At UN, Talk of Freedom of Information by Countries in Latin America -- But Not By the UN Itself, On Indigenous Rights

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 22 -- The UN's lack of accountability, from bringing cholera to Haiti to using as “peacekeepers” armies under investigation for war crimes like those of the DR Congo and Sri Lanka, is enabled by the lack of even a basic Freedom of Information Act covering the UN.

   UN official Alicia Barcena, who held a press conference as head of ECLAC on September 22, previously indicated the UN would work toward a FOIA, as recently reported in the Columbia Journalism Review, here.

  On September 22, after thanking Barcena on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, Inner City Press asked what ever happened to the proposal for a right to information from the UN. The ECLAC report Barcena was launching has a whole section on "Right to Information."

  Barcena replied about trends in Latin America -- Rio Principle 10, ILO 169, open data -- but not about the UN. We'll continue to pursue this.

  Inner City Press also asked the recent murder of indigenous people in Peru for logging and asked if that industry is as deadly as mining and hydrocarbons, listed in the report. Barcena said no. But see this article:

The Sept. 1 murders of outspoken anti-logging activist, Edwin Chota and three other Ashaninka members, underscore the void now filled by criminal groups who export endangered hardwoods.

“The jungle has been abandoned by the state, and so local mafias and corruption have taken over,” said Julia Urranaga, Peru’s director of the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), during a Wednesday press conference in Lima

    We'll have more on indigenous issues today and this week.

  Inner City Press, which has litigated FOIA cases all the way to the US Supreme Court and submitted FOI request to dozens of countries, haslong pushed for a UN Freedom of Information Act.

   As reported on September 15 by the Columbia Journalism Review, “Inner City Press... reported that Burnham’s successor, Alicia Barcena, said it would be in place by the end of 2007. But the General Assembly never agreed on the scheme, and it was quietly shelved. “There were differing views among Member States about what constituted openness,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, in an email.”

  (Inner City Press asked Dujarric about the quote at the September 15, 2014, noon briefing, video here and embedded below.)

  What leadership -- citing “differing views,” the UN Secretariat gave up before it even began. CJR also quotes a rights group which won't disclose what issues it raises to Ban, and correspondents happy to get leaks and text from their Western sources. This same organization, beyond its Executive Committee trying to get the investigative Pressthrown out of the UN, withheld its Q&A with Ban Ki-moon even from its own members, here. 

  In order to pursue more access to information -- and the protection of the rights of investigative journalists against such insider approaches -- Inner City Press co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access.

  FUNCA says it is absurd for the UN Secretariat to blame member states for its own refusal to be transparent with its own financial information. Furthermore, how can Ban's UN make claims about “we the peoples” while blaming unnamed governments for banning accountability to the peoples?

  CJR concluded, as we will for now, with this: “Inner City Press continues to advocate for a systematic freedom of information policy, but admits that there is little binding pressure journalists can put on the UN legally. 'Ultimately you end up making a moral argument, which is that more so than most governments, the UN is always pontificating about good governance and transparency,' he said. 'That’s what I find so ironic.'”

Ironic is a diplomatic way to put it. Watch this site -- and this (FUNCA) one.

   

UN Staff Protest Forced Relocation of Translator Space for Ban Ki-moon Big Wigs, Bugs

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 1 -- When UN staff members marched in protest in front of Headquarters on May Day, they carried signs like "No Albano Building," and "UNinhabitable according to Shaaban." Video here.

  The Albano Building is on 46th Street and was rented by the UN to relocate workers including translators while the headquarters was renovated, for some $2 billion.

  But now that the renovation of the Secretariat is finished, the workers aren't being allowed to return. Their space, they say, is being given to big wigs from ECLAC and the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations' Police Adviser unit, which were never there before.

  The translators are confined to a decrepit former factory called uninhabitable by DGACM chief Shaaban Shaaban in a 2010 memo to Angela Kane, who still a UN official.

  Kane is now UN negotiator on chemical weapons in Syria. It occurred: how can Kane find sarin in Syria if she couldn't or wouldn't find the roaches and bed bugs in the Albano Building?

  Inner City Press at the time exclusively wrote about the bed bugs, and the leaked memo subsequently quoted by staff, and today covers not only Kane but Shaaban's replacements. Many staff interviewed by Inner City Press on May Day blamed current Assistant Secretary General Franz Baumann, and wondered what the incoming new chief of DGACM will do.

   "Where is Ban Ki-moon?" more than one staffer asked. Where indeed.

   It being May Day, the idea of worker action beyond marching arose. But it was explained to Inner City Press that while the interpreters could "shut the UN down," translators are in a more precarious position, with the prospect of outsourcing ever-more present. The Group of 77 and China push for multilingualism. But if they didn't?

The march was from 1:30 to 2:30 pm and garnered quite a bit of UN Security. Inner City Press is informed it was almost "outlawed." At Wednesday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked about the planned march, on which it had already published a story. Ban's spokesperson said peaceful protest would be allowed. And so it was, with UN Security even working to protect the march from limousines speeding out of the garage.

  Some UN communications "professionals" walked right on by, for example DPKO's Herve Ladsous' spokesperson Kieran Dwyer, last seen blocking questions from Inner City Press about the 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, Ladsous' partners. Click here for April 25 video.

  But several Security Council diplomats Inner City Press spoke with later on Wednesday were unaware of the protest, because of the timing. (One Permanent Representative of a Permanent Five member was a refreshing exception.) 

  "They should go it during GA week," another suggested, then specified they shouldn't be quoted advising UN workers how to get management's attention.

   It is member states who "own" the UN Secretariat, and who alone could hold it accountable. Appealing for the UN Secretariat to practice what it preaches, on freedom of the press or workers' rights, does not seem to work. For now. Watch this site.

At UN, Controller Yamazaki to Leave Amid Ban Budget Cuts, Hard on ECLAC

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 19 -- With Ban Ki-moon preparing amid budget cuts for a second term as UN Secretary General, many are asking when he will shake up his top officials, including in light of a pledge made through his chief of staff Vijay Nambiar that top officials would only serve five years in their positions.

So far only UN Peacekeeping chief has openly announced that he is leaving. To this list can be added UN Controller Jun Yamazaki, an Assistant Secretary General and one of Japan's highest UN officials.

Yamazaki has been the one required to present and argue for Ban's budget cuts. Sources tell Inner City Press this played a part in his decision to leave, and for the UN to start a formal advertising process, still open, for his job.

Sources also point out that while the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, GRULAC, withheld their endorsement of Ban for a second term, the economic unit serving the area, ECLAC, is faced with the loss of twelve posts, more than other regional economic commissions.

The speculation turns to the Department of Political Affairs, the Department of Management, senior policy advisers and to the chief of staff himself. Watch this site.

Footnote: in the Security Council on Tuesday, Ad Melkert repeatedly referred to his "two years" for the UN in Iraq. He wants to leave and is leaving, to be replaced Inner City Press is told by a German. We'll see.