Committee
on Administrative and
Budgetary Questions, which
Guterres spoke before, issued
three tweets about the
presentation. Inner City Press
has obtained and tweeted
a copy of Guterres'
placemat-like "Peace and
Security Pillar" chart, with
three separate Udner
Secretaries General for
Political and Peacebuilding
Affairs, Peace Operations and
Field Management and Support.
Many are left wondering, where
is the reform? Inner City
Press on May 24 asked
Dujarric, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press:
on the budget, could I just…
it's a factual question.
You've listed today at 3
presenting his pro… proposed
programme budget for the
biennium 2018-19 to ACABQ
[Advisory Committee on
Administrative and Budgetary
Questions]. One, is it
open? Two, can we see
the budget? And if…
three, if not, why not?
Spokesman: The process
remains the same. This
is a budget that has start…
that was elaborated before the
sec… this Secretary-General
came into office. As you
know… as you may not know, but
it's kind of a long
process. This is the
first step. It will go
to the ACABQ and then go to
the Fifth Committee. The
Fifth Committee deliberations
are often open, and then I
think we'll get a clearer
picture then.
But
it's not clear. On May
24 before 6 pm Guterres held a
meeting with his senior
management group since after a
two week trip he is in New
York for only three days,
leaving tomorrow. At the
appointed time for Azerbaijan,
streaming out of Guterres'
conference room were USg Jeff
Feltman, Jean Pierre Lacroix
who declined
to answer Inner City
Press' question about France's
20+ year rule of UN
Peacekeeping, Oscar
Fernandez-Taranco, Fabrizio
Hochschild and others. Earlier
on May 24 Inner City Press
asked Dujarric to "please
state if a David J Vennett is
now a/the principal advisor to
the SG, if so why he is not in
iSeek and how he was recruited
and hired and, again, please
provide a list of who works in
/ or the Executive Office of
the Secretary General and
whether they are paid by the
UN, by a UN affiliate like
UNOPS, or by a country and is
so which." There was no
answer. Dujarric announced,
"Tomorrow, the
Secretary-General will be
heading out of New York for
Italy to attend the G-7
meeting. On Saturday, he will
participate in the outreach
session of the summit, which
is taking place in
Taormina. The focus of
the discussion will be
"Innovation and Sustainable
Development in Africa."
He will leave Taormina
Saturday afternoon." Does it
take from Thursday to Saturday
to get to Italy? Is there a
stop over on the way back?
What was in Guterres' budget
speech on May 24, a copy of
which Inner City Press requested?
Why was corrupt
censor Cristina Gallach
speaking in the General
Assembly Hall on May 24, and
why has her censorship
continued, without hearing or
appeal?
***
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