By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 16 -- General Assembly President Joseph Deiss has staked a claim for global governance by the UN, which he calls the “G-192” to distinguish it from the G-20 club of large and rich nations.
But in his term so far, he allowed the already marginal General Assembly to be circumvented even by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on matters ranging from the budget to the UN's relations with corporations.
Earlier this month in the GA's budget committee, a complaint was lodged that by adding money and time to the UN Capital Master Plan, in this case $100 million in US Tax Equalization Funds, Ban Ki-moon had violated a General Assembly resolution requiring that the GA be told and approval any such change in scope to the CMP.
Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman about the criticism to what is now being called the “Ban Ki-moondoggle” and was told to ask CMP chief Michael Adlerstein. But Adlerstein when asked said to ask the member states.
On March 16, Inner City Press asked Deiss and GA spokesman Jean Victor Nkolo if Deiss agrees with the Group of 77 that Ban violated a GA resolution in changing the budget and time table of the CMP without GA input.
That's up to the committee, Nkolo said. What then is the role of the President of the GA when the GA roles is being ignored?
Similarly, Inner City Press asked Nkolo about a UN Joint Inspection Unit report this year that the General Assembly should assert oversight power on the UN Global Compact, an initiative started by Kofi Annan that under Ban Ki-moon has put a convicted fraudster, from South Korea, on its board of directors, and most recently granted UNGC membership to a private military contractor, G4S, under fire for involvement in Israeli run prisons in the Occupid Palestinian Territories.
Nkolo said the Global Compact is a unit of the Secretariat -- exactly what the UN JIU was criticizing and asking the GA to change -- and that he would see what committee deals with the UN Global Compact. No GA commitee does: that's just the point that the JIU should be changed.
Meanwhile, neither Ban's spokesman nor the Global Compact has yet answered Inner City Press' questions about the mercenary firm G4S's membership in the UNGC, 24 hours after the questions were posed.
Finally on March 16, Inner City Press asked Nkolo if Deiss believes that meeting of the committee on revitalization of the GA, at which greater media access was called for, should remain closed to the public. Inner City Press went into the committee's meeting this week and quoted and analyzed a few statements by Japan and Peru in Twitter posts.
Then US Deputy Permanent Representative Rosemary DiCarlo came up and said that the meeting was closed to the press. A GA staffer later confirmed this. Deiss has said he is for openness. We'll see.
