By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un1lubbers030310.html
UNITED NATIONS, March 3 -- While the UN this week is full of talk of women's rights, the UN has repeatedly invoked immunity to fight of the sexual harassment lawsuit of Cynthia Brzak, most recently in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The UN not only said it is "absolutely immune against such cases, it also gave the impunity to former UN system employee Ruud Lubbers.
But when UN spokesman Martin Nesirky was asked about the widely reported case, he said that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has "no comment." Minutes later, when Mr. Ban's Advisor on Woman's Issues Rachel Mayanja was asked about the case, she claimed that the UN "does not invoke immunity easily." Video here, from Minute 11:10.
In fact, when Inner City Press asked UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq about the UN's failure to invoke immunity when two national staff members were arrested and allegedly tortured by the government of Sri Lanka last year, Haq conceded at the UN "normally" invokes immunity, article here.
On March 3, Ms. Mayanja said that UN only invokes immunity "if the interests of the Organization are at stake."
So does the UN have an "interest" is sexual harassment?
When Ruud Lubbers was questioned by the Press about the case, he offered to demonstrate. "Come here," he said on camera to a reporter, then patted him on the back. Video here, from Minute 10:30.
Lubbers said he would do that same to Nane Annan, the wife of then Secretary General Kofi Annan. Video here, from Minute 15:25. Soon thereafter he resigned.
Why then as the UN continued to insist that Ruud Lubbers should be immune? And why would it misspeak about it? We will continue to pursue answers, during and after the current Commission on the Status of Women meetings at the UN. Watch this site.
