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UN Performance Problems UN Management Accountability Struggles Where is the Rule of Law? Inadequate UN Oversight Recent Developments
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Introductory
quotes "The gender imbalance:
…. "to reaffirm faith [in] the equal rights of men and women
…. [UN Charter
preamble]
…. "The United Nations
shall place no restriction on the eligibility of men and women to
participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its
principal and subsidiary organs." [UN
Charter Article 8] The United Nations has been a
leader in standard-setting on gender issues for the world as a whole. Supposed to be an Equal
Opportunity Employer before that concept was even known in most countries,
its Secretariat (a Principal Organ of the United Nations) is in standing
violation of the Charter in abjectly failing to meet these
standards. In 1992, forty-six years after the
Charter was adopted, barely 30 percent of the Secretariat's regular
professional staff are women.
At the senior, decision-making levels the percentages fall to
absurdly low levels. Few
other parts of the UN system do much better. Departmental and division heads
should be advised in writing that their contribution to implementation of
Article 8 of the Charter will be a prime factor in any review of their
performance. A period of
real, not cosmetic, affirmative action in recruitment and promotion must
be instituted." Childers, Erskine, with
Urquhart, Brian, "Renewing the United Nations System", Development
Dialogue, 1994:1, Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden,
1994, p. 168. Chronological
quotes: "United Nations responsibilities
toward the status of women -- the organization being, nominally, the
global custodian of women's rights -- were [during the 1950s] allowed to
stagnate; while the U. N. administration's attitude was expressed, then as
now, in obdurate discrimination against its own female employees. There was no woman among
[Secretary-General Dag] Hammarskjöld's senior deputies; and, during his
term of office, only isolated instances existed of women in notably
responsible posts at the Secretariat. (According to personnel statistics
issued by the United Nations [in July 1989, some 30 years later], two
women are now employed in the Secretariat's most senior category, as
contrasted with fifty-one males.
In the immediately subordinate category, the figures are,
respectively, six and ninety-four.
The imbalance is 'corrected' only in the most junior and clerical
grades.)" Hazzard, Shirley, on
Hammarskjöld's leadership in the 1950s, and follow-up statistics
from 1989, in
"Breaking Faith, Part I", The New Yorker, September 25, 1989, pp. 63-99, [
81-82].
"[The UN Charter gives the five
Great Powers right of veto over certain matters]. At the very least the veto over
the selection of the Secretary-General should be relinquished. Even small [organizations] carry
out organized searches for new executive heads. …for choosing a new
Secretary-General, [however, there is] only a semi-secret asking around in
the diplomatic old-boy network that makes the Vatican's procedures for
finding a pope seem almost populist.
If this incestuous old-boying were replaced by a proper search in
the real world, we might surprise ourselves by finding an eminently
qualified woman to be the next secretary-general. From 1945 to 1994, male-dominated
governments have managed to appoint just four women to some 140 vacancies
in top UN executive posts." Erskine Childers, "Midlife crisis", World Press Review, [originally from London Review of Books, August 18, 1994], June 1995, pp. 8-11 [9]. [Note: Mr. Childers was a UN civil servant for 22 years.]
"The United Nations Wednesday
denied reports that it briefly suspended a senior official earlier this
year for sexually harassing up to 10 women …. after a disciplinary
committee inquiry into sexual harassment allegations by 10 secretaries
…. The United Nations refuses to
disclose [such records, which] underscores the difficulty individual
workers have in pursuing formal complaints when they believe they have
been treated wrongly. Secrecy laws at the United Nations
cover a broad spectrum of regulations but there are no specific guidelines
for what will be made public and what will be kept under lock and
key. U.N. staff are not allowed to
speak to the press on [work-related matters] for example, nor are they
allowed to start any legal proceedings in court without the permission of
the Secretary-General.
…. Even if a senior official is
brought to trial, he or she cannot be forced to testify because of
diplomatic immunity. Most
senior U.N. officials enjoy the protective blanket of immunity which can
only be revoked by the U. N.
Secretary-General. 'It's an old boy's club and when
you have reached the diplomatic level, they all protect each other', said
one secretary who requested anonymity.'" "U.N. denies sexual harassment", UPN, May 19,
1994.
"The UN Sexual Harassment Policy,
although in some respects reading well on the surface, is deficient when
measured against standards presently applicable under host country [US] law. It is not enough to simply have a
written policy which prohibits sexual harassment and purports to provide a
mechanism for making and resolving complaints …
… the UN Policy is remarkable for
its complete failure to mention retaliation. In addition, it [seems to involve]
… disciplinary procedures which are confusing, cumbersome, bureaucratic
and painfully slow. Moreover,
because the investigation and determination procedures are adversary in
nature and the basis of determinations apparently kept secret, it seems
inevitable that employees perceive the process as being unfair and many
actions as being retaliatory. … … we believe… that the [UN policy]
would not meet [US] current standards for an effective anti-sexual
harassment policy. … the 'four P's' are either not sufficiently present or
are lacking entirely, i.e., Policy in writing, Prompt investigation,
Protection of the victim, Punishment of the harasser." "Report
commenting on United Nations sexual harassment policy", Chadbourne &
Park LLP, New York, March 2001, to be found at www.un.org/staff/panelofcounsel/shrep.htm
.
"Shame, shame, shame With all [the current] talk about how to
mainstream sex issues and create some representation for the women of
Afghanistan, it is interesting to note how many of Mr. Annan's 54
political envoys are women: One: Laura Canuto of Italy, who is deputy
chief of the U.N. verification mission in Guatemala.
… The special envoys and personal representatives
and their deputies are appointed by the secretary-general as sorts of
ambassadors to specific conflicts or regions. They can relay information in
either direction and issue public statements on behalf of the
organization. The Security Council last week criticized the
lack of women in such jobs and urged member states to redouble their
efforts to nominate female candidates. Senior advisers to Mr. Annan said
one in 54 personally appointed representatives is not adequate. But they were at a loss to explain
why they couldn't find any seasoned female diplomats or politicians to
fill these sometimes pivotal posts.
'It is a priority for him', one aide said with a shrug. 'He has said it is a
priority.'" Betsy Pisik, "UN Report", Washington Times,
November 5, 2001.
" Women's Rights: A Red
Flag … In 2000, the U. N. General Assembly adopted …
the Millennium Development Goals, a set of benchmarks to be achieved
internationally by 2015.
Nowhere in those goals or [progress] indicators … was reproductive
health or the right of women to take charge of their lives explicitly
stated. The goals were
written in Secretary General Kofi Annan's office, apparently to avoid
controversy, and circulated among national delegations.
… Nafis Sadik, … the outspoken former head of the
U.N. Population Fund … has [publicly criticized] the United Nations
hierarchy for failing to stand up to pressures from the lobby that now
groups the United States with the most conservative Roman Catholic and
Muslim nations. … Sadik has
also come to believe that men in power see the population issue, and most
of all women's rights, as marginal. 'I used to say in the U.N. that our colleagues,
especially our senior colleagues, were as much an obstacle as the pope,'
she said in an interview.
'That's a slight exaggeration. But ask them about reproductive
rights, and their response is 'What's that got to do with us?' I say it has got everything to do
with everyone." Barbara
Crossette, "Hurting the world's poor in morality's name," World
Policy Note: This subsection in particular, and
the other five "UN performance problems" subsections that precede
"Anecdotes and Observations", are very much still in the "start-up" stage,
due to the priority need to establish all the parts of this archive. Material from the sources cited in
the "useful sources" for each of them, and other material, will be added
as soon as possible.
Meanwhile,
considerable information on at least two major problems of women and the
UN -- both long-standing issues recently highlighted by scandals -- can be
found in this archive's subsections on Refugee Sexual
Abuses and on Anti-harassment
efforts. Useful Sources
Peng, Iara Duarte, and Sylla, Khaita, "Women," in A global agenda: Issues before the 57th General Assembly of the United Nations, Ayton-Shenker, Diana, ed., An annual publication of the United Nations Association of the United States of America, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD, Boulder CO, New York, Oxford, 2002, pp. 193-199. Riddell-Dixon,
Elizabeth, "Mainstreaming women's rights: Problems and prospects within
the Centre for Human Rights", Global Governance 5 (1999), 149-171. Prügl, Elisabeth, "International institutions and feminist politics," in "Feminist theories in IR," Brown Journal of World Affairs, Winter/Spring 2004, vol. X, no. 2, pp. 35-114 [69-84]. Freeman, Jack, "Question: Was Beijing Conference on Women a success? Question: What are the resources for implementation? Good question", Earth Times, September 28, 1995, pp. 1-10.
Anami, Anupadi, "Secretarial occupational group within the UN Secretariat", Equal Time (New York), Winter 1993, pp. 28-30. Hunt, Swanee, and Posa, Christina, "Women waging peace", Foreign
Policy, May/June 2001, 38-47. Joint Inspection
Unit, "Advancement of the status of women in the United Nations
Secretariat in an era of 'human resources management' and
'accountability': A new beginning?", UN document A/49/176,
1994.
Pietila, Hilkka, and Vickers, Jeanne, Making women matter: The role of the United Nations, updated and expanded ed., Zed, London and New Jersey, 1994. Dorsey, Ellen,
Ch. 18, "The global women's movement: Articulating a new vision of global
governance", in Diehl, Paul F., ed., The politics of
global governance: International organizations in an interdependent
world, Lynne Rienner, Boulder CO, 1997, pp. 335-359.
Tetreault, Mary Ann, "Justice for all: Wartime rape and women's human rights", Global Governance 3 (1997), 197-212.
Jahan, Rounaq, The elusive agenda: Mainstreaming women in development, University Press, Dhaka, and Zed, London and New Jersey, 1995.
Joint Inspection
Unit, "The advancement of women through and in the programmes of the
United Nations System: What happens after the fourth world conference on
Women?", UN document A/50/509, 1995.
Meron, Theodor,
Ch., 8, "The equality of women", in The United Nations Secretariat: The
rules and the practice, Lexington Books, D.C. Heath, Lexington, MA and
Toronto, 1977, pp. 141-158.
Szalai, Alexander, The situation of women in the United Nations, July 1972 Colloquium in Austria, United Nations Institute for Training and Research, New York, 1973.
Nicol, Davidson, and Croke, Margaret, eds., The United Nations and decision-making: The role of women, UNITAR,
New York, 1978. Aburdene, Patricia, and Naisbitt, John, Megatrends for women, Villard, New York, 1992.
Anderson, Dr. Mary B., Women on the Agenda: UNIFEM's experience in mainstreaming with women 1985-1990, United Nations Development Fund for Women, New York, May 1990.
Girls and women: A UNICEF development priority, UNICEF Programme Division, New York, 1993. Razavi, Shahrashoub, and Miller, Carol, From WID to GAD: Conceptual shifts in the Women and Development discourse, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development and UNDP, Geneva, February, 1995. Newman, Meredith A., Jackson, Robert A., and Baker, Douglas D.,
"Sexual harassment in the Federal workplace", Public Administration
Review (US), July/August 2003, Vol. 63, No. 4,
pp. 472-482. |
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