By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 10 -- On February 1 Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to confirm that he intended to name Louise Arbour as UN Special Representative on Migration. He turned back at the Security Council stakeout position and to his credit answered, that he had to "go to ACABQ" first.
On March 9, it was confirmed. But after Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq read out the announcement, when Inner City Press asked for details about the new office, Haq would not provide them. How about the proposal given to ACABQ, now after the announcement? No, Haq said, it has been given to member states. What happened to "We the Peoples"? On March 10, having on its own gotten more information, Inner City Press asked "spokesman" Haq again about it. Video here. UN transcript:
Inner City Press: I was asking yesterday about the announcement about Louise Arbour and for some more specifics. You’d said, I guess, I don’t know. There were no more specifics. So now I want to ask you. Has the ACABQ (Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions) provided oral approval of, not only Ms. Arbour’s post but also a D-1 chief of office? And if that is the case, how many more posts will be in this office? And why don’t you just disclose it? If it’s an extrabudgetary item, why is it secret?
Deputy Spokesman: Well, first of all, Ms. Arbour has yet to start at work. It will be up to her to determine precisely what the office is. Yes, some of the initial posts are… have been approved this week by the administrate… Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. And so she’ll be able to start with that. We’ll get more clear numbers once she’s actually started her work.
Inner City Press: Maybe there’s a rationale for keeping it secret until ACABQ tells you, yes, you can spend the money, but once they’ve told you, shouldn’t that be a public process?
Deputy Spokesman: It’s not a secret. This is… like I said yesterday, I think, this was a report that went to Member States, and they have it.
Deputy Spokesman: Well, first of all, Ms. Arbour has yet to start at work. It will be up to her to determine precisely what the office is. Yes, some of the initial posts are… have been approved this week by the administrate… Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. And so she’ll be able to start with that. We’ll get more clear numbers once she’s actually started her work.
Inner City Press: Maybe there’s a rationale for keeping it secret until ACABQ tells you, yes, you can spend the money, but once they’ve told you, shouldn’t that be a public process?
Deputy Spokesman: It’s not a secret. This is… like I said yesterday, I think, this was a report that went to Member States, and they have it.
Back on February 1 when Guterres held a stakeout Inner City Press at the end asked him if he was hiring Louise Arbour as migration adviser. Video here.
Guterres stopped and replied that he must first take the proposal before the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions or ACABQ.
Inner City Press is informed that on Friday, February 10, he submitted the proposal to ACABQ. Meanwhile on February 13 Inner city Press asked his (holdover) deputy spokesman Farhan Haq, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: There's criticism of the UN system for not calling the return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan refoulement, and in fact, sort of standing by as people are forced back into a dangerous situation. So, I wanted to know, since the Secretary-General… this is his issue, does he believe that the… the return of these Afghans from Pakistan is refoulement or not?
Deputy Spokesman: Well, first of all, we're… we do appreciate the hospitality that Pakistan has given to over a million undocumented Afghans for decades. That's been crucial. At the same time, the ongoing negative rhetoric, stigmatism, and labelling of the Afghan population in Pakistan and how this is adversely increasing their vulnerability, safety, and security in Pakistan is of concern. We believe that Pakistan and Afghanistan should work together to finalize a mechanism for documenting undocumented Afghans living in Pakistan. Returnees should be provided with detailed information on the situation in their place of origin to allow them to take into account their current situation in regards to security, governance, and livelihoods and to make a fully informed choice. And we believe that Pakistan must uphold their obligations under international laws, including the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, which was signed in 2016.
Inner City Press: Okay. I won't ask about the "R" word, but I wanted to ask… this is about Kenya.
Deputy Spokesman: Well, first of all, we're… we do appreciate the hospitality that Pakistan has given to over a million undocumented Afghans for decades. That's been crucial. At the same time, the ongoing negative rhetoric, stigmatism, and labelling of the Afghan population in Pakistan and how this is adversely increasing their vulnerability, safety, and security in Pakistan is of concern. We believe that Pakistan and Afghanistan should work together to finalize a mechanism for documenting undocumented Afghans living in Pakistan. Returnees should be provided with detailed information on the situation in their place of origin to allow them to take into account their current situation in regards to security, governance, and livelihoods and to make a fully informed choice. And we believe that Pakistan must uphold their obligations under international laws, including the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, which was signed in 2016.
Inner City Press: Okay. I won't ask about the "R" word, but I wanted to ask… this is about Kenya.
Then Guterres' holdover Deputy Spokesman told Inner City Press to "get over it." Video here.
From the February 1 UN transcript:
Inner City Press: Louise Arbour, are you going to make Louise Arbour as migration adviser, Louise Arbour?
Secretary-General: [Off mic] "Before I can announce the name, there is a procedure. That procedure is to submit to ACABQ (Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions) for the post to be created. And the worst thing I can do is to announce someone before the post is created, because that will be against the rules. And so you will wait a little bit more."
Secretary-General: [Off mic] "Before I can announce the name, there is a procedure. That procedure is to submit to ACABQ (Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions) for the post to be created. And the worst thing I can do is to announce someone before the post is created, because that will be against the rules. And so you will wait a little bit more."
After that interchange and before this publication, Inner City Press put follow up questions to UN holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric, which did not call on Inner City Press for any question to Guterres (the question had to be shouted out at the end), including
"On SG Guterres' answer to Inner City Press' question, please explain whether and how the position he is proposing to ACABQ is related to the position held until December 31 by Karen AbuZayd (and who hold that now) and to the position held by Peter Sutherland."
To this, Dujarric answered "Nothing to add until announcement is made."
Not even about that the position is? On January 31, Inner City Press asked Dujarric what its terms of reference are, and this was not answered.
Back on January 16, Inner City Press exclusively published Guterres' four page memo of his vision for his Office, with - what else - an organogram at the back. Scribd here,pdf here.
On January 16, Inner City Press asked Guterres' (and before that Ban Ki-moon's) deputy spokesman Farhan Haq about the memo and more. Video here, UN transcript here.
The memo begins:
"The Secretary-General, Deputy Secretary-General, Chef de Cabinet, Senior Adviser on Policy and the Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Coordination will function as a team and expect the staff of the Executive Office to do likewise.
"The role of EOSG will not be operational, nor will it supplant the functions of line departments. Rather it will aim to empower and draw upon the work of the Departments as well as Agencies, Funds and Programmes, fostering cooperation between them in pursuit of
the priorities set by Member States and the Secretary-General.
the priorities set by Member States and the Secretary-General.
"EOSG will be forward-looking, open to new ideas and welcoming of dissenting views,
drawing on and commissioning research and inputs from a wide variety of internal and
external sources to support senior decision-making and strategic thinking.
drawing on and commissioning research and inputs from a wide variety of internal and
external sources to support senior decision-making and strategic thinking.
"Strategic communications will be an integral part of EOSG functions, both internally
for clarity of the leadership message within the United Nations family and externally for the
maximum impact in public perception."
for clarity of the leadership message within the United Nations family and externally for the
maximum impact in public perception."
Inner City Press publishes the memo, obtained in the past two weeks from multiple sources, to increase public knowledge and transparency of the UN. One senior UN official who gave the memo to Inner City Press said that more substantial reforms, and personnel changes, are needed.
This comes after the UN Department of "Public" Information ordered Inner City Press to stop Periscope live-broadcasting Guterres' Town Hall meeting from the UN's own UN Webcast site, after DPI evicted and still restricts Inner City Press after it asked about the actions or lack of due diligence on corruption including by the head of DPI, Cristina Gallach. OIOS audit at Paragraphs 37-40, 20b.
Exclusive: UNSG Guterres' Memo Preaches Teamwork and Impacting Public Perception, ICP Publishes by Matthew Russell Lee on Scribd
While new UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is behind the scenes planning a number of other structural changes, also reported on exclusively by Inner City Press, officials from the discredited Ban Ki-moon era are trying and in some cases succeeding in staying on.
First, some proposed changes: the UN Department of Political Affairs, which had essentially been promised to Russia (in the person of Dmitry Titov) will be no more.
It will become "DPAP" (or as we call it, D-Papa), the Department of Political Affairs and Prevention Activities. And, contrary to the understanding reached just before Guterres got the SG position, it will NOT be Russian.
Instead, Titov is slated to either become head of Counter-Terrorism, or of a combined Rule of Law and Elections unit. Some say, elections? And others say the electoral unit needs more "oomph," to stand up, say , to UNDP.
Nor will the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, where Herve Ladsous is now ghoulishly trying to stay on until June, remain the same. It is to become DPO, Peace Operations, and Atul Khare's unit folded back in under it.
On January 12, Inner City Press asked holdover UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about… about… I guess some proposals of… of António Guterres. Is it the… this idea of a DPAP, instead of being a DPA, being a Department of Political Affairs, and you know, prevented… prevention activities. Is this… is this a done deal in his mind? Is that what he's going? And is the rule of law office going to be combined with the elections office currently headed by Craig Jenness?
Spokesman: I think you're asking questions at a level of granularity which I'm not able to answer. What I know, what the Secretary-General has asked for and what both departments, DPA… well, DPA, DFS [Department of Field Support] and DPKO [Department of Peacekeeping Operations], are working on is co-locating physically offices in units that deal with the same countries and the same areas. And that's what we're working on.
Inner City Press: Is DFS going to be eliminated and put back under DPKO…?
Spokesman: As I said, this is where our focus is on and those are the instructions he gave.
Inner City Press: And just something very specific. You'd said a lot of the contracts run out in March. And I wanted to know, I've heard that some USGs [Under-Secretaries-General] are lobbying to stay on until June. So, just to know… Like I'd asked you yesterday about Mr. [Martin] Kobler. You said you'd look into it. Does it run out in March or is it June? Mr. Ladsous, is it June…?
Spokesman: As for Mr. Kobler, I don't have any update. I think what you will see is… what we expect to see for most of the senior posts, including USGs, is vacancy announcements. And I think that will give you an indication of when posts become vacant.
Spokesman: I think you're asking questions at a level of granularity which I'm not able to answer. What I know, what the Secretary-General has asked for and what both departments, DPA… well, DPA, DFS [Department of Field Support] and DPKO [Department of Peacekeeping Operations], are working on is co-locating physically offices in units that deal with the same countries and the same areas. And that's what we're working on.
Inner City Press: Is DFS going to be eliminated and put back under DPKO…?
Spokesman: As I said, this is where our focus is on and those are the instructions he gave.
Inner City Press: And just something very specific. You'd said a lot of the contracts run out in March. And I wanted to know, I've heard that some USGs [Under-Secretaries-General] are lobbying to stay on until June. So, just to know… Like I'd asked you yesterday about Mr. [Martin] Kobler. You said you'd look into it. Does it run out in March or is it June? Mr. Ladsous, is it June…?
Spokesman: As for Mr. Kobler, I don't have any update. I think what you will see is… what we expect to see for most of the senior posts, including USGs, is vacancy announcements. And I think that will give you an indication of when posts become vacant.
So while Dujarric answered only two and a half of Inner City Press' 22 questions, here's another one: will the UN be publishing vacancy announcements for the Under Secretaries General of Peacekeeping? Of Political Affairs, seeming now extended? We'll have more on this.
Inner City Press: And just finally, on the Jeff Sachs question, it's been about a week. Is it permissible for a UN official to…?
Spokesman: I owe you an answer on that. I don't have anything.
Spokesman: I owe you an answer on that. I don't have anything.
Still no answer on Sachs. But on the "co-locating," Inner City Press is informed that on Mali, for example, there is substantial overlap and waste -- 40 people -- and so the Departments, as institutional protection, are pushing back. Guterres needs to reform now, or never, some say. Inner City Press asked specifically about Mali on January 13, without specific answer - yet.
Inner City Press on January 11 asked Ban Ki-moon's holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric to confirm what P5 Ambassadors said, that the Libya Envoy Martin Kobler - whom we like, at least personally, in full disclosure -- will leave in March. Dujarric typically refused to answer or to follow up. But now we hear Kobler may stay until June.
Several UN staff, from top to bottom, expressed frustration at Guterres keeping on at least for now such officials as Cristina Gallach, and for not yet providing leadership, rather saying he will listen. We are about to get slammed, one told Inner City Press. It's time for serious changes. We agree.
When new UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres held his first Town Hall meeting on January 9, Inner City Press went in early to stake it out - that is, stand in front and speak to attendees -- as it has in previous years.
But this year, due to a retaliatory eviction by former Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's head of communications Cristina Gallach and Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric, Inner City Press could not pass through the turnstile on the UN's second floor. And there was no one in Gallach's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit office. Inner City Press and its coverage were banned.
But the Town Hall was on the UN's own external UN Webcast website, so Inner City Press from in front of MALU then the focus booth it has been reduced to working out of broadcast the screen by Periscope, with voiceover.
Three hours later, holdover spokesman Dujarric insisted in the day's UN noon briefing that it was only on the UN's "internal" website, to which Inner City Press does not have access. It's simple to check, but Dujarric didn't.
And to the belated stakeout in front of the meeting, and an explanation afterward.
And here now some dispatches from the Town Hall meeting. A UN staff representative from Nairobi -- where Ban Ki-moon promoted his own son in law Siddharth Chatterjee to the top UN job -- complained of corruption and a lack of accountability.
Guterres called the comments "tough" and pointed out that some say it is too hard in the UN to fire people for not working. It did not seem he meant Under Secretaries General like Cristina Gallach and Herve Ladsous, but rather lower level UN staff. He spoke about accountability. We'll see: those two particularly Gallach are litmus tests.
A staff member from the UN Department of Management said that some 455 electronic questions or comments had been received. A speaker from the UN in Beirut said the online link should remain open. We agree - and note that one should be set up for the impacted public. Already people are asking Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition For Access how to reach Guterres, like bkm [at] un.org.
To a speaker from South Sudan, Guterres said that the country would be one of the topics at his lunch with members of the Security Council later in the day. (One wondered if Yemen and Burundi, even Western Sahara, will as well).
UN Spokesperson Dujarric, who answers at best 10% of Press questions, late on Sunday highlight praise by British actor Tom Hiddleston at the Golden Globes award of aid workers in South Sudan. Fine, but why didn't the UN protect them at Terrain in Juba?
As before, Dujarric seems to relish or benefit from absurd censorship threats hanging over the head of the Press. How long, in an ostenstibly new UN administration, will this be allowed?
Inner City Press asked Dujarric at the noon briefing because another UN official came into the focus booth to order it to stop -- which it did -- and sent this:
"Dear Matthew,
Please note that the SG townhall meeting is for UN staff and is not an open meeting.
Therefore, broadcasting it is a breach of the guidelines.
With kind regards,
Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit "
Please note that the SG townhall meeting is for UN staff and is not an open meeting.
Therefore, broadcasting it is a breach of the guidelines.
With kind regards,
Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit "
This is censorship: the meeting was on the UN's external website. Not a good start -- Gallach and Dujarric are leading even new SG Guterres down the garden path of censorship, at the world possible time for the UN. Watch this site.
The United Nations at the beginning of 2017 still has no Freedom of Information Act, no content neutral standards for media accreditation and no right to due process or appeal for journalists. This is UNacceptable.
New UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres should be expected to address these issues, and to hold at least monthly sit-down press conferences. On January 6 holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric indicated he would wait for something to announce. But Q&A should not be tied to a particular UN announcement.
Downgrading to non-resident correspondent status, and eviction from UN work-space, is not a legitimate way to respond to coverage of UN irregularities and corruption such as that alleged in the ongoing Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe UN bribery case. It must be reversed, but also non-resident correspondents should not be restricted to minders or escorts to cover events on the Conference Building's second floor.
On January 6, Dujarric and DPI's Cristina Gallach led Guterres on a tour that implied that only those who pay money to a group which last month gave an award to anti-press Ban Ki-moon, and who are granted (and not evicted in retaliation from) UN office space are part of the UN press corps. Click here for Inner City Press' story, and YouTube video. This will ill-serve Guterres, and the UN.
Beyond headquarters, the UN in the field must become more responsive to local journalists. A Free UN Coalition for Access member in Hargeisa, Somaliland complains that the UN in Mogadishu refuses to answer simple journalistic questions. The same has occurred in Colombia, while the UN's leadership in Kenya has informed staff not to speak to particular media. This is UNacceptable.
That former Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, among his very first acts upon leaving the UN, took legal action against reports of possible corruption during his tenure reflects badly on the UN.
FUNCA hopes for a better 2017, but hope is not enough. The UN needs a FOIA, a reversal of recent anti-press decisions and due process and content neutral standards, and at least monthly Secretary General press conferences, going forward. We will have more on this; watch this site.
