At UNDP, Gender and Harassment, While Dervis Heads South, Honduras and other Information Appealed For

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, January 8 -- The distance between talk and action within the UN Development Program was on display again Monday morning, as dozens of silent delegates sat through a presentation on UNDP and gender, right across First Avenue from where for example the chief of Europe and the CIS States traded UNDP jobs and promotions for sexual favors. 

            The teaser in the UN Journal for Monday's session promised a "consultation on the annual progress report of the Administrator on the implementation on [sic] the gender action plan." While slated for 11 a.m., the meeting did not start until twenty minutes after. The head of UNDP's "Gender Team," Winnie Byanyima, read out acronyms in a monotone from slides projected on a screen. A sample exhortation: for "Supporting RCs/SURFs and COs to integrate gender." Afterwards the representative of Germany asked if RC stood for regional centers or resident coordinators. The only other questioners were from Belgium, Canada ("bon courage") and Denmark, twice. In response to Denmark, Ms. Byanyima said UNDP had wanted to "roll out" its scorecard during the upcoming Executive Board meeting, but the agenda is just too full. With meeting like this, surely.

            Beyond what we've previously reported on the sample UNDP regional director Kalman Mizsei, we can add this a month before he left in September 2006, he promoted a woman he favored from G7 secretarial rank to P3, professional, with no examination nor explanation. Those who work there know, however. And why not the representatives at the Executive Board consultation? As the chairwoman said, perhaps they are tired, from the weekend or (ongoing) vacations. Let the PowerPoints™ continue!

Central American refugees (Kemal Dervis not shown)

            Meanwhile UNDP distributed a press advisory, that Kemal Dervis is off and running, ten days in Central America, returning on the first day of the Executive Board meetings. He'll visit Cuba, Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala. Why not Nicaragua and El Salvador? Well, the "gender" website of UNDP's El Salvador country office remains "under construction," as does its environmental and local development sub-pages. So does the volunteers for organizations page on UNDP Guatemala's web site -- this one has a picture of a shovel next to the words, in Spanish, Pagina en Construccion -- "under construction." Inner City Press weeks ago asked UNDP's Communications Office for information concerning UNDP's operations in Honduras. No information has been provided. And so on Monday Inner City Press filed a request for review / appeal under UNDP's Information Disclosure Policy, a portion of which is below:

Subject: Appeal/request for expedited review of constructive denials of access to information by Office of Communications

From: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

To: IDPOversightPanel@undp.org, etc

Sent: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 4:17 PM

Dear William Pace, Mavic Cabrera Balleza, Saraswathi Menon, B. Murali and James Provenzano, Members of the Public Information and Documentation Oversight Panel, Ragnhild Imerslund, Observer --

 This is a request to review a number of ongoing and wrongful denials of access to information by UNDP's Office of Communications... We began requesting the below-listed information well more than a month ago. Because of the Office of Communication's non-response, the requests are deemed constructively denied and this is a request for expedited review.

 Over the past four weeks, with a single exception, UNDP's Office of Communications has refused to provide long-ago requested information, including:

 On December 5, more than 30 days ago, Inner City Press requested records which would

 contain the provisions of the SBAAs for Russia, Liberia and Honduras - the standard basic agreement, a/k/a legal framework, in essence a treaty.

 --provide all documents in your possession concerning UNDP's funding of disarmament programs in Uganda for the past four years, in light of Mr. Orme's previous June 27, 2006, email to Inner City Press that

 "In 2006 UNDP began work on an independent community development and human security project in the Karamoja region, one component of which was the encouragement of voluntary disarmament. The project was budgeted initially for $1 million, to be financed from UNDP's Uganda country office [Due to a misunderstanding on my part I erroneously identified to you in our conversation Tuesday the government of Denmark as a funder of this project.] Only $293,000 has been spent to date and all UNDP activities in the region are now halted, given that they are unworkable at this time, for the reasons noted."

 --describe UNDP's policy and practice for dealing with complaints of sexual harassment and with those complained against

--disclose and describe all sexual harassment complaints received by UNDP concerning Kalman Mizsei, including in light of your previous statement that his service was entirely "distinguished."

---Please provide information concerning all complaints of sexual harassment or of employment favoritism received or known to UNDP in the last 2 years

--Regarding Nora Lustig, then Ms. Bahadur and Mr. Schmidt-Traub, please describe in detail all steps taken in recruitment and appointment and how these comport with applicable Human Resources policies.

--all consulting contracts awarded during the tenure of Nora Lustig, the nationalities and backgrounds of the recipients and whether any were previously known to Ms. Lustig.

 On December 6, more than 30 days ago, Inner City Press requested

 --2006 Trust Fund Agreements for contributions from Spain, China, Norway, France, the UK, Russia and the United States.

 --a table that shows total 2005-2006 budget for Africa and for a table which shows ALL funds spent by UNDP in Africa during the time frame, not just "core" funds, but also any other sources of money, whether earmarked from specific donors or from multilateral sources... UNDP already has records and data which summarizes this information.

 Also asked and not responded to:

--please provide information about UNDP in Somalia...

 [the separately listed] specific projects of UNDP-Russia which, in light of the fraud finding in the most recent public audit (and refusal to provide the referenced "report... released" referred-to therein), about which information including project documents, budgets and UNDP's rationale are requested.

--please describe any and all steps taken by UNDP or its affiliates to distribute your December 8 "statement" regarding Inner City Press;

 [please provide any and all records reflecting efforts by Ben Craft and/or other UNDP staff to discourage entities such as the Heritage Foundation from citing Inner City Press' reporting on UNDP, and explain this use of UNDP funds and staff time]

 Given that UN Secretariat agencies provide full text internal audits to any of the 192 member states which request them, please explain and justify UNDP's practice of making only SUMMARIES of internal audits available, and only to the members of UNDP's Executive Board. Please provide all possible information about the specific audits which Inner City Press has previously requested, for example Honduras, Russia, UNOPS in Afghanistan, and the Private Sector Unit of the Bureau of Resources and Strategic Partnerships.

 Pardon the length of this appeal, but the Office of Communications has constructively denied these many requests, and we are now forced to appeal, despite make requests more than a month ago. While we can provide additional legal analysis, no more should be necessary to prevail over the constructive denial of these requests.

Thank you for your attention.  --Inner City Press

            UNDP's response under its procedures, and the requested information upon receipt, will be reported on this site.

  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

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At UNDP, Evaluation Means Paid Praise While Transparency is Ignored and Information Withheld

Byline; Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, January 5 -- The UN Development Program is, on paper, overseen by and accountable to an Executive Board made up of 36 member states. But a meeting of this Board on January 4, entitled "Evaluation of UNDP Assistance to Conflict-affected Countries," was run more like a UNDP propaganda session. The meeting, scheduled for two hours, started fifteen minutes late. Then, using Power-Point™ slides as a crutch, UNDP's evaluator launched into a lengthy presentation consisting of praise of UNDP, and suggestions to give UNDP more powers.  For example it was proposed that "UNDP should be involved in the negotiation of peace agreements." UNDP's Management response, provided as a hand-out, is not surprisingly that "UNDP supports the recommendation."

            Hearkening to the powers UNDP enjoys, to avoid taxes and other "red tape" in countries like Russia (click here for a story of UNDP's use of such powers), the evaluation brags that "One of UNDP's perceived strengths is that some of its procedures are currently more flexible than those of other actors in the UN system." This is followed by a critique that the facts and this series bear out, that there is "difficulty in obtaining information about what UNDP does" and that UNDP should provide more "on projects, budgets, procurement and recruitment." Evaluation at 1, 6, Recommendation 4. To this list, "audits" should be added. While UNDP's response purports to agree with this recommendation, none of the listed "management actions" addresses transparency or information in any way.  Rather, there's a proposal to "establish sub-offices in conflict-affected area... In principle management agrees that UNDP need to expand its presence outside of the capitals in conflict-affected countries and has already undertaken this policy in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Nepal."

            UNDP's extra-capital operations in Uganda involved funding in Karamoja related to the disarmament programs that have resulted in the deaths of civilians. In Nepal, UNDP has most recently been suspending program, click here for more, reporting that "with the withdrawal of UNDP funding, nine staffers including an officer has lost their jobs while the on-going development activities are likely to remain incomplete." Wouldn't be the first time...

            Speaking of incomplete, on UNDP's website the most recent evaluations run through March 2005 -- that is, nearly two years out of date. Click here for UNDP's Evaluation page.

            Kemal Dervis and Jeffrey Sachs both appeared on the schedule of new Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday. Inner City Press asked the Spokesperson's Office for a readout on the Dervis meeting and was told that "During the meeting, Mr. Dervis discussed with the Secretary-General a number of important matters, particularly the upcoming UNDP Executive Board session which will take place on 19-26 January." If the UNDP Executive Board's January 4 meeting on "evaluating" UNDP is any guide, it is hard to categorize such meetings as "important matters." Faux oversight seems a more appropriate characterization. Inner City Press has also been told that this was the third Dervis / Ban Ki-moon meeting. Why then did Dervis twice mis-spell Ban Ki-moon's name in the holiday message he sent all UNDP employees? Click here for that story, and for the UNDP holiday message.

UNDP's Melkert, arms crossed, Byzantine

            On Friday Ban Ki-moon asked 58 senior officials in the U.N. system to submit their resignations, including UNDP's Number Two, Ad Melkert. The less visible and less active Number One, Kemal Dervis, escapes the request because his position involves "other inter-governmental bodies." The UN Spokesperson's Office has declined to release the list of the individuals receiving the requests to submit resignations, but estimates that some six to eight are at UNDP, those with the rank of Assistant Secretary General or Under Secretary General. Does this include head of the Poverty Group, Nora Lustig? It would appear to include UNDP's heads of regions. A Google Image search for the terms UNDP and "Assistant Secretary General" finds 20 photos, fully six of them Kalman Mizsei. Europe and CIS region head Kalman Mizsei used to loudly call himself an Under Secretary General, which wasn't true - but he was an ASG. So presumably is his soon to be (or not) successor Kori Udovicki. UNDP told Inner City Press she cannot answer questions until she "begins" in February. But she was seen in UNDP's DC-1 building back in December. We'll have more on all this.

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

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