At
UNDP, Human Rights Are Left for Last, While Legal Empowerment of the Poor Is At
Least Discussed
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
January 11 -- What is the place of human right at the UN Development Program?
Thursday Inner City Press asked Peggy Hicks of Human Rights Watch, offering the
example of UNDP helping Uzbekistan's Karimov regime to collect taxes, organizing
a National Commission on Human Rights in Zimbabwe which is controlled by Robert
Mugabe and boycotted by non-governmental organizations, and having funded
"voluntary" disarmament in Karamoja in Uganda, which devolved into the torching
of villages and killing of civilians. Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe and Karamoja are all
named as hotspots of rights violation in HRW's World Report 2007, in which Ms.
Hicks has a chapter on human rights and the UN.
Ms. Hicks
replied that there is a long road to go, to "mainstream" human rights within not
only the UN but also its funds, agencies and programs, specifically UNDP. She
said that more than is the case as present, the UN's human rights units need to
have prominent places in country teams and to be listened to by UNDP resident
representative at the country level. She suggested that Ban Ki-moon begin to
judge and evaluate the performance of existing senior UN officials on human
rights. How would Messrs. Dervis and Melkert fare? Or, for the Uzbekistan and
Zimbabwe examples , Messrs. Fikret Akcura and Agostinho Zacarias, respectively?
More to follow.
Ad
Melkert: have human rights been "mainstreamed" from the UN to UNDP?
On the
other hand, and in fairness, UNDP co-sponsored an interesting forum on Wednesday
afternoon, entitled "Legal Empowerment of the Poor: From Concept to Action."
Surprising for an event involving UNDP, at least two of the speakers were openly
critical or questioning of the UN system. Ashraf
Ghani said that during his time as Minister of Finance for Afghanistan,
his "biggest problem was the lack of transparency" of UN agencies in
Afghanistan, which included and includes UNDP. He recounted who he was given a
single page to show how much money was spent.
Sheela Patel, the founder of Slum Dwellers
International, said that "UNDP is very, very behind in looking at the
urbanization agenda."
To their
credit, the questioners who followed, nearly all of them UNDP staff, including
an ex-resident representative from Ghana and also a staffer who'd worked on
women and development in Central Asia, rather than get defensive, mused about
the implications of Mr. Ghani's critique. One of the questioners called the
implications radical. Well, yes. In any event it focused attention on the plight
of the poor, and was more than propaganda. We try to give credit where it's due.
* * *
An aside
we can't resist, about the Human Rights Watch report. It covers 70 countries.
Inner City Press asked why, for example, neither the Central African Republic
nor Somalia were included. Ms. Hicks responded that it came down to deciding
where to spend HRW's resources, with the criteria involving where reporting can
bring about change, and where there are governments and decision-makers willing
to listen. It's sad that Somalia, earlier in 2006, did not pass this test. It is
also unfortunate because many people take these HRW World Reports as listings of
the worst human rights hotspots on the planet. If the standard is really about
ease of impact, controlled by places that opinion-makers and funders would rebel
against excluding (North Korea, Darfur, Belarus), that should perhaps be
disclosed more prominently. That said, the 556-page volume is very much of use,
and this year's critique of the EU and of the UN (in writing) and UNDP (orally)
were much needed.
Again, because a number of Inner City Press' UNDP sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the
poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to
conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the
stated goals of UNDP and many of its staff. As they used to say on TV game
shows, keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we
apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the
information flowing.
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile
(and weekends): 718-716-3540
At
UNDP and at DESA, Countries Call All the Shots for a Four Percent Cut, UNDP's
Trust Funds
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
January 10 -- How much should a country be allowed to dominate a UN program or
fund? While this question has arisen with regard to the UN Development Program,
which runs separate trust funds for many countries, allowing the country to
dictate how and where the money is spent and who is hired, while taking a four
percent cut, Wednesday Inner City Press asked the head of the UN's Department of
Economic and Social Affairs, DESA, which is embroiled in scandal. (Regarding the
scandal, which even
UN's write-up had
to include, see the bottom of this report for a letter to the editor Inner City
Press has received.)
Jose
Antonio Ocampo answered that countries run their money through the UN, often to
hire their own nationals, "because they can achieve something purpose they want
to achieve." Video
here,
from Minute 52:34. Obviously. But what might these purposes be?
A case
into which Inner City Press has been inquiring involves Italy funding UNDP in
Somalia, in order to place Italian intelligence agents there to monitor Italy's
economic interests in the country. Inner City Press has asked UNDP to describe
these operations in Somalia and the nationalities of the non-Somalis hired. UNDP
has refused to provide this information. A month ago, Inner City Press asked
UNDP for information about various of its trust funds. Neither has this
information been provided.
Dervis:
468 trust funds, audits withheld, no answers for a month
The most
recent publicly-available audit of UNDP states that "83 of the 468 trust funds
established by UNDP... were in a deficit position as at [sic] 31 December 2005."
Some of the trust funds listed in the audit include:
UNDP/Italy Trust Fund for Anti-Poverty
Partnership Initiatives;
UNDP Trust Fund for Somalia;
Germany Trust Fund for UNDP Program for
Accountability and Transparency -- this from one of the countries that
complained this week about UNDP violating its own rule requiring documents to be
available six weeks before the UNDP Executive Board meeting;
UNDP/Republic of Korea Trust Fund;
Japan Trust Fund for Scholarships to East
Timorese Students in East Timor;
UNDP/Australia Trust Fund for Fiscal and
Monetary Management Reform and Statistical Improvement, Phase II -- it was one
of these trust funds for improvement of statistics and reporting, funded by the
UK, which has been put into jeopardy by Nora Lustig's blow-up, in front of a
visitor from the UK's DIFID, at a staffer seconded by the UK.
There is the Trust Fund for UNDP History
Project -- presumably the book on which UNDP spend over $500,000, "UNDP: A
Better Way?"
Norway Trust Fund for Municipal Employment
Assistance Program in Macedonia (note to UNDP: you might want to call it FYROM);
EEC Trust Fund for Enhancing Border
Control Management in Moldova;
EEC Trust Fund for Strengthening Border
Management on the Belarusian - Ukrainian Border;
EEC Trust Fund for Border Assistance
Mission to Moldova and Ukraine;
Swedish Trust Fund on Efficiency and
Effectiveness Enhancing Measures within UNDP -- this from another one of the
countries that complained this week about UNDP violating its own rule requiring
documents to be available six weeks before the UNDP Executive Board meeting;
EEC Somalia Trust Fund Proposed
Feasibility Study on Financial Services;
EEC Trust Fund for Support to the Rule of
Law and Security (ROLS) Program for Somalia;
Fonds d'Affectation Special Francais;
EEC Trust Fund for Partnership for the
Future - Cyprus (note that UNDP's UNOPS is embroiled in controversy for funding
propaganda to promote "the Annan plan" for Cyprus); etc.
And this
is not even considering UNDP's "sub-trust funds," into which we will inquire in
future installments.
While
UNDP has, with the single exception of UNDP's Global Environmental Facility's
Goa junket,
refused to answer any of Inner City Press' questions for the past month,
Wednesday evening the UN Counselor of a UNDP-donor nations offered a different
perspective on UNDP's resistance to providing copies of internal audits not only
to the press, but even to member states. The Counselor speculated that UNDP
wants to protect the details of its relationships with host countries. The
Counselor and his Ambassador expressed ambivalence about UNDP's standardless
embrace of repressive regimes in such countries as Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe and
North Korea (these were this country's examples). On the other hand there might
be reasons to engage with dictatorships. But if UNDP refuses to provide any
information or to answer any questions (unlike, as today's example, UNHCR, click
here to view), it is
impossible to make or report UNDP's case for what it does and doesn't do. Here's
hoping for some much-delayed responses to long-ago requested information, some
as simple as UNDP's agreements with nations, which are explicitly supposed to be
public.
Guido Bertucci
Here now a letter
to Inner City Press about DESA:
In a message,
[Name withheld from fear of retaliation] writes:
Dear Mr. Lee --
As a former DESA staff member, I would like to thank you for your coverage of
the United Nations. There is another other matter on which I would like to draw
your attention -- the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. UN staff
members have watched with interest the recent news coverage of Mr. Guido
Bertucci and allegations of mismanagement, abuse of power, and
favoritism/retaliation which have characterized his career with the UN, and more
recently his service to the Organization as Director of the Division for Public
Administration and Development Management, DPADM.
Some news
stories have covered specific instances of favoritism and abuse of power,
particularly the case of the consultant who received an obscene amount of money
for providing functions which are already within the capacity of UN/DPADM or DPI
staff, and then tried to cover it up by doctoring her website. The cardinal
rule concerning the award of consulting contracts is that no contract may be
awarded for a function which already exists among the staff. A more complete
examination, whether it be by the media or by OIOS, will find that many of the
so-called consultancy contracts awarded by Bertucci were to his friends or
associates, and that more alarmingly, in many cases the Organization received no
tangible benefit -- no reports, no services -- just money, for nothing more than
attendance at this conference or that workshop.
Other news stories have focused on various trust funds and how Bertucci has used
these trust funds to accomplish pet objectives of a particular government. It
is clear to those who have followed this man that Bertucci has placed the
interests of a certain member state above those of the United Nations. Bertucci
has said that recent press coverage "is an attack against all Italians." The
reality is that for eleven years as division chief, Bertucci's own conduct has
been an attack against all international civil servants who believe in the
mission of the United Nations...
I want to
encourage you to spend some time soliciting the input of current and former
staff of DESA/DPADM, and in particular those of us who have worked hard to
survive under the Bertucci Regime. Without too much difficulty, you will find
that we fear retaliation because Bertucci has threatened retaliation. You will
find that in general, we are pleased with recent media coverage of DESA because
we know that it will be in the best interest of the United Nations and for DESA
that the new Secretary-General is informed of Bertucci's activities, and has the
opportunity to put a new leadership team in place to restore the credibility
which has been lost over the past several years. You will find that for many
years, staff members have wanted to challenge Bertucci for his imperial and
self-interested management style, but that we feared the consequences. You will
find we believe that finally, the Bertucci era of malfeasance and abuse looks
like it is drawing to a close. Most importantly, you will find that we are
committed to our work, but that Bertucci's actions have made a mockery out of
our UN mandate: to promote improved public administration and governance, ethics
and professionalism.
It is a
positive thing that OIOS has been called to investigate these various
allegations against Bertucci. The fact remains, however, that many DESA staff
do not trust OIOS. We have seen Bertucci win at the OIOS game before -- when
OIOS was under its previous management. No one will feel comfortable coming
forward to OIOS unless Mr. Bertucci is first removed from his position. Until
that happens, staff may feel more comfortable approaching the attentive media.
Perhaps you have a role to play in this unfolding story.
Sincerely, NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST, IN FEAR OF RETALIATION
Sounds
like UNDP -- except that at UNDP, there is no OIOS, and there is even
more resistance at the highest levels to reforms and improved transparency....
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
At the UN,
Mysterious Deletion from Iran Sanctions List of Aerospace Industries
Organization Goes Unexplained
At the UN, Iran
Resolution Passes 15-0 Amid Media Frenzy While Somalia and UN Reform Are
Ignored
At the UN,
Security Council and GA Games and Holiday Spirit As Revolving Door Ban
Disappears on Final Day
UNDP Not Covered
By Weak UN Post-Employment Restrictions, Dervis and Mizsei and Aid to
the Scapegoated
UN
Post-Employment Restriction Are Watered Down for Senior Officials,
Comparison to June Draft Reveals
At the UN, Curt
Eulogies for Dictator, Revolving Door and Budget Left for the Last Day
UNDP's Dervis
Backtracks on Transparency, Promises Accounting of Funds, Denies Role in
Uganda Abuse
At the UN,
Jeffrey Sachs Answers the $75,000 Question But Not on UNDP, Still
Laudable Goals for 2025
Burundi Spin
at the UN, Amid Coup Trial and Ceasefire Not Implemented, Great Lakes
Commission Moves In
At the UN, Iran
Resolution Goes Blue as Ivory Coast is Traded Away With No Follow-up on
Hmung
At the UN,
Annan's Long Goodbye, With Oil for Food in the Air and Hothouse Musical
Chairs
At Kofi Annan's
Farewell, UNDP Transparency is Raised, and Brian Gleeson Steps Up
At UN
in Beirut, Dueling Charges of Job-Trading and
Tax-Evasion, the Burden of
Mervat Tallawy, Retaliation from Below
UNDP Will Be
Called to Greater Transparency, Says President of Spain, on UNDP's
Board, and Flaws of UNOPS
UNDP's Ad
Melkert Says He Will Finally Increase Transparency, Describes Fraud in
Russia, Dodges Uganda
In Eastern
Congo, Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made a Colonel, Clooney And Now
Guehenno Might Stay
At the UN,
Ocampo 1 Says Kony To Jail and Ocampo 2 Sees No Serious Bertucci
Charges, Dueling Parties
In UNDP's Book,
Strong's Scandals Are Missing, While Workers Complain, MMB Schmoozes the
Korean Mission
At UNDP, Flighty
Rhetoric Founders in Mismanagement, MMB's Net, a Genocidaire and Whither
ECOSOC
At the UN,
Disabled Are Freed from a Footnote, Murky Answers from Gbagbo to Kosovo
to a Genocidaire
Countering UN's
Vanity Press, UNDP Histories from Below, Brussels and Two Views of Omar
Bakhet
At the UN,
Indigenous Indignation, Revolving Door Mysteries and Peace Pipe
Belatedly Smoked
At the UN,
Questions of Congo Mass Graves and Kazana, Mugabe and Forests and Rich
German Ships
UNDP Is
Important For The Poor, and Therefore Must Be Made Transparent
As UN
Speechifies, UNDP Audits Are Still Being Withheld, While War in Somalia
and Sudan, Pronk Blogs On
Waste, Fraud and
Abuse at UNDP in Vietnam, While UN Secretariat Urges Censorship
At the UN,
Questions of Humanitarian Aid and Congo Body Count, Despots' Crackdown
on Dissent
In UNDP,
Questions of Money Wasted, Neutrality Trampled, Russian Office Audits
Withheld and Sachs Expenses
From Baidoa
to the UN, Denials on Ethiopian Troops Being in Somalia, Resolution Is
Passed
Retaliation
Found at UNDP, While Dervis Is Focused on Turkey, In Two Weeks Will Take
Questions
Annan's
Spokesman Silent on 150 Dead in Congo, War in Somalia - But in Loud
Defense of UNDP's $567,000 Book
At the UN,
Interlopers into Somalia Are Discussed, With Chadian Pull-Back,
Peacekeepers and Uganda's Karamoja
UNDP Spent
$567,000 on Book to Praise Itself, While the Well-Placed Feed Off UNDP's
Core Budget and Prime Postings
As UNDP Questions
Mount, Mark Malloch Brown Calls Them Irresponsible, Answers Only in
Vanity Press
In UNDP Series,
Questions of Jeffrey Sachs and Associates Payments, From $1 to $75,000
From Sleaze in
Vietnam to Fights in DC-1, UNDP Appears Out of Control at the Top
On Somalia,
Past Arms Embargo Violations Forgiven in Zeal to Contain Islamic Courts
In UNDP, Drunken
Mis-Managers on the Make Praised and Protected, Meet UNDP's Kalman
Mizsei
From Violent
Disarmament in Uganda to the National Bank of Serbia, UNDP Leaves Others
to Answer for It
UNDP Sources Say
Dervis Fires Malloch Brown-linked Officials, Then Offers Hush-Up Jobs
On Somalia, Fiji
and Oil-for-Food, UN Ambiguity Leads to Hypocrisy and Corruption
At the UN,
Indigenous Rights Get Deferred, As U.S. Abstains, Deftly or Deceptively
At the UN,
Threat and Possible Statement on Fiji Spotlights Selection and Payment
of UN Peacekeepers
At the UN, China
and Islamic Dev't Bank Oppose Soros and World Bank On How to Fight
Poverty
At the UN,
Misdirection on Somalia and Myanmar, No Answers from UNDP's Kemal Dervis
UNDP Dodges
Questions of Disarmament Abuse in Uganda and of Loss of Togo AIDS Grant,
Dhaka Snafu
At the UN, The
Swan Song of Jan Egeland and the Third Committee Loop, Somalia Echoes
Congo
UN Silent As
Protesters Tear Gassed in Ivory Coast, As UNMOVIC Plods On and War
Spreads in Somalia
In the UN,
Uzbekistan Gets a Pass on Human Rights As Opposition to U.S. Grows and
War's On in Somalia
At the UN,
Cluster Bombs Unremembered, Uighurs Disappeared and Jay-Z Returns with
Water -- for Life
From the UN,
Silence on War Crimes Enforcement and Conflicts of Interest on Complaint
from Bahrain
En Route to
Deutsche Bank, the UN's Door Revolves, While Ban Ki-moon Arrives and
Moldova Spins
As Two UN
Peacekeepers Are Killed, UN Says Haiti's Improving, Ban Ki-moon on
Zimbabwe?
Nagorno-Karabakh President Disputes Fires and Numbers, Oil and UN, in
Exclusive Interview with Inner City Press
Inside the UN,
Blaming Uganda's Victims, Excusing Annan on Mugabe, and U.S. Blocked
Darfur Trip
U.S. Blocked
Council's Trip to Darfur Meeting, Brazzaville Envoy Explains After U.S.
Casts a Veto
At the UN,
Council Works Overtime To Cancel Its Trip About Darfur, While DC Muses
on John Bolton
UN Panel's
"Coherence" Plan Urges More Power to UNDP, Despite Its Silence on Human
Rights
On Water, UNDP
Talks Human Rights, While Enabling Violations in Africa and Asia, With
Shell and Coca-Cola
Will UN's
Revolving Door Keep Human Rights Lost, Like Bush's Call and WFP
Confirmation Questions?
On Somalia,
We Are All Ill-Informed, Says the UN, Same on Uganda, Lurching Toward
UNDP Power Grab
On WFP, Annan and
Ban Ki-Moon Hear and See No Evil, While Resume of Josette Sheeran Shiner
Is Edited
Would Moon
Followers Trail Josette Sheeran Shiner into WFP, As to U.S. State Dep't?
At the UN,
Positions Are Up For the Grabbing, Sun's Silence on Censorship, Advisor
Grabs for Gun
In WFP Race,
Josette Sheeran Shiner Praises Mega Corporations from Cornfield While
State Spins
At the UN,
Housing Subsidy Spin, Puntland Mysteries of UNDP and the Panama Solution
In Campaign to
Head UN WFP, A Race to Precedents' Depths, A Murky Lame Duck Appointment
At the UN,
Gbagbo and his Gbaggage, Toxic Waste and Congolese Sanctions
WFP Brochure-Gate? John Bolton Has Not Seen Brochure
of "Official" U.S. Candidate to Head World Food Program
Ivory Coast
Stand-Off Shows Security Council Fault Lines: News Analysis
At the UN,
It's Groundhog's Day on Western Sahara, Despite Fishing Deals and
Flaunting of the Law
"Official" U.S.
Candidate to Head WFP Circulates Brochure With Pulitzer Claim, UN Staff
Rules Ignored
Senegal's
President Claims Peace in Casamance and Habre Trial to Come, A Tale of
Two Lamines
A Tale of Two
Americans Vying to Head the World Food Program, Banbury and Sheeran
Shiner
At the UN, the Unrepentant Blogger Pronk, a Wink
on 14 North Korean Days and Silence on Somalia
At the UN,
Literacy Losses in Chad, Blogless Pronk and Toothless Iran Resolution,
How Our World Turns
Sudan Pans Pronk
While Praising Natsios, UN Silent on Haiti and WFP, Ivorian Fingers
Crossed
UN Shy on North
Korea, Effusive on Bird Flu and Torture, UNDP Cyprus Runaround, Pronk is
Summoned Home
At the UN,
Silence from UNDP on Cyprus, from France on the Chad-Bomb, Jan Pronk's
Sudan Blog
Russia's Vostok
Battalion in Lebanon Despite Resolution 1701, Assembly Stays Deadlocked
and UNDP Stays Missing
As
Turkmenistan Cracks Down on Journalists, Hospitals and Romance, UNDP Works
With the Niyazov Regime
At the UN,
Darfur Discussed, Annan Eulogized and Oil For Food Confined to a
Documentary Footnote
With All Eyes
on Council Seat, UN is Distracted from Myanmar Absolution and Congo
Conflagration
As Venezuela and
Guatemala Square Off, Dominicans In Default and F.C. Barcelona De-Listed
At the UN, North
Korea Sanctions Agreed On, Naval Searches and Murky Weapons Sales
At the UN,
Georgia Speaks of Ethnic Cleansing While Russia Complains of Visas
Denied by the U.S.
At the UN,
Deference to the Congo's Kabila and Tank-Sales to North Korea, of
Slippery Eels and Sun Microsystems
At the UN,
Annan's Africa Advisor Welcome Chinese Investment, Dodges Zimbabwe, Nods
to Darfur
At the UN,
Richard Goldstone Presses Enforcement on Joseph Kony, Reflecting Back on
Karadzic
UN Defers on
Anti-Terror Safeguards to Member States, Even in Pakistan and Somalia
Afghanistan
as Black Hole for Info and Torture Tales, Photos and Talk Mogadishu, the
UN Afterhours
Amid UN's Korean
Uproar, Russia Silent on Murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya Exposer
UN Envoy Makes
Excuses for Gambian Strongman, Whitewashing Fraud- and Threat-Filled
Election
Sudan's UN
Envoy Admits Right to Intervene in Rwanda, UNICEF Response on Terrorist
Groups in Pakistan
At the UN, As
Next S-G is Chosen, Annan Claims Power to Make 5-Year Appointments,
Quiet Filing and Ivory Coast Concessions
Chaos in UN's
Somalia Policy, Working With Islamists Under Sanctions While Meeting
with Private Military Contractors
U.S. Candidate
for UN's World Food Program May Get Lame Duck Appointment, Despite
Korean Issues
At the
UN, U.S. Versus Axis of Airport, While Serge Brammertz Measures
Non-Lebanese Teeth
Exclusion from
Water Is Called Progress, of Straw Polls and WFP Succession
William Swing
Sings Songs of Congo's Crisis, No Safeguards on Coltan Says Chairman of
Intel
Warlord in the
Waldorf and Other Congo Questions Dodged by the UN in the Time Between
Elections
In Some New
Orleans, Questions Echo from the South Bronx and South Lebanon
In New Orleans,
While Bone Is Thrown in Superdome, Parishes Still In Distress
At the UN, Tales
of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While
Copters Grounded
US's Frazer
Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of
Buying Leaders -
Click
here for
video file by Inner City Press.
Third Day of UN
General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and
Montenegro and Still Somalia
On Darfur, Hugo
Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil
Refinery
At the UN, Ivory
Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of
Somalia
Evo Morales
Blames Strike on Mobbed-Up Parasites, Sings Praise of Coca Leaf and Jabs
at Coca-Cola
Musharraf Says
Unrest in Baluchistan Is Waning, While Dodging Question on Restoring
Civilian Rule
At the UN, Cyprus
Confirms 'Paramilitary' Investigation, Denies Connection to Def Min
Resignation, CBTB Update
A Tale
of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN
UN Round-up:
Poland's President Says Iraq Is Ever-More Tense While Amb. Bolton Talks
Burmese Drugs, Spin on Ivory Coast
As UN's Annan
Now Says He Will Disclose, When and Whether It Will Be to the Public and
Why It Took So Long Go Unasked
At the UN,
Stonewalling Continues on Financial Disclosure and Letter(s) U.S.
Mission Has, While Zimbabwe Goes Ignored
At the UN,
Financial Disclosure Are Withheld While Freedom of Information Is
Promised, Of Hollywood and Dictators' Gift Shops
UN's Annan Says
Dig Into Toxic Dumping, While Declining to Discuss Financial Disclosure
A Still-Unnamed
Senior UN Official in NY Takes Free Housing from His Government,
Contrary to UN Staff Regulations
UN Admits To
Errors in its Report on Destruction of Congolese Village of Kazana,
Safeguards Not In Place
As UN Checks
Toxins in Abidjan, the Dumper Trafigura Figured in Oil for Food Scandal,
Funded by RBS and BNP Paribas
Targeting of
African Americans For High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed
Downplays Its Own Findings
The UN and
Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen Conflicts Unchanged;
Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo
The UN Cries
Poor on Lawless Somalia, While Its Ex-Security Chief Does Business
Through Ruleless Revolving Door
At the UN,
Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly's Surface, While Incoming Council
President Dodges Most Questions
"Horror Struck"
is How UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments Would Leave
U.S., Referral on Burma But Not Uzbekistan
Security Council
President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments,
While UK "Doesn't Do It Any More"
At the UN,
Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by
Member States
Rare UN Sunshine
From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell
in its Ear on Nigeria
Annan Family
Ties With Purchaser from Compass, Embroiled in UN Scandal, Raise
Unanswered Ethical Questions
At the UN, from
Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovars to Lezgines, Micro-States as
Powerful's Playthings
Inquiry Into
Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As
Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond
On the UN -
Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost
Stop Bank
Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says,
Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger
Ship-Breakers
Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest
UNIFIL Troop Donor
With Somalia on
the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion
In UN's Lebanon
Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL,
Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"
UN Decries
Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates
on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message
On Lebanon,
Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes
Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening
Africa Can Solve
Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace
Talks and Kofi Annan's Views
At the UN, Jay-Z
Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka
Kilcher in the Basement
In the UN
Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a
Shebaa Farms Solution?
UN Knew of Child
Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN
Facilitated
Impunity's in
the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for
Kazana
UN Still Silent
on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin
UN's Guehenno
Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues
With Congo
Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is
Distracted
In DR Congo, UN
Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper
Spinning the
Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese
Army
At the UN, Dow
Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended
Kofi Annan
Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers
UN Silent As
Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News
Analysis
UN's Guehenno
Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower
Profile Zones
In Gaza Power
Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN
Sources
UN's Corporate
Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and
UNDP Continues
BTC Briefing,
Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations
Conflicts of
Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts
UN Grapples with
Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without
Explanation
UN Gives Mugabe
Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned
At the UN,
Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe
UN Acknowledges
Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions
In Uganda, UNDP
to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and
see
The New Vision,
offsite).
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance
Alleged Abuse in
Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given:
What Did UN Know and When?
Strong Arm on
Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of
Karamojong Villages
UN's Selective
Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs
UN Habitat
Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at
Vancouver World Urban Forum?
UN's Annan
Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants
Freedom of Information
UN Waffles on
Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from
Algiers
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
Human Rights
Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News
Analysis
In Praise of
Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial
Exclusion
UN Sees Somalia
Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and
Everything But Congo
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence
The Silence of
the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank
Human Rights
Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins
from SUVs
Child Labor and
Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu
Press Freedom?
Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security
Council
The
Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens
Background Checks
at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from
Turkmenbashi's Single Book
Ripped Off Worse
in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in
Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds
Burundi: Chaos at
Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated
by Forty Until 4 AM
The Chadian
Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the
Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come
Through the UN's
One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations,
Even Nuclear Areva
Racial
Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks
Mine Your Own
Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the
Paparazzi
Human Rights Are
Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still
Murky
Iraq's Oil to be
Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear
Kofi, Kony,
Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala
As Operation
Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if
Iraq's Oil is Being Metered
Cash Crop: In
Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in
their Camps
The Shorted and
Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't
Add Up
UN Reform:
Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance
Contract
In the Sudanese
Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says
Empty Words on
Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia
What is the Sound
of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War
at UN
Kosovo: Of
Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of
Ferronikeli Mines
Abkhazia:
Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia
Post-Tsunami
Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
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