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UN
Talks on FOIA
by Latin
Countries But
Not By UN,
Indigenous
Report
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 continuing
lack of even
the most basic
Freedom of
Information
Act that
covers 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.
* * *
These
reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
Press at UN
Click
for
BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN
Corruption
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