At
the UN Poorest Nations Discussed, Disgust at DRC Short Shrift, Future UN
Justice?
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.
UNITED NATIONS, July
20 -- The plight of the 50 least developed countries on Earth was the topic of
discussion Thursday at the UN, at the margins of dueling stakeouts between the
Ambassadors of the U.S. and Lebanon, Israel, Peru and Kofi Annan's band of three
envoys to the Middle East.
In from the
Palais des Nations in Geneva, the UN's Charles Gore spoke with passion and at
length about how countries in Africa are now inundated with food exported by
more developed countries which subsidize its production and export.
While not
responding directly to
Inner City Press' request
for his analysis of the World Trade Organization regime and protectionism and
subsidies by Europe and the U.S., Mr. Gore noted that fully 47% of aid actually
transfers capital to the beneficiary nation. For the U.S.'s aid, said Mr. Gore,
only 10% involves capital transfer. The rest is debt cancellation, emergency and
food aid and "technical assistance," which is often just a transfer to the donor
nation's own technocrats, as Ugandans have complained of the UNDP's aid.
Afghan
Herat per UNHCR
The
reported increase in aid is largest attributable, Mr. Gore said, to Afghanistan
and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC. Out on the second story's main
floor, the DRC and its looting for resources for armed insurgent groups was on
the Security Council's agenda. Due to the Lebanese crisis and briefing by Kofi
Annan, the DRC agenda was by all accounts rushed through. A three page draft
resolution was perfunctorily dropped by the head of the sanctions committee
Oswaldo de Rivero, the UN envoy from Peru.
Amb.
Rivero also came to the stakeout, to speak of Lebanon. He sounded suspiciously
Boltonesque, stressing that it is impossible to negotiate a ceasefire with a
terroristic group. Earlier Amb. Bolton went further, asking what a ceasefire
would mean to any non-elected government. Given the number of UN member states,
including U.S. allies, which are not democracies, it seemed a loaded question.
At
Amb. Rivero's stakeout,
Inner City Press asked what countries were pushing-back on the proposals for a
ceasefire or cessation of hostilities in Lebanon. He answered non-committally
that the Council is united, at least on matters humanitarian. After the
stakeout, at he re-entered the Council chamber, Inner City Press asked him why
Peru had abstained from the Gaza resolution on July 13. "Because these two are
connected," Amb. Rivero answered, gesturing into the Council.
"Gaza and
Lebanon?"
"Exactly.
They have to be solved together," he said.
"It
wasn't that you thought the resolution should be directed less at Tel Aviv?"
"No, no," Amb. Rivero insisted. "It was because Lebanon had to be included.
That's the only reason we abstained."
Perhaps... Substantively on the Congo, while still awaiting straight answers,
more information emerged Thursday about the UN's negotiations with Peter Karim,
who parlayed the kidnapping of seven UN peacekeepers into a job as a colonel in
the DCR army. Not only did Karim demand shoes, and lots of them -- he also
insisted that his motorcycle be returned to him by Congolese authorities. The
bike was returned. And then, Peter Karim was offered a position as colonel in
the Congolese national army.
Improvements in staff justice? Thursday afternoon there was a sparsely attended
briefing by
the Redesign Panel on the UN Internal Justice System. Five of the members of the
Panel presented their proposal, which would they said provide faster and more
professional justice. Inner City Press asked if the cases and results would be
public, unlike the current system. Mary Gaudron, currently a judge for the
International Labour Organization Administrative Tribunal, answered the hearings
would be public as would be results, unless the judge "in the interest of
justice" decided otherwise. Inner City Press asked about some current cases; a
colleague correspondent of shall we say school boyish charm asked about bringing
the corrupt to justice. With questions still unasked, the briefing was brought
to a close. One of yesterday's questions, however, received a one-line answer.
"In response to your question from yesterday: the Deputy Secretary-General met
with members of the Iraq Revenue Watch as part of his briefings to understand
better the issues related to the preparation of the International Compact for
Iraq." Alright, then. To be continued.
Feedback: editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile: 718-716-3540
At
the UN Wordsmiths Are At Work on Zimbabwe, Kony, Ivory Coast and Iran
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.
UNITED NATIONS, July
19 -- "That's what we do here, we smith words," said John Bolton, U.S.
Ambassador to the UN, on Wednesday afternoon. He was referring to a draft
Security Council resolution on Iranian nuclear issues, but he could just as
easily have been referring to the ten days spent on the North Korea resolution
that passed Saturday, or North Korea's second written response to the
resolution, distributed today. Or to his own non-answers about the Lords
Resistance Army:
"President Bush is meeting Thursday with Salva Kiir, president of South Sudan.
Will he be discussing the Lords Resistance Army, and what is the U.S. position
on the offer of amnesty to Joseph Kony?" Question at Minute 5 of
this streaming video.
"I'm sure
the President is going to cover the full range of issues and as to the specifics
of what he is going to cover, I really think it is up to him and to the White
House to announce."
But the
White House's
summary of the upcoming meeting,
which listed five issues, did not mention the LRA peace talks taking place in
Juba, or that the vice president of South Sudan, Riek Machar, was photographed
handing thousands of dollars to Joseph Kony, indicted for war crimes by the
International Criminal Court.
Smithed words in Cote d'Ivoire
Meanwhile
in much slower smithing, the UN Development Program finally provided a response
to a question one week old: why does UNDP fund Robert Mugabe's Human Rights
Commission, when NGOs and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights are
boycotting it?
The answer, provided at arms length through Kofi Annan's spokesman's office,
runs as follows, in full:
"Facilitating the protection and promotion
of human rights and the upholding of rule of law is part of the UNDP mandate
under its practice area on governance. There is an agreement between UNDP and
the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to work together on the
promotion and protection of civil and political as well as socio-economic rights
as state in the High Commissioner’s Action Plan. Supporting and facilitating
protection of human rights can be done in various ways and UNDP has in other
countries facilitated the setting up and strengthening of human rights
institutions.
"UNDP is working to facilitate dialogue on
human rights in Zimbabwe generally and more specifically on the proposed
National Human Rights Commission, with the participation of and at the request
of Zimbabwean Civil society, as represented by NANGO, the independent governing
body of non-governmental organizations in the country .
"On the National Human Rights Commission,
UNDP is not a decision maker nor a participant in the debate but only a
facilitator of the dialogue. UNDP is not a 'funder' of the Human Rights
Commission. UNDP in its facilitation role has made financial resources available
for the dialogue with civil society organizations and for the Government to be
exposed to National Human Rights Commission systems of other countries in Africa
through study visits (example: a recent Zimbabwean ministerial delegation under
UNDP auspices to study the Kenya National Human Rights Commission).
"A request was made by Government for UNDP
to play an advisory role in the Human Rights Commission and this is still being
considered. UNDP believes that the decision of government to establish the
National Human Rights Commission presented an opportunity for dialogue and as
part of its mandate seized the opportunity to bring Government and civil society
together as aptly requested by the parties themselves. UNDP believes further
that it is part of its mandate to facilitate processes that will lead to the
greater protection and promotion of human rights in the country. And in its
engagement with the government and civil society, UNDP has consistently
emphasized that international set standards on national human rights
institutions contained in the Paris Principles must be adhered to and are the
yardstick for a truly independent, effective and transparent human rights
commission."
By contrast, the
article
linked-to
above, "Civic
groups to boycott human rights conference,"
quotes the executive director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights that
"groups resolved that they would not attend the meeting because they did not
want to be seen as supporting the state's proposed human rights commission." The
article reports that "the conference, organized in consultation with the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), was initially scheduled for this weekend
but had to be postponed to the 14th or the 21st of this month after civic
groups indicated they needed more time to study the proposals.... The spokesman
of the National Association of NGOs, Farai Ngirande, said civic groups wanted
the government to draft a new constitution before setting up the commission. 'We
want wholesale constitutional reform. You can't talk of a human rights
commission without addressing issues pertaining to freedom of expression and
association,' he said."
This last
is from the same NANGO with which UNDP claims to be working "more specifically
on the proposed National Human Rights Commission, with the participation of and
at the request of Zimbabwean Civil society, as represented by NANGO, the
independent governing body of non-governmental organizations in the country ."
We'll have more on this UNDP wordsmithing; in the interim we note that the date
this UNDP statement was provided, the Mugabe government locked up demonstrators
and journalists, click
here
for more. Our question with UNDP is what its standards are.
In similar
cognitive dissonance news, on Wednesday the Ambassador of Syria denied his
government excluded UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen. Deputy Secretary General Mark
Malloch-Brown on the other hand said Roed-Larsen was kept out, but called the
matter moot since his team was returning to New York anyway. A reporter called
this Orwellian and Malloch-Brown looked on bemused. The
UN's write-up later
diplomatically said that l'affaire Roed-Larsen "seemed to be a matter of
some contention" -- more wordsmithing. Earlier in the day at the noon briefing,
Inner City Press asked about the purpose of MMB's meeting with Revenue Watch.
The spokesman didn't answer, then or now by press time.
Mr.
Malloch-Brown had come down to speak in the place of the long-traveling Kofi
Annan. Wednesday at the noon briefing, Inner City Press asked if Mr. Annan had
made any statement about the North Korean missile tests, or had placed a call to
North Korean leaders. "No," was the answer. He's spoke with the president of
Sudan. Why not North Korea?
A
statement was distributed Wednesday to the press. In it North Korea, which
Saturday used the pithy term gangster-like, became slightly more diplomatic,
stating that "It is entirely unreasonable and brigandish act that the U.S.
brought to the UN the DPRK's missile launch nothing contradictory to any
international law after branding them as a violation." It might not made sense,
but the word brigand is a thesaurus greatest hit. The DPRK statement
ends, "We will firmly defend our own way the ideology and system chosen by our
people, true to the Songun policy, a treasured sword." Say what? Many thought
"gangster-like" worked better.
Something, however, was accomplished. Or at least a Presidential Statement
issued. It concerns Ivory Coast, and it states in part that the
"Council underlines that it is fully
prepared to impose targeted measures against persons to be designated by the
Committee established by paragraph 14 of resolution 1572 (2004) who are
determined to be, among other things, blocking the implementation of the peace
process, including by attacking or obstructing the action of the United Nations
Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI), of the French forces which support it, of
the High Representative for the elections or of the IWG, responsible for serious
violations of human rights and international law committed in Côte d’Ivoire
since 19 September 2002, inciting publicly hatred and violence or in violation
of the arms embargo, as provided in resolutions 1572 (2004) and 1643 (2005)."
As
supporters of president-in-overtime Gbagbo
disrupt the identification process that
must precede election, it's worth noting that a step yet to be taking on the
Cote D'Ivoire arms embargo is an audit of revenues related to cocoa. There's
also a still-handing issue about untaxed black market cocoa, which we wordsmiths
here are Inner City Press are calling "Conflict Chocolate." More on that to
follow.
UN Stasis
as World Unravels Gives Space to Ivory Coast's Gbagbo and Others
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee at the U.N.
UNITED NATIONS, July
14 -- The world, it is reported here and elsewhere, is unraveling. And as the UN
Security Council remains this Friday night on hold, canceling a meeting
scheduled for 5 pm so that the Permanent Five Plus Japan can meet at the U.S.
mission, in the wider world there are grabs to take or cling to power. In Cote
D'Ivoire, for example, the process of identification for the already-postponed
election now slated for October 30 was supposed to begin this week. It did not
however begin.
At the
UN, Inner City Press asked the Security Council president Jean-Marc de La
Sabliere about events in Ivory Coast. The French mission provides this
transcript:
Inner City Press Q: On Côte d’Ivoire, the
identification process has been suspended. Do you have a comment?
Amb. de La Sabliere A: "This is a great
concern. What the Council has done this month is to listen and react to a
briefing from Mr. Guéhenno who was in Banjul and Yamoussoukro with the Secretary
General. We are now preparing a PRST to support the conclusions of the
Yamoussoukro meeting where new commitments were made. We want those commitments
to be implemented. The PRST will be adopted, I hope, very early next week. Next
step: the GTI will meet in Abidjan on the 20th of July. The Council will meet on
the 26th.
"Going back to your question: the
identification is a major element of the agreement. It was agreed upon by the
parties of Côte d’Ivoire that identification and disarmament would go along. So,
we cannot organize elections if the identification process is not done. So,
identification is important, and the Council will have to assess what happened
yesterday. As French Ambassador, I can say that the PRST will take that into
account.
Q2: As French Ambassador, would it be your
view that if elections are not held…?
A2: "My answer is that there will be a
Summit in September. We will see what happens then."
Unless of course
there are other higher profile crises in September... In the run-up to the 90
p.m. let down, at 5 p.m. the press corps assembled for a scheduled Council
consultation. Then cell phones and Blackberries went off, announcing the meeting
was cancelled. In the lull before the 9:40 conclusion (see above), the stakeout
scuttlebutt, at least among reporters, was that the U.S. veto on Thursday
emboldens China to veto the draft Chapter 7 resolution on North Korea. Also in
the lull, some drifted over to stakeout the U.S. mission. Others retired to the
Delegates' Lounge, where Inner City Press Friday interviewed the Permanent
Observer from Palestine, Riyad Mansour, who confirmed Inner City Press' finding
that the U.S. government's Overseas Private Insurance Corporation insured the
Gaza power plant, since Enron built it, click
here for that
story.
UN's Corporate Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with
Microsoft, and UNDP Continues
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.
UNITED NATIONS, July
13 -- The UN under Kofi Annan has increasingly worked with corporations.
Questions have been raised about background checks and safeguards. A day after
Inner City Press reported that the UN's Geneva-based refugee agency had not
known that Swiss banker Ivan Pictet is on the UN Investment Committee when the
UNHCR Kashmir Relief Note placed money with the Pictet Funds India Equity fund,
the agency's spokesman mused, "Isn't the UN Investment Fund based in New York?"
Inner
City Press asked if it would have been helpful to UNHCR if the UN system had a
database of the companies controlled by the outside business people who serve on
bodies like the UN Investment Committee. A Google search for that committee and
Pictet found close to nothing. It appears that there is no easy way to find who
is on the UN Investment Committee.
UNHCR's
Ron Redmond answered that that it would "have been helpful to have that type of
information... For UNHCR to look it up is labor intensive, with all the possible
company names." He later added in writing, "Any additional information on
prospective corporate partners is of course always welcome; it would facilitate
our screening processes." Mr. Redmond states that UNHCR was never required to
ask SocGen to cease using the UNHCR visibility logo, in part because the
brochure that it was on was only intended to be used for a brief period. But
records show that individuals high in UN Headquarters chided UNHCR for the use
of such terms as UNHCR "teams up" with SocGen. Despite this in-house chiding, or
perhaps because the chiders refuse in their defensiveness to comment for the
record, this practice continues in the UN system to this day, literally. Click
here to
view the UN's World Tourism Organization's July 12, 2006 press release, "UN
tourism agency teams up with Microsoft,"
which was published on the UN News Center just as UNHCR SocGen-derilab's April
5, 2006 press release was. They just keep teaming up.
As the UN
increasingly has intercourse with corporations, basic safeguards are still not
in place. Inner City Press has previously reported on the lack of background
checks when corporations are allowed to join the UN Global Compact, and has
twice been rebuffed in requests to interview or ask questions of corporate CEOs
who have come to meet the Secretary General or on other Global Compact business.
At
Thursday's noon
briefing,
spokeswoman Marie Okabe was asked if any of the individuals in the Secretariat
who were asked to comment on the UNHCR - Pictet - Societe Generale transaction
had in fact spoken or provided guidance. We're still working on it, Ms. Okabe
answered.
Near six
p.m., Ms. Okabe called Inner City Press and said she had spoken about the
matter, as requested, with Under Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown. "They are
aware of the issues," Ms. Okabe said. "This case highlights the complexities of
the UN's partnerships with the private sector and so current guidelines and
practices of various funds and agencies and programs will be reviewed" to try to
avoid "potential conflicts of interest" and misuses of UN logos.
Great.
But what about the continued "teaming up," now with Microsoft? There's more work
to be done.
[A note on UNHCR's
work about Uzbekistan: the agency managed to visit in Kazakhstan with
Gabdurafikh Temirbaev, the Uzbek dissident threatened with refoulement
back to Tashkent, and has, its spokesman said, gotten a commitment to be able to
review Uzbekistan's extradition request.]
Alongside
UNHCR's work, unlike at the
UN Development Programme, at least UNHCR answered the questions and acknowledged
that things could be better. On UNDP and human rights, on UNDP and refusal to
answer press questions, what will happen?
Zimbabweans
On the
issues surrounding UNDP, the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
managed to get some response from UNDP to a question Inner City Press asked UNDP
in writing more than a week ago: why does UNDP help the government of Uzbekistan
to collect taxes, given the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights'
finding that this government shot and killed its own people in Andijan in May
2005. Here now is UNDP's response:
"As far as your UNDP/Uzbekistan questions
from the other week, here's what I can tell you... in Uzbekistan and most of the
140 developing nations where UNDP operates, UNDP works with government and civil
society on a broad range of governance projects, including economic reforms, of
which tax administration and fiscal policy are a significant component. Other
governance projects in Uzbekistan focus on gender equality, internet access, and
public administration reform. It may be worth noting that UNDP works in a wide
range of political environments, from Costa Rica to North Korea, with the belief
that UNDP's mandate as a development agency is to work constructively on behalf
of the people of the developing world wherever and whenever possible."
One wag
wondered if UNDP's programs in Uzbekistan might involve technical assistance on
not putting political dissidents in boiling water, as the U.K.'s former
ambassador in Tashkent has testified takes place. And see above, that UNHCR has
managed to visit in Kazakhstan with Gabdurafikh Temirbaev, the Uzbek dissident
threatened with refoulement back to Uzbekistan, where he would face
torture -- perhaps with tax funds UNDP helped to collect. UNDP has still not
even purported to answer the week-old question about
UNDP's funding of
Robert Mugabe's purported "Human Rights Council." Now the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights has
called for a boycott.
What was that again, about UNDP working with civil society? To be continued.
Feedback: editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 718-716-3540
Conflicts of Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform
Rifts
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.
UNITED NATIONS, July
12, 11:45 am, updated 7 pm -- Eager to "team up" with banks Societe Generale
and Pictet & Company, the United Nations' refugee agency allowed SocGen to use
the UN logo in a way subsequently criticized by UN legal staff, and to invest
Kashmir Relief Notes funds in a Pictet & Cie fund despite owner Ivan Pictet
being a member of the UN Investment Committee. Criticized by other UN units,
UNHCR agreed to cease renting out the UN logo, but said nothing can be done
about the investment with Pictet et Cie.
Inner City Press
first raised these matters in April 2006. Earlier today UNHCR in Geneva finally
responded, confirming but defending the investment in a Pictet fund. UNHCR's
Ron Redmond wrote to Inner City Press that
"based on the information available to us,
there is no conflict of interest created for Mr. Ivan Pictet, managing partner
of Pictet & Cie, and ad hoc member of the UN Investments Committee, by the fact
that Pictet Funds Indian Equities is one of the funds in which KRN funds are
invested. Societe Generale, the issuer of the Note, is solely responsible for
choosing the funds and this selection is based on recognized risk management and
hedging criteria; UNHCR plays a purely passive role as the recipient of a
donation and has no interest in the performance of the Note. Moreover, Mr.
Pictet's membership in the UN Investments Committee was unknown to all parties
involved in drawing up this investment product, and we trust therefore that the
decision to include a fund managed by Pictet & Cie was taken in good faith."
Whether this
is in keeping with current and proposed UN standards of ethics and transparency
will be seen in coming days. Whether the stated lack of knowledge of Mr.
Pictet's membership on the UN Investment Committee comports with minimal
corporate or competence standards is also in question. The problem is a wider
one: in a defensive internal memo reviewed by Inner City Press, UNHCR lawyer
Helmut Buss argues that UNICEF similarly partners with FIFA and NIS Petrol Co,
and that the World Food Programme does the same with TNT Airways and the World
Rugby Board. Nevertheless, UNHCR has agreed to drop the logo use and the "teams
up" language deployed in its
April 5 press release.
The investment in a fund controlled by a member of the UN Investment Committee UNHCR defends, including by pointing out that
Morgan Stanley's Francine Bovich
is also on the UN Investment Board, while the UN does much business with
JPMorgan Chase. (Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, despite the comment
reference to Pierpont, are not related companies.) The UNHCR memo's argument is that it's too
complicated or burdensome to avoid conflicts of interest. UNHCR's earlier
justification to Inner City Press argued that "we are
not talking about the usual procurement procedure," when talking about an
investment in a fund controlled by a member of the UN Investment Committee.
This
conflict-or-reform debate has included at least in the carbon copies Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch-Brown,
who appears to have agreed that UNHCR's actions were improper. The paper trail
may be important. The story began with a
UNHCR press release on
April 5 of this year, headlined "New corporate
investment scheme helps fund UN quake relief efforts" and stating that "the
United Nations refugee agency has teamed up with two Swiss investment
companies in a scheme that will benefit its earthquake relief operation in
Pakistan. The joint project launched by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
Zurich-based Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking, and derilab s.a.,
a derivatives company, will allow investors to participate in a financial
product that affords a unique opportunity to support reconstruction and relief
efforts."
Inner City Press
inquired into the release and published a round-up
article on April 11 questioning
the partnership: "It might well be on the level. But
it's not yet clear that if it weren't, the scheme would not proceed. It would
help if the follow-up questions were answered."
Inner City Press' article included at length the
statement of UNHCR's Olivier Delarue:
From: Olivier
Pierre Delarue
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Sent: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 14:18:54 +0200
Subject: Re: Fwd: Press inquiry concerning how Societe Generale Corporate &
Investment Banking, and derilab s.a were selected for participation with UNHCR
I work in
UNHCR's Private Sector Fund Raising Service as Senior Corporate Relations
Officer and your query about this fund raising initiative was forwarded to me...
Based on the previous exchange of email you sent, your focus seems to be on the
procurement and bidding process done by the UN. This particular initiative,
however, is a fund raising project first proposed by corporate entities and
aimed at raising funds for UNHCR's humanitarian program. Therefore, as with any
fund raising project, we are not talking about the usual procurement procedure.
In my capacity
as Senior Corporate Relations Officer, my role is to work on creating new
partnerships with the corporate world in order to increase our donor base and
receive greater financial and expertise from the private sector. In this
particular case, Derilab s.a. approached us in the aftermath of the earthquake
in South Asia and proposed to assist us pro bono in finding new ways of raising
donations from the financial market for this emergency. As this was never done
in the past, a financial product which incorporated a charity/donation component
was not easy to build. Derilab presented the project to all the major banks
involved in structured and derivative products. Only Societe Generale showed a
serious interest in working on this new concept. As matter of principle, UNHCR
screens all new partnerships with the private sector. Societe Generale, the only
bank to show an interest for this project, was screened. As a result of our
careful review, Societe Generale was screened positively for various reasons,
including their participation in the UN Global Compact. Please note that in the
case of this initiative, UNHCR is only a receiver of donations through this
financial product -- but is not endorsing the product itself
The phrase "we are not talking about the usual
procurement procedure" may have been an understatement, given the investment
with a company controlled by an individual who is a member of the UN Investment
Committee. Regarding the last above-quoted phrase, even the UN Headquarters
staff who subsequently questioned UNHCR's program apparently found dubious this last point:
the use of the phrase "teams up" implies an endorsement, the question-memo
noted. ICP reiterated its broader questions to UNHCR in Geneva on June 1,
including directly to Mr. Delarue, to whom UNHCR's spokesman's office also
forwarded the request.
Several UN officials contacted Inner City
Press about its initial story. Subsequently UN staff in New York wrote to UNHCR
in Geneva, demanding an explanation including of the seemingly violative use of
the UN logo contrary to GA Resol. 92(I) of 1946. More than a month later,
UNHCR's Helmut Buss sent back a multi-page memo, acknowledging the investment in
Pictet Funds Indian Equity Fund, and that Ivan Pictet is on the UN Investment
Committee. Mr. Buss claimed to have determined that this conflict had been
stumbled into "in good faith," and that avoiding conflicts would be difficult,
given for example that
Morgan Stanley's Francine Bovich
is also on the UN Investment Board.
How
will conflicts of interest be avoided in the future? More than 12 hours before
initial publication of this report, Inner City Press put these questions to UNHCR in
Geneva, as well as to Ivan Pictet by fax at his place of work. Inner City Press' request for UNHCR's comment stated that "while it
shouldn't need to be said, Inner City Press has been appreciative of UNHCR's
responses, when received, on refugee-related questions on Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan,
etc.. This inquiry, which began in April and was attempted to be concluded in
June, is neither anti-refugee nor anti-UNHCR. As many have said, transparency is
good for the UN system, in the long run. In this short-run, this is a formal
request for UNHCR's written comment as quickly as possible."
In the
short and medium-run, UNHCR has declined to answer press questions about this,
back in April, in early June, and now. What will happen in the longer run
remains to be seen.
At 8:15
a.m. New York time, 12 hours after sending its written request for comment,
Inner City Press telephoned UNHCR deputy spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis in Geneva and
reiterated the request for comment. Ms. Pagonis indicated that the request had
already been forwarded to Mr. Delarue for response by midday. But since he had
been asked back in early June to comment on developments of which Inner City
Press was even then aware, and he did not respond, to await Mr. Delarue's
belated second response seemed neither necessary nor appropriate. "It is not really
about Mister Delarue," Inner City Press explained to UNHCR's Jennifer Pagonis.
"It's about UNHCR and the wider United Nations." Subsequently, the following
was received:
From: REDMOND [at]
unhcr.org
To: Matthew.Lee [at]
innercitypress.com, BUSS [at] unhcr.org, DELARUE [at] unhcr.org
Sent: Wed, 12 Jul
2006 11:01 AM
Subject: Re: Request
for comment asap on UNHCR / Societe Generale's Kashmir Relief Note/ Pictet Funds
- on deadline
Dear Mr. Lee,
Olivier Delarue and
colleagues have looked into your questions and their reply follows.
- Use of UN name and
logo: UNHCR has not authorized Societe Generale to use the UN name and logo, nor
of the UNHCR official logo, both of which are indeed protected under GA/RES/92(I)
of 1946. In line with the "Guidelines on Cooperation between the United Nations
and the Business Community", issued by the Secretary-General on 17 July 2000,
however, UNHCR has, for the sole purpose of the raising of funds for UNHCR,
allowed SocGen to use, on its brochure announcing the KRN, the UNHCR "visibility
logo" with the addition "in support of". For your information, Article 16 (d)
(ii) of the a/m Guidelines authorizes the use of the name and emblem "to assist
in the raising of funds for the Organization".
- Potential conflict
of interest: Based on the information available to us, there is no conflict of
interest created for Mr. Ivan Pictet, managing partner of Pictet & Cie, and ad
hoc member of the UN Investments Committee, by the fact that Pictet Funds Indian
Equities is one of the funds in which KRN funds are invested. Societe Generale,
the issuer of the Note, is solely responsible for choosing the funds and this
selection is based on recognized risk management and hedging criteria; UNHCR
plays a purely passive role as the recipient of a donation and has no interest
in the performance of the Note. Moreover, Mr. Pictet's membership in the UN
Investments Committee was unknown to all parties involved in drawing up this
investment product, and we trust therefore that the decision to include a fund
managed by Pictet & Cie was taken in good faith. In any event, Mr. Pictet had no
involvement whatsoever in UNHCR's decision to accept the funds thus raised by
SocGen. Finally, you may also note that the volume of this investment (US$1
million shared over a number of funds, only one of which is Pictet & Cie's)
cannot be considered to benefit Mr. Pictet in any substantial manner.
- Screening of
Corporate Partners: Societe Generale is a member of the Global Compact .
Moreover, our research at the time demonstrated that Societe Generale was rated
over the past years as one of the best banks in the world, and the best in terms
of derivative products. For your information, private sector partnerships are a
relatively recent addition to UNHCR's fundraising strategy. In its dealings with
the private sector, UNHCR consistently bases itself on the a/m Guidelines issued
by the Secretary-General. In addition, UNHCR is in the process of installing an
advisory board to ensure even more checks and balances. This process, by the
way, was already on the way before the KRN was even first considered.
Derilab, finally, is
not a signatory to the Global Compact. It is a very small Swiss company
consisting of former bankers, that offered to provide its expertise in the
highly specialized field of derivative products to come up with innovative
approaches that could increase UNHCR's ability to raise funds from the financial
market.
Apologies for the
delay in getting back to you. The past month is one of the busiest times of the
year at UNHCR.
Regards, Ron Redmond
Head, Media Relations
& Public Information, UNHCR Geneva
Update 1 p.m. July 12
-- Asked at
the noon briefing if UNHCR is correct in invoking in its defense of this
program and investments Kofi Annan's "Guidelines on Cooperation between the
United Nations and the Business Community," spokeswoman Marie Okabe said that
UNHCR has submitted a detailed response and that she, and presumably for now the
Secretariat, have nothing to add to it. While UNHCR's written response was, as
always, appreciated, on-the-record inquiries will continue, first into whether
this UNHCR program, SocGen's initial use of the logo and the investment with
Pictet & Cie, are viewed within the Secretariat and elsewhere as comporting with
current and proposed standards of transparency and ethics. Inner City Press is
aware of views within the Secretariat, not close to the ground, which are at
odds with UNHCR's positions and actions. These views are being solicited,
on-the-record.
If Ambassadors to the
UN, even from the Permanent Five, answer questions at the Security Council
stakeout about their positions on such issues as amnesty for the Lords
Resistance Army's Joseph Kony, and who should repair the Gaza electrical power
plant, the Secretariat should answer regarding this UNHCR program. Watch this
space [and see Report of July 13, 2006, above.]
Other Inner City Press
reports are archived on
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At
the UN, New Phrase Passes Resolution called Gangster-Like by North Korea; UK
Deputy on the Law(less)
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
At UN, North
Korean Knot Attacked With Fifty Year Old Precedent, Game Continues Into
Weekend
UN's Corporate
Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and
UNDP Continues
Gaza Resolution
Vetoed by U.S., While North Korea Faces Veto and Chechnya Unread
BTC Briefing,
Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations
Conflicts of
Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts
At the UN, A Day
of Resolutions on Gaza, North Korea and Iran, Georgia as Side Dish
UN Grapples with
Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without
Explanation
In North Korean
War of Words, Abuses in Uganda and Impunity Go Largely Ignored
On North Korea,
Blue Words Move to a Saturday Showdown, UNDP Uzbek Stonewall
As the World
Turns in Uganda and Korea, the UN Speaks only on Gaza, from Geneva
North Korea in
the UN: Large Arms Supplant the Small, and Confusion on Uganda
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 in Denial on
Sudan, While Boldly Predicting the Future of Kosovo/a
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?
At the UN, a
Commando Unit to Quickly Stop Genocide is Proposed, by Diplomatic Sir
Brian Urquhart
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
At the UN,
Internal Justice Needs Reform, While in Timor Leste, Has Evidence Gone
Missing?
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
In Bolton's Wake,
Silence and Speech at the UN, Congo and Kony, Let the Games Begin
Pro-Poor Talk and
a Critique of the World Trade Organization from a WTO Founder: In UN
Lull, Ugandan Fog and Montenegrin Mufti
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
AIDS Ends at the
UN? Side Deals on Patents, Side Notes on Japanese Corporations,
Salvadoran and Violence in Burundi
On AIDS at the
UN, Who Speaks and Who Remains Unseen
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence (May 31, 2006)
Kinshasa Election
Nightmares, from Ituri to Kasai. Au Revoir Allan Rock; the UN's
Belly-Dancing
Working with
Warlords, Insulated by Latrines: Somalia and Pakistan Addressed at the
UN
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
In Liberia, From
Nightmare to Challenge; Lack of Generosity to Egeland's CERF, Which
China's Asked About
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
At the UN, Dues
Threats and Presidents-Elect, Unanswered Greek Mission Questions
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 Congolese
Chaos, Shots Fired at U.N. Helicopter Gunship
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
Who Pays for the
Global Bird Flu Fight? Not the Corporations, So Far - UN
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
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