As UN
Evaluates
(Some) of
Itself, Qs of
Withheld
Audits,
Peacekeeping
& Fraud
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
13 -- The
failure by UN
Peacekeeping
to protect
civilians,
documented by
the UN Office
of Internal
Oversight
Services, was
one of the
examples the
UN proffered
at its March
13 press
conference by
its UN
Evaluation
Group.
Inner City
Press on
behalf of the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
asked
moderator
Deborah Rugg
of OIOS why
that report
was made
public, while
the August 20,
2014 report
about
positions in
UN
Peacekeeping
missions in
Haiti and the
DR Congo being
sold was only
made public
once it was
leaked to
Inner City
Press, here?
Ms. Rugg said
that reports
go online
within months.
Pressed, she
distinguished
between
evaluation
reports and
investigative
reports. But
FUNCA asks,
shouldn't both
be made
public?
Bigger
picture, Inner
City Press
asked the
panel if there
is any
evaluation or
assessment if
today's UN is
being
effective on
human rights
such of
freedom of the
press, due
process, the
right to
peaceful
protest?
Colin Kirk of
UNICEF said
among other
things that
all evaluation
is not
qualitative;
Marco Segone
of UN Women
said that
measurement
shows if one
is meeting
goals and
evaluation
shows why or
why not. Both
answers will
go on the UN's
webcast and
are worth
viewing. But
the question
remains: can
the UN's
purported
advocacy for
human rights
and
accountability,
from Sri Lanka
to South
Sudan, be
evaluated? And
how would they
be graded?
In South
Sudan, for
example, the
UNMISS mission
is depicted
doing
construction
work at the
compound of
state media
SSTV. Inner
City Press
asked UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric to
explain this,
particularly
in light of
the
UN-reported
decline in
freedom of
expression in
South Sudan.
He said he
would check.
We're waiting
- and
evaluating.
Footnote:
Earlier this
week UN
Spokesman
Dujarric acknowledged
that there is
NO “tradition”
of setting
aside the
first question
for the UN
Correspondents
Association
(a/k/a UN's
Censorship
Alliance,
here's
why) at
the UN
Security
Council
stakeout, but
claimed that
such a
tradition
exists in the
Press Briefing
Room.
But does it?
On March 13,
since the UNCA
board appears
predictably
uninterested
in evaluating
the UN, Inner
City Press
went first -
and thanked
the briefers
on behalf of
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
So if it's not
tradition, is
it just a
selectively
granted or
invoked right
to be
obsequious?
Let's
evaluate.
Watch this
site.
, 
