SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 18 – To candidates
nominated and running for Secretary General of the United
Nations, a detailed questionnaire has been sent by Inner
City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access, on issues
of transparency, independent, accountability, press
freedom and freedom of information.
The
questionnaire has been sent, including via the UN Mission
of the countries nominating them, to candidates Michelle
Bachelet, Rafael Grossi, Rebeca Grynspan, Macky Sall and
Virginia Gamba.
On March 18, we report - without pleasure - that the
promised campaign finance disclosures, which Inner City
Press first raised and pressed in the 2016 race bought by
Antonio Guterres with undisclosed Angolan and Gulbenkian
Foundation (oil) funds, are a dead letter. "Rebeca
Grynspan Mayufis [says] ith regard to the financing of the
campaign, the resources will be drawn from public and
private sources." This from Maritza Chan Valverde (who has
received all of the questions below). Grade to date? F.
Watch this site.
We will be reporting allresponses, or lack thereof, if it
comes to that. Here are some of the questions sent and
received:
A. CAMPAIGN FINANCE & TRANSPARENCY
1. Beyond the minimum required disclosures, will you commit to publishing on the Internet the full names, nationalities, and amounts contributed by every donor to your campaign, on a rolling basis, within 48 hours of the contribution, for the duration of the selection process? If not, why not?
2. Have any member state governments, state-owned enterprises, or entities with business before the UN made financial contributions — direct or in-kind — to your campaign? If so, which ones, and in what amounts?
3. Some candidates' disclosed campaign financing documents are available only in one language or contain limited detail. Will you commit to publishing English as well as French versions of complete, itemized financial disclosures?
4. Do you believe the current campaign finance disclosure framework for SG candidates is sufficient? What reforms, if any, would you propose to strengthen it? Please be specific.
5. If elected, will you apply equivalent or stricter financial transparency standards to the Secretariat's own contracting, procurement, and partnerships with member states and private entities? If not, why not?
B. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION / PUBLIC ACCESS
6. The United Nations has no Freedom of
Information Act or equivalent framework governing public
access to Secretariat documents. See, e.g., https://www.freedominfo.org/
7. Which categories of UN Secretariat documents do you believe should be presumptively public? Which, if any, do you believe should be exempt from disclosure, and on what grounds?
8. How would you handle requests from journalists and civil society organizations for access to UN internal communications, reports, and meeting records that are currently withheld? How would you ensure that transparency-focused press does not continue to be excluded from the UN and its (possibly your) briefings?
9. The UN's current information-withholding practices have been criticized as inconsistent and opaque — some documents are routinely shared with select delegations while withheld from press and public. How would you address this asymmetry?
10. Would you support an independent appeals mechanism for journalists or researchers whose requests for UN documents are denied? Penalties for those who willfully withhold public information, particularly regarding the spending of the public's money?
C. PRESS FREEDOM & MEDIA ACCREDITATION
Questions from the Free UN Coalition for Access (FUNCA)
11. The current UN press accreditation system has been used to exclude or ban individual journalists, including some who have covered the UN for years. What criteria do you believe should govern the granting, denial, renewal, and revocation of UN press credentials?
12. Do you believe accreditation decisions should be content-neutral — meaning a journalist cannot be denied or stripped of credentials based on the substance of their reporting about the UN or member states?
13. Under the current system, the Department of Global Communications has broad discretion over credentialing with no independent review. Would you support establishing an independent body, including judges from member states with freedom of the press traditions, to adjudicate press accreditation disputes?
14. The Press has been banned from UN premises for years without a formal hearing, written charges, or appeal process. How and on what timeline would you address this case?
15. What due process protections, if any, do you believe journalists are entitled to before their UN access is revoked or denied?
16. The UN has been criticized for applying different standards to state media outlets versus independent journalists, freelancers, and watchdog journalists. How would you ensure equitable and content-neutral accreditation?
17. Would you commit to a full review of all currently banned or suspended press credential holders within your first 10 days?
D. INSTITUTIONAL REFORM & ACCOUNTABILITY
18. The UN Secretariat has faced repeated findings of mismanagement, fraud, and abuse. What structural changes would you make to ensure genuine accountability?
19. The Secretary-General's office currently operates with limited external oversight. Would you support an independent Inspector General mechanism with the authority to investigate the Office of the Secretary-General itself? Should the SG — a position you seek — be covered by the same restrictions as other UN staff members?
20. How would you respond if a member state, P5 or otherwise powerful, including one of your campaign donors or supporters, pressured you to suppress a report, deny press access, or take other actions adverse to transparency or press freedom? Please be specific.
21. The UN's relationship with civil society has become more closed in recent years, with accreditation of NGOs and independent observers becoming more politicized. What would you do to reverse this trend, including in the relevant Committee(s)?
22. How do you view the relationship between the Secretary-General's function as a "chief administrative officer" and the obligation to speak publicly about human rights violations, press freedom abuses, and institutional failures within the UN system itself?
E. ACCOUNTABILITY FOR UN-CAUSED HARM
23. For years, UN peacekeepers accused of sexual exploitation and abuse have simply been flown home to their troop-contributing countries, with no justice in the communities where the alleged abuse took place. Will you commit to waiving UN immunity in such cases, so that host-country justice systems can prosecute? Will you support mandatory reporting of all sexual exploitation and abuse allegations to host-country prosecutors, regardless of the nationality of the accused?
24. The United Nations introduced cholera to Haiti through its peacekeeping mission, causing an epidemic that killed thousands. The UN acknowledged "moral responsibility" in 2016 but never paid a penny in compensation to victims or their families, and the trust fund established for that purpose raised essentially nothing. Would you reverse that position and commit to compensating the victims and families? What specific steps would you take to avoid a repetition of this impunity — including supporting binding arbitration for communities harmed by UN operations, as an alternative to the current system under which the UN claims absolute immunity?
PART II: YES OR NO QUESTIONS
by the Free UN Coalition for Access (FUNCA)
1. Will you, within your first 30 days as Secretary-General, propose a formal UN Freedom of Information framework to the General Assembly?
2. Will you establish a publicly accessible register of all meetings between the Secretary-General's office and member state delegations?
3. Will you immediately restore Inner City Press to resident correspondent status at UN Headquarters?
4. Will you commit to content-neutral press accreditation — meaning no journalist will be denied or stripped of credentials solely because of the substance of their reporting?
5. Will you establish an independent press accreditation review board, including judges from member states with press freedom traditions, to hear appeals of denied or revoked credentials?
6. Will you conduct and publish a full review of media currently banned or suspended from UN press access within your first 10 days?
7. Will you make all UN Secretariat procurement contracts above $100,000 publicly available online, in easily searchable format, API-accessible?
8. Will you publish a full, itemized accounting of the Secretary-General's discretionary funds and travel budget on a weekly or monthly basis?
9. Will you commit to holding regular, unscripted press conferences open to all journalists, including independent and freelance reporters?
10. Will you support a formal whistleblower protection framework for UN staff who report misconduct?
11. Will you commit to not accepting any post-SG employment, advisory role, or paid engagement with any entity that had a financial relationship with your campaign within five years of leaving office?
12. Will you make your personal financial disclosures — including with specificity assets, investments, and any ongoing income streams — publicly available for the duration of your term?
13. Will you publish the full text of all communications between your office and member state governments regarding press access or accreditation decisions?
14. Will you commit to responding to this questionnaire within 10 days of receipt?
15. Will you make this questionnaire and your response publicly available on your campaign website? (Rest assured, Inner City Press will be publishing it, and your response or non-response.)
16. Will you commit to waiving UN immunity for peacekeepers credibly accused of sexual exploitation and abuse, so that host-country justice systems can prosecute?
17. Will you commit to compensating the victims
and families of the UN-introduced cholera epidemic in
Haiti?
All candidates and/or their nominators have
received the above - watch this site.
