By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, New platform here
UNITED NATIONS, April 21 – What reforms or commitment to human rights, or even consistency or savings, has UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres shown in the 110 days he's been atop the UN, surrounded by officials and spokespeople from the previous Secretary General Ban Ki-moon? On April 21 as Guterres prepared to fly again to Europe, to Geneva and then Montreux, he sent a letter to all UN staff, many of whom forwarded it, outraged, to Inner City Press. Guterres wrote, "I expect all of us to be frugal in the acquisition of supplies, materials, furniture and equipment." One staff member marveled, "Guterres, or The Goot as some now call him, is telling us to scrimp on office supplies while he's flying to Montreux and often Lisbon." Inner City Press pointed out that that Guterres has reduced his travel delegations and might merge the Department of Political Affairs out of existence, and might even - it's unclear why this hasn't happened yet - reverse indefensible decisions by the Department of Public Information, from the Smurfs to ongoing censorship and restrictions on the critical Press. On the response, we'll have more. Guterres put on his website job vacancy notices to the Department of Management (unfilled) and rector of UN-University and even deputy of UN HABITAT. But for Youth Envoy, an ostensibly important position, no notice was placed on Guterres' website. Instead, Maher Nasser the Officer of Charge of the Department of Public Information, which evicted and restricts Inner City Press which asks these questions, tweeted a link to a Survey Monkey site two days before the deadline. When Inner City Press asked about the disparity, and about why it is still restricted to minders 14 months after trying to covering the UN corruption story in the UN Press Briefing Room, Nasser replied "Matthew - This is same process through which first youth envoy nominations were solicited. U have same access as 3000 other journalists." The last is false - Inner City Press has minders while even other non resident correspondents walk down the hallway, and no-question state media from Egypt and Morocco have full access - and the former doesn't explain the disparity. On April 21 Inner City Press put the question in person to Maher Nasser, Periscope here - without answer. At the April 21 noon briefing, Guterres' holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric would only defend the non-publication on the UNSG site of the Youth Envoy position by saying it was done that way in the past. Another correspondent mutter, Slavery. On April 20 Dujarric refused to confirm that for the position of Special Adviser on Children and Armed Conflict Guterres had chosen Virginia Gamba, without much background in human rights or child protection, over Canada's Allan Rock and Myanmar rights expert Yanghee Lee. Dujarric did not deny it, and typically did not explain it. From the UN transcript: Inner City Press: can you confirm that those considered for the [CAAC] position involved Yanghee Lee and also Allan Rock? And how would you respond to the idea that Ms. Gamba, despite her work on the JIM [Joint Investigative Mechanism], is not really viewed as a child advocate?
Spokesman Dujarric: I think Ms. Gamba will stay on at the JIM for another few weeks or couple of weeks. I don't know the exact date of her start time. In the meantime, the Secretary-General is… we're looking at people to succeed her. The office… the Special Representative isn't alone in that office. There is a Deputy Special Representative. There's a Chief of Staff. They're continuing their work, obviously, in preparation for the report, which will come out later this year. And so she will be… as soon as she assumes her job, she will take over the position and assume that responsibility as the Secretary-General's principal adviser on issues of children and armed conflict. I think Ms. Gamba is an extremely experienced and talented international civil servant who's had wide experience and I think will be a great leader to that office and a great advocate for children and for the protection of children.
Spokesman Dujarric: I think Ms. Gamba will stay on at the JIM for another few weeks or couple of weeks. I don't know the exact date of her start time. In the meantime, the Secretary-General is… we're looking at people to succeed her. The office… the Special Representative isn't alone in that office. There is a Deputy Special Representative. There's a Chief of Staff. They're continuing their work, obviously, in preparation for the report, which will come out later this year. And so she will be… as soon as she assumes her job, she will take over the position and assume that responsibility as the Secretary-General's principal adviser on issues of children and armed conflict. I think Ms. Gamba is an extremely experienced and talented international civil servant who's had wide experience and I think will be a great leader to that office and a great advocate for children and for the protection of children.
Also on April 20 Dujarric announced that Guterres wants a review of the UN's air travel costs; Dujarric also belatedly confirmed what Inner City Press asked the day before, about Guterres traveling to Switzlerland later this month from the UN Chief Executives Board meetings. Inner City Press asked for Guterres' view on retaliation by host WIPO's Gurry - again, no answer - and specifically what the costs of this CEB meeting, culminating in old haunt Montreux, will be. Dujarric did not provide any number, thinking that mentioning Swiss government support resolves it. It does not. For now, Inner City Press publishes this internal list of the possible Montreux topics: the UN common position on the admission of the State of Palestine to UN Specialized Agencies, Programs and Funds by Sept. 2107, how to thrive without UN/Western funding - learn from the experience of UNIDO and UNESCO in this regard. Better media relations, advocacy & fundraising to promote the SDGs, Agenda 2030, synergies with OBOR, BRICS Bank - and the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, even Bill Gates. Watch this site. Also this week, Guterres has handed the UN Development Program to a German official, Achim Steiner, while also proposing a German as his Personal Envoy on Western Sahara, Horst Kohler. As Inner City Press reported, and holdover Spokesman Stephane Dujarric called "despicable," one of Guterres' closest aides is Katrin Hett, of Germany. She got the position through Jeffrey Feltman, appointed to the UN by the previous US administration. Sources tell Inner City Press that Germany was in the running to head the UN Department of Management too, for which Guterres pushed a vacancy notice. But even for more, another Germany USG would be too much. So Inner City Press is told that Guterres may offer the Department of Management to the United States, once his other "reform" merges Feltman's Department of Political Affairs out of existence. So, they tell Inner City Press, the affable Yukio Takasu has been extended atop Management for a year. How long can this lack of reform, and continued restrictions on the Press that covers it, continue? When UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres did a photo op at 9:25 am with the African Union's Moussa Faki Mahamat, the conference room was full of name tags. Inner City Press took the (first) photo and was told to wait on the 37th floor until 10 am for a "photo spray." At that time, the room was full with AU officials including Early Warning and Conflict Prevention specialist Frederic Ngaga Gateretse, who to his credit took note of the UN's bad treatment of the Press. Video here and embedded below. And in fact, when Guterres did a rare Q&A at 1 pm, he did not answer the Cameroon Internet cut-off question Inner City Press three times audibly asked, after Guterres' holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric picked on pre-arranged questioners, at least two not about Africa.
At the 10 am meeting, Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed, made aware, came to the end of the table and spoke with ASGs Taye Brook Zerihoun and Gettu, who joked that "The Horn" (or part of it) was represented. New UN Peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix came in; Jeffrey Feltman was in the meeting, but not apparently Stephen O'Brien.
UNFPA's Babatunde Osotimehin came up late on the elevator. Minutes afterward, the UN announced that Guterres' 5 pm meeting with Egypt's Minister Badr would no longer be open to the media, as his UN is giving Inner City Press' longtime space work space to Egyptian state media Akhbar al Yom, whose long absent correspondent rarely comes in, never asks questions. This is today's UN: and it must improve. So too must Guterres' and Mohammed's UN's performance on Cameroon and other AU topics. Watch this site.
