UNICEF Criticism of US and UK Is Quietly Released in NYC, Tipping Hat to Never-Divorced Families

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

UNITED NATIONS, February 14, lightly edited 2 pm -- The UN Children's Fund today issued a report analyzing child well-being in rich, rather than only poor, countries. To its credit, and unlike other UN agencies like the UN Development Program, UNICEF acknowledges that the world cannot legitimately be divided into donor countries and recipient countries. In the UN's headquarters city, a child growing up in the Melrose Houses in the South Bronx, facing a daily gauntlet of muggers and bullies and drug dealers, is not so better off than a child in Brazil or Haiti.

            The study, Report Care 7 by UNICEF's Innocenti Research Center, ranks 21 rich countries in six "dimensions" of well-being for children. Not measured or compared in UNICEF's study is "children's exposure to violence in the home both as victims and as witnesses."  While the reason given for the omission -- essentially, lack of common definitions -- initially sounds reasonable, a study of well-being and family structure without regard to violence omits too much.  The exclusion from major categories, due to "insufficient data," of Japan, Australia, Turkey and South Korea is also problematic.

   The United States is gently chided for having insufficient data on which to gauge children's "subjective sense of well-being," a category in which Poland, Japan and Greece, among others, are included. Japanese children are literally off-the-chart in responding in the affirmative to the statement, "I feel lonely" (Chart 6.3b, with Japan at the 30% cap, and the next highest being Iceland at barely 11%).  Only in Israel do over 50% of children report eating fruit every day. Only in the U.S. and, strangely, Malta do over 25% of children report being overweight. Austria, notably, need to increase vaccination rates.

            A sample of some other interesting findings involve the Czech Republic, where reportedly only 50% of children say that their peers are "kind and helpful." (What is the "common definition" of that, one wonders.)  Compared to fewer than 30% in Finland, 45% of Czech children report having been involved in fighting in the past 12 months. Czechs also have the most books in the home. In the UNICEF study, no correlations are drawn.

            While UNICEF's stated embargo on the study, which Inner City Press is respecting, was 10 a.m. GMT, 3 a.m. U.S. Eastern time, the embargo was widely broken. A British NGO went online sixteen hours early; BBC followed, nine hours before the embargo time.

   The Unicef study concludes that "the United Kingdom and the United States find themselves in the bottom third of the ranking for five of the six dimensions reviewed." In the era of George W. Bush, it is a conclusion of some courage, a courage not matched by the study's manner and mode of release, nor its approach to family structure.

            UNICEF's report not surprisingly valorized two-parent households over one-parent households. But it goes further, in also distinguishing "step-family structure." An accompanying small-type press release acknowledges that this "may seem unfair and insensitive." In a word, yes. And fetishizing the nuclear, straight, never-divorced family strikes some as a sop to right wingers everywhere, but especially in the United States. It should be noted -- but is not, in UNICEF's study -- that the U.S. remains a non-signatory of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

            A context of UNICEF's work on rich countries is its shift to a "rights perspective." As recounted in Maggie Black's history of UNICEF, "Children First," until the shift

"all Unicef's programmatic and policy advisory work took place in the 'poor' world... although Unicef might fund research into child poverty in the 'rich world' -- and tentatively began to do so -- there was nowhere for Unicef to go with such research... If a rights perspective was superimposed on the poverty perspective, these problems fell away."

            But there still seem to be a problem with speaking truth to power. The U.S. release of the study is, by choice, a whimper and not a bang. UNICEF's Ann Veneman, so often available to the media when other agencies' studies are released, has not scheduled any press conference.

Press conference by "The Secretary" Ann Veneman - but not on this report

  On Tuesday Inner City Press asked the spokespeople of the U.S. and UK missions to the UN if they had any comment on the study; none was provided. Later, to the BBC, UK "Welfare Reform Minister Jim Murphy said the Unicef study was an 'historic' report, which used some data which was now out of date. 'It looks at some information and analysis from perhaps six, seven, eight years ago.'"

            UNICEF itself has become surprisingly recalcitrant in answering questions. Inner City Press asked in writing for a comparison and explanation of the release-mode of the report in the U.S. versus Europe, but none was provided. In fact, three weeks ago Inner City Press posed a number of questions in writing to UNICEF, questions which despite three separate reminders remain entirely unanswered. Some of the questions, as supplemented on February 6 and February 12:

Subject   a few related follow-up Qs

February 6: The World Bank's Integrity Report mentions a referral made to UNICEF. This is a request for any information available about this referral. For comparison's sake, the World Bank report discusses categories of seeming irregularities looked-into, and descriptions of some. (The full name of the World Bank report, made public today, is the "Integrity Report of the World Bank Group, Fiscal Years 2005 - 2006").

Also, the recent report on Children and Armed Conflict in Sri Lanka says that UNICEF compiles and investigates complaints of abuse of children, including but now limited to recruitment into armed conflict, and maintains a database. In what other countries does UNICEF compile information on and maintain databases of child recruitment into armed conflict? For example, does UNICEF look into the recruitment of children in Brazil into armed conflict, in gangs or otherwise? What definition of "armed conflict" does UNICEF use?

February 13, noon U.S. Eastern Time, unresponded to past midnight:

"Regarding Repord Card 7,  will there be any NY / USA press conference or briefing, or only in Europe?"

[Note: Unicef states that this question was answered orally. Had this question, which was asked in writing, been answered in writing, the follow-up would have been, "Why no press conference in New York, UNICEF's and the UN's headquarters city?"

  and before, January 24, still not responded to:

To: UNICEF
From: Inner City Press      

01/24/2007 10:43 AM    

   Quick follow-ups...  Regarding your response that seconded staff are accepted in North Korea but not the other countries named, could you state if there are other countries in which UNICEF accepts staff seconded from the host government, and if so, what countries these are and why the seconded staff are accepted? ...

From what we take to be the most recent publicly-available audit, A/61/5/Add.2, we note at page 60 that "in 2004, the Office of Internal Audit reviewed investigation issues reported by 11 country offices. It conducted three investigations itself."

Can you state which were the 11 country offices reporting "investigation issues," and what these issues were? Also, where OIA conducted the above-referenced three investigations, and what OIA found?

Page 60 continues that "UNICEF has not implemented the Board's recommendations to review its overall anti-fraud policies and tools," and the Audit at page 7 states that "during the biennium 2004-2005, UNICEF reported 42 cases of fraud or presumptive fraud to the Board (as against 37 in 2002-2003)."

 Can you described these cases of fraud or presumptive fraud, and what was done?

  As simply a few more examples, the audit at 42 states that the "Board found multiple instances of poor documentation or amendments, inaccuracies in the liquidation process and lack of sufficient oversight of implementing partners in Indonesia. In Sri Lanka, the documentation of amendments to
cash assistance projects was also unsatisfactory." 

  Have internal audits been conducted and if so, can copies or, separate request, summaries be provided?

The Audit at 42-43 states that "UNICEF is supporting construction projects for schools, health centers, and water and sanitation networks in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives that represent an aggregate budget of $152.1 million. The three country offices have little experience, if any, overseeing major construction works. They entered into contracts with UNOPS (for permanent structures) and with IOM (for temporary schools in Indonesia) without clearing their clauses with the UNICEF senior advisor (Legal) resulting in the interesting of UNICEF not adequately safeguarded. For instance, the Indonesian school construction contract with UNOPS ($90 million) committed UNICEF to a set unit cost per building, over a three-year
period, with no clause covering a rise in prices.... UNICEF failed to set up a consistent mechanism to follow up the implementation of the projects, monitor the work of the contractors and management the relationship with UNOPS."

  Please comment on this, including specifically on the fact that UNICEF's partner UNOPS has not timely filed its financial statements.

The audit at 58 states that "The Internal Audit Committee is composed of 11 members, and has only one external member (the Director of the UNDP Officeof Audit and Performance Review)."  If this refers to Jessie Rose Mabutas, given that she is leaving UNDP in mid-February, with whom will UNICEF replace this single external member, and what plans are there to increase external participation?

            These questions were posed on January 24, and then because of deadline were reiterated on January 26 and 27, then after that deadline on February 6, and again on February 13.  And still, no answers. While UNICEF's 13th floor, analogous to the Secretariat's and Pension Fund's 38th -- is presumably involved in the delay, in a process described by more than one ex-UNICEF worker -- it is still not clear if Ann Veneman is aware. Is a UN agency head well-served by non-response to questions for three weeks? We'll see.

 Because a number of Inner City Press' UN 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 goals and many accomplishment of UNICEF and the vast majority of its staff. 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 UNICEF, "Children First" Includes Flying N. Korean Officials to Conferences, Silence

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

UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- "UNICEF has enjoyed close collaboration with the Government of DPR Korea." That's an unequivocal statement of partnership on UNICEF's website, even ten days after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an external inquiry into at least the North Korea operations of all UN funds and programs, beginning with the UN Development Program and specifically extending to UNFPA, WFP and UNICEF. Click here to view the UNICEF DPRK web page.

            It is to UNICEF's credit that the statement has not been taken down from the Internet, because it is accurate. In response to questions from Inner City Press, UNICEF has acknowledged that the Kim Jong Il government chooses or refers many of UNICEF's twenty "local" staff in North Korea, all whom UNICEF pays in hard currency, Euros.

            These are precisely the practices which resulted in UNDP's proposed 2007-08 program for North Korea not been voted on at its Executive Board last week, and to UNDP stating that even pending a new program, it will de-emphasize projects which "develop the capacity" of the government in North Korea. UNDP also stated that while it paid to fly two North Korea officials to New York this month, that will be the last time.

            UNICEF, however, has made no such statements. Rather, on the issue of paying for North Korean officials' travel, UNICEF's Donor Update about the DPRK, dated December 8, 2006, states that "a core group of six government trainers have received training in Singapore on child caring practices in September 2006" and that "capacity building efforts continue, including participation of two officials from the Ministry of City Management in a regional training on water management in Thailand."

            UNICEF also gushes that "the Family Book, a Korean booklet inspired from the UNICEF publication, Facts for Life" was with UNICEF's financial support "re-printed in 270,000 copies... in Democratic People's Republic of Korea this type of communication material is very effective as all parents are literate and used to reading." Click here for that praise of universal literacy, at page 3. This UNICEF document also reflects that South Korea provides 43% of the funding for North Korea, related to one of the follow-up questions below.

            At UNDP's Executive Board meeting on January 22, Japan's representative said that only humanitarian aid, and not development aid, should be given by UN agencies to countries which violate Security Council resolutions. The U.S. did not speak at meeting, but afterwards UNDP's Ad Melkert said in light of this guidance from the Board, UNDP would be scaling back its programs in North Korea to omit those focused on building the capacity of the government. The question has been heard: where is UNICEF's Ann Veneman on these issues?

Tsunami meeting, UNICEF's Ann Veneman at Clinton's right

            UNICEF's own coverage of the recent Executive Board meeting omits any mention of the issue. UNICEF acknowledged the issue in its Jan. 23 response to Inner City Press, below: "The US delegation, however, has raised the general issue of internal audits at the last UNICEF Executive Board."  U.S. Ambassador Mark D. Wallace's speech at the January 18 session stated:

"We urge UNICEF to strictly adhere to UN rules and procedures and to strengthen its oversight and monitoring mechanisms in delivering assistance to the DPRK to ensure that assistance is not diverted from the North Korean people. We also request UNICEF to ensure a comprehensive audit of the DPRK programs over the last seven years, including ensuring that the country office is following established UN rules in conducting its operations and providing the assistance in the DPRK – including the rules relating to monitoring, evaluating and auditing the implementation or execution of projects. All audits should be made available to the Members of the Executive Board."

            This U.S. Ambassador's statement on UNICEF, to which U.S. Charge d'Affaires Alejandro Wolff and staff referred Inner City Press on Monday, is not surprising, given receipt of a January 12, 2006, letter from UNDP stating that UNICEF paid for the travel to New York of North Korean official Kim Mun Duk. But while UNDP now states not only that such travel payments will stop, but also that it agrees that at least internal audits of financial issues should be made available to member states, UNICEF has made no such statements. On audits, UNICEF has told Inner City Press, "UNICEF's internal audits are used as a management tool to evaluate trends in program performance. They are shared with our external auditors and are not otherwise made available."

            "Trust us -- we love children." This appears to be UNICEF's position of the UN Children's Fund, in the face of questions about its engagement with government officials in not only North Korea but also certain other states judged to be less-than-free: Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Iran, Turkmenistan and Sudan.

            A week ago Inner City Press asked UNICEF to describe it programs and methods of payment in these countries.  While UNICEF on January 23 provided some responses as to North Korea, which are set forth below, UNICEF has not answered a single one of the follow-up questions, also below, that Inner City Press submitted six days ago. "Trust us -- we love children." But particularly if a UN agency's work in the field is exemplary, it should not be concealed or expect to require no accounting. 

   This balancing of development and human rights, and the question of whether building the capacity of a repressive government must be accepted in the name of development, will be explored in more depth by Inner City Press shortly. Here for now were UNICEF's first responses, followed by Inner City Press' still-unanswered follow-up questions:

Q1)  Whether you pay salary, DSA, utilities, rent and other expense in hard currency (Euros, dollars or otherwise) in North Korea, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Iran, Turkmenistan or Sudan;

A: DPRK -- Of the 30 UNICEF staff in the Pyongyang office, 10 are international professionals recruited through New York headquarters and stationed in Pyongyang for up to five years.  They have the bulk of their salaries paid to personal overseas bank accounts. Twenty are local staff.  For local staff, UNICEF transfers their salaries to the host government, which in turn is responsible for paying each of the 20 national staff members.  The salary rate per month is 358 Euros for National Program and Operation staff, and ranges from 243 to 315 Euros for drivers and maintenance staff.

DSA for overnight travel by international or national staff is paid directly to the staff, by check in Euros. We do not pay any rent as the UNICEF's office in Pyongyang is provided by the Government.  Utilities are paid in Korean Won.

Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Iran, Turkmenistan or Sudan

According to the UN salary scales for the other countries referenced above, salary payment is in US dollars.  However, salaries in Zimbabwe and Iran are denominated in US dollars and paid in local currency (converted at the prevailing United Nations rate of exchange during the month of payment).

Q2) whether you accept government-seconded personnel in North Korea, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Iran, Turkmenistan or Sudan -- and if, in North Korea, you believe you have higher standards for seconded staff than other UN affiliated agencies;

A: As a rule, UNICEF chooses its staff world-wide, whether recruited locally or internationally, through a rigorous and independent recruitment process, based primarily on their technical capacities and also, as appropriate, on additional factors such as language skills. 

DPRK: In the case of DPRK,  UNICEF employs 10 international staff and 20 local staff.  The international staff members are hired from New York headquarters through a competitive selection process and are not government – seconded personnel.  In the case of the 20 national staff, they are selected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which then seconds them to UNICEF.   

Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Iran, Turkmenistan or Sudan

Locally-recruited staff members are independently recruited and not seconded from the respective governments.

Q3) whether you fund nationally-executed  programs in North Korea, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Iran, Turkmenistan or Sudan, and if so in what percentage, and descriptions of the program and how they are evaluated;

A: UNICEF does not do the “national execution” method of operation.  UNICEF oversees all its own programs world-wide, working closely with Governments and other partners.  The basic tenet of UNICEF's work across the globe is helping all children, regardless of their country of origin or the political system of the government.

Q4) whether any member state has requested from you audits about your operations in North Korea, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Iran, Turkmenistan or Sudan and, separately, whether you have provided copies of such audits;

A: UNICEF has not received any formal requests for audits from member states.  The US delegation, however, has raised the general issue of internal audits at the last UNICEF Executive Board.

Q5) please provide your policy on disclosing "internal" audits, to member states and, separately, to the press and public.

A: UNICEF's internal audits are used as a management tool to evaluate trends in program performance. They are shared with our external auditors and are not otherwise made available.  The external audits of UNICEF are public and are presented to the General Assembly. 

Q6)  We would appreciate descriptions of UNICEF's programs in North Korea and, on a less tight deadline, the other above-named countries, including who benefits or is protected, how funds are raised and from which member states or other donors, and any comment UNICEF has on the need for its services in countries like North Korea, the issues that arise and UNICEF's thinking on how to evaluation and address these issues.

DPRK -- UNICEF's programs in DPRK focus on health and nutrition and water and sanitation, as well as education for children.  In 2006, UNICEF received $5.2 million in funds toward these humanitarian programs, or 54 percent of its appeal for $11.2 million (as of Dec. 7, 2006 and from donor update at www.unicef.org). These contributions came from the governments of Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, the Republic of Korea and Sweden; the French and German national committees; and the non-governmental organization CARITAS Hong Kong.

Because few international organizations operate within DPRK, UNICEF is one of the few outside agencies working on the ground and advocating on behalf of children.  DPRK has been hit by famine and floods in recent years. Children are the most vulnerable because they and their mothers are most susceptible to malnutrition.

UNICEF programs are making a difference, and we can see the results in the lives of children. Women are receiving essential vitamins before and during pregnancy. Children receive de-worming tablets and vitamin-A supplementation. UNICEF has provided supplies to support the immunization of children in 4,300 villages. Midwifery and emergency obstetric care kits have been distributed in rural clinics and hospitals, respectively.

Acute malnutrition among children fell from 16 per cent in 1998 to 7 per cent in 2004, with chronic malnutrition dropping from 62 to 37 per cent and the percentage of underweight children from 60 to 23 per cent for the same period. This upturn followed an increase in infant mortality (from 14 to 23 deaths per 1,000 live births) and under-five mortality (from 27 to 55 deaths per 1,000 live births) from 1993-1998.
 Information on other countries will be sent shortly.

            Six days later, no such information has been sent. Nor have responses been provided to any of these follow-up questions, submitted on January 23:

  Thank you for these answers, and follow-up: WFP makes a distinction that the staff seconded to it by the DPRK's National Coordinating Committee, it pays in Won (to the NCC), while only paying Euros to the drivers and support staff.  Does UNICEF pay Euros even for staff from the NCC? If so, did the NCC / DPKR government demand this? If so, what could explain a similar demand either not being made to, or not being acceded to by, WFP?

  Separately, a source has told us of a $10 million contribution from the South Korean government to UNICEF in mid-2005, to use in North Korea. Can you confirm...

  Thank you very much for answering these questions... We also appreciate any and all descriptions of UNICEF's programs in the above-named countries, and will appreciate another interview opportunity like last week with UNICEF's Ibrahima D. Fall. [Click here for that article.]

            On the Jessie Rose Mabutas question, on January 26 UN Controller Warren Sach confirmed that she is leaving in mid-February. Video here, from Minute 35:12.  Mr. Sach also confirmed that UNICEF is an audit target, along with WFP, UNFPA and perhaps UNHCR, the refugee agency. Why then this silence from UNICEF? We'll find out.

Other Inner City Press reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on www.InnerCityPress.com --

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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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