When
UNSG Guterres Met DRC Team, No
Women On Either Side, No
Read-Outs Either, ICP Asks
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
March 20 – When UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres and
his team met with the
Democratic Republic of the
Congo's Vice Prime Minister
Léonard She Okitundu and the
current and former Permanent
Representatives of that
country to the UN, there were
no women on either side of the
table. Tweeted photo
here; video
here.
This
stands at odds with that the
UN Staff Unions say are Guterres'
plans for gender parity at
levels of the UN below Under
Secretary General (at which,
at least for UN Peacekeeping,
a man Jean-Pierre Lacroix was
chosen over a female
candidate, Sylvie Bermann. At
the March 20 UN noon briefing,
Inner City Press asked Guterres'
holdover deputy spokesman
Farhan Haq about the still
murky plans, after asking
about the recent lack of
read-outs of Guterres'
meetings. From the UN
transcript:
Inner City
Press: the staff unions
are saying they’ve become
aware of a proposal within the
Secretariat, a gender equity
proposal, in which all
external recruitment will be
restricted to female
candidates and which all
lateral moves will be
restricted to female
candidates and promotions
restricted to women at both
the P and D level. So
they’re getting responses from
staff. Some are in
favor. Others are saying
they should be looking at
things like parental leave,
maternity cover, child
care. But is this
true? Is this where the
Secretariat is moving?
And, if so, why didn’t this
apply, for example, to DPKO
(Department of Peacekeeping
Operations), where I know at
least one of the three
candidates was a woman and
was… Mr. [Jean-Pierre] Lacroix
was selected. What would
be the rationale for applying
this to P and D but not to the
higher levels of the UN
system?
Deputy Spokesman: Well,
this is not something that is
policy at this point.
Whether this is something that
becomes developed later on is
something that will have to be
developed as a result of
discussions, including
discussions with staff and
with management. So I
don’t have anything to confirm
as a policy change at this
point.
Question: I know that
there’s some election coming
up and there’s some
controversy around it.
Would it await the results of
an election of a New York
staff union, or what would be
the mechanism to consult with
staff about this?
Deputy Spokesman: We
consult with many of the
different staff unions with
whoever is there to represent
them. If there is a
resolution to the situation in
New York and there’s a staff
union here in New York, that
would also be a welcome part
of the process.
Less
welcome, apparently, is
transparency about Guterres'
meetings on the 38th floor,
and even who is working there.
On March 17, Inner City Press
asked Haq and lead spokesman
Stephane Dujarric written
questions including "for a
read-out of the SG's meeting
with Polisario and as also
previously requested with the
FMs of Bahrain and Armenia.
This is a request to know
where the Secretary General
is. This is a Press request
for a list of who is working
in the Executive Office of the
Secretary General; within
that, who is paid by the UN
general budget, who is paid by
or through any other
UN-affiliated fund." Not
only did Dujarric and Haq not
answer, they and UN official
Cristina Gallach had Inner
City Press evicted from the UN
without any hearing and no
appeal; it remains restricted
to minders, a scam Egyptian
state media in its office.
We'll have more on this.
***
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
Past
(and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 20047,
Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in
the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-2017 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
for
|
,
