On
UN Reform, Guterres Left Before US
Spoke, ICP Asked Why,
Speeches Not Sent Out
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive, Photos
UNITED NATIONS,
October 11 – When UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres held
his pre-General Assembly week
press conference on September
13, Inner City Press asked him
about reform, in light of the
Ng Lap Seng UN bribery guilty
verdicts
and new reports
of peacekeepers' sexual abuse.
Guterres responded on the
latter, see below. A month
later, Guterres pitched a
reform plan that many do not
understand, and others don't
agree with. Inner City Press
went to cover Guterres'
presentation to the UN's Fifth
(Budget) Committee on October
11, but was quickly told by UN
Security, "No Press." So it
went to the photo booth and
streamed a Periscope video, here.
Guterres sat next to
Cameroon's Ambassador, here.
There were speeches by
Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago
(fresh off its elimination of
the US from the World Cup),
the EU and Australia. Then
Guterres left, before the US
spoke. There was nothing else
on his schedule for the day.
Inner City Press went up to
the noon briefing, in the UN
Press Briefing Room that Guterres'
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric previously threw
Inner City Press out of and
asked, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: I was just
down in the Fifth Committee,
and, obviously, the
Secretary-General spoke, and
then some various Member
States spoke. He seemed
to… he left. The US
hadn't yet spoken. And I
just wanted to know… a lot of
the speeches before that were…
were about budget cuts and
how… and… and his… his reform
proposals. First of all,
like, if you can say it,
because it seemed like a
pretty… maybe it was just the
way the speeches were
scheduled, but was there
something that he had to
do? It seemed like this
was going to be a big moment.
Spokesman: It's… The
Secretary-General had
scheduled meetings. The
fact that he left had
absolutely nothing to do with
the fact the United States had
not spoken or was about to
speak. As you know, the
Secretary-General has been
deeply engaged in discussions
on UN reform and UN budget
with the US Mission, given
that the United States is the
largest… has the largest
single share of budget…
responsibility for the budget,
in the UN budget, and,
obviously, also having
contacts with members of
Congress. So, I think
nothing should be read into
that. Inner
City Press:
And I mean, this may seem
strange, but when I first went
in there, I was actually first
told there was… no
press. That's a quote,
which, obviously, it's about
money, and it's an open
meeting. So, I wanted…
maybe that was just a
miscommunication.
Spokesman: No, I think
it's a miscommunication. Inner
City Press: I noticed in the…
in the speeches that are sent
out by the DPI (Department of
Public Information) media
documents counter, we get a
lot… we get… almost every
other committee, we get Second
Committee, the First
Committee, but the Fifth
Committee, we're not getting
and it seems it’s about money…
I'm not complaining about
Rey. I'm saying, is it a
policy decision of the UN to
not circulate money speeches?
Spokesman: "Money makes
the UN go around, as they
say. That's a question
you should address either to
the GA Spokesman or to the
Fifth Committee. We have
no control of that." We'll
have more on that. Here's a
sample Guterres "reform"
proposal: "A Standing
Principals’ Group of Under
Secretaries General (USGs) and
the EOSG, to provide
leadership for all strategic,
political and operational
functions and ensure a
coherent 'whole-of-pillar'
approach... Interaction with
the global operational support
and management departments
would be facilitated at the
level of the Standing
Principals’ Group as well as
through dedicated capacity
within the Departments at the
strategic and operational
levels, including within the
integrated operational team
[IOT] concept." Sources close
to Guterres exclusively
complain to Inner City Press
this is little more than
"Lacroix' DPKO trying to grab
the IOTs." They point to the
lame duck status of Jeffrey
Feltman at the Department of
Political Affairs as leading
to DPA "losing the turf war
with Peacekeeping." Meanwhile,
the sources say, there is
increasing frustration on the
UN's 38th floor at the
"message" not getting out,
even talk of hiring outside
communicators, rather than
holding those already getting
paid accountable. The new head
of Global Communcations,
Alison Smale, never responded
to a detailed petition to her
before
the General Assembly week, nor
to one after
the week. This is weak, and
not unrelated to the UN's weak
response on Cameroon, about
which Smale is also now
hearing, without responding.
Ah, Communications, f/k/a DPI
which evicted and still
restricts Inner City Press
which every day asks questions
and reports, in favor of
no-show state media like
Egypt's Akhbar al Yom which
has not asked a single
question during Guterres'
tenure. The UN is UNreformed.
From the UN's September 13
transcript: Inner City Press:
Matthew Lee, Inner City Press,
on behalf of the Free UN
Coalition for Access, hoping
for readouts of your
diplomatic merry-go-round
upstairs during the GA
week. I want... you
speak the lot about reforms.
It's something I tried to ask
at the stakeout but thanks for
giving me the question. This
case of John Ashe, who I know
has deceased~-- may he rest in
peace, but there was a court
decision this summer in which
basically it painted a picture
of the UN as being quite
susceptible to bribery. There
was a Chin... a Macau-based
businessman, Ng Lap Seng, was
found guilty. So, I won't go
through it all except to say,
I wanted to know what your
view of whether the UN...
beyond just some reforms to
the PGA's (President of the
General Assembly) office,
whether it has instituted
enough reforms. Your...
your... the former PGA
yesterday sitting here said
that there are crows picking
around the side of the UN.
There are a lot of business
interests... basically, they
try to buy their way into the
UN by hooking up with a small
state. So, I wanted to
know whether your reforms will
address that. And there's also
a Code Blue report out today
about sexual abuse where they
say that, of cases they've
uncovered, many of them are
not disclosed in the conduct
and discipline website. What's
your plan during this GA week
to try to address the sexual
abuse issue of peacekeeping?
Secretary-General: Well,
in addition to the sexual
abuse, as you know, we have
taken already a number of
measures. A global victims
advocate was appointed, and
four victims advocates were
appointed in the four
situations that are more
dramatic in several African
contexts. We are
preparing a compact to be
signed with Member States in
order to make sure that there
is effective commitment in
relation to this. I'm creating
a circle of leadership with
Heads of Government and State
to assume engagement of states
in making sure that everything
is investigated properly. And
so, we are really committed to
make the best we can in this
area, knowing the difficulties
and the problems and sometimes
even the... especially, my
main concern is with the
victims that sometimes have an
enormous problem in coming
with their cases because of
the risks that they might face
in different conditions with
the community or even with the
country or even if the UN
Mission is not properly
organised. So, we are deeply
committed to that. But
the best protection in
relation to abuses is the
whistleblower policy
protection. We have introduced
a first group of measures to
enhance the whistleblower
protection when I assumed
functions immediately in
January. So, it's probably my
first measure. And after
that, we have introduced a
number of other reforms, which
I believe are bringing our
whistleblower protection
policy to the state of the
art. And if that's not the
case, if there are other
things to be suggested, we are
ready to introduce them,
because that is the best
guarantee that people can
detect and denounce things
that happen and that they will
be protected if they do so.
This is, for me, an absolute
must and the best possible
guarantee an organisation can
have in relation to the risks
of abuse of power or abuses of
any other kind or of
corruption or whatever.
So this is a big concern for
me, and I think we are acting
as we can but with total
determination to address the
problem." We'll have more on
this.
***
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