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For MSF Event on Saving Lives UN Has Secret List of People Banned Guterres Puts Inner City Press On Without Review

By Matthew Russell Lee, Audio

UNITED NATIONS, October 22 – The UN maintains a secret list of people banned from entering its premises. Even the Security officers who enforce the ban are not told the reason why a person is on the list: whether it was for actual violence, or writing articles questioning the Secretary General Antonio Guterres' misuse of public funds, for example. One told Inner City Press the secret list includes "demonstrators" and "political activists," audio here. Now on October 22, being without appeal on Guterres' and Alison Smale's banned from the UN list will bar Inner City Press from attending this meritorious MSF event - why does MSF / Doctors without Borders put up with this? They should be asked: "Panel Event: “Saving Lives is Not a Crime”

WHEN: Tuesday, October 23, 3-4:30 pm

WHERE: UN Headquarters, Conference Room 6, 405 East 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10017

The international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and UN Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard invite you to “Saving Lives is Not a Crime,” a panel discussion and Q&A on the criminalization of medical and humanitarian assistance.

Introductory Remarks:

Ursula Mueller, Assistant-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA

Speakers:

Dr. Agnès Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

Dr. Dainius Puras, UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

Dr. Joanne Liu, International President, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Moderator: Mr. Fabien Dubuet, Representative to the UN, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Providing medical and humanitarian assistance has never been guaranteed and humanitarian space has always been characterized by denials of access, bureaucratic obstacles, or security incidents. Recently though, as underlined by the latest report of the Secretary-General on the Protection of Civilians, humanitarian organizations have been dealing with a new kind of threat: the risk of criminalization of their activities and personnel.

Against the backdrop of three recent reports raising the alarm on the increasing criminalization of medical and humanitarian assistance within the contexts of counter-terrorism, the response to migration, and sexual and reproductive health, this panel will discuss the negative impact of such criminalization on populations in need and the legal and operational implications for humanitarian agencies. Speakers will also suggest recommendations to put a halt to this worrying trend."

  Guterres or apparently his head of Global Communications Alison Smale, if only as a proxy, can put a journalist on the list without any review, any notice, any appeal. It is a dictator's dream come true.

   Inner City Press was physically ousted twice by Guterres' UN Security this summer as it reported on his now-15 flights to his home in Lisbon with public funds, his trading away of Cameroon human rights abuses for favors in the Budget Committee, and now his son Pedro's undisclosed business links in Africa. Smale on August 17, without once speaking to me covering the UN for Inner City Press for 11 years, withdrew my media accreditation.

  But it's gone further than that. For example, on October 11 I showed up for a film screening about sex trafficking, “Love Sonia,” to which I had been invited by the UN Office of Drugs and Crimes. UNODC's New York director personally put me on the list for a post screening reception and came and met me and took me to the UN gate to sign me in, since my ticket - which she said she'd seen - mysteriously disappeared.

  UN Security refused to allow the NY director of UNODC to sign me in. “Even if he had a ticket we'd have to check,” one officer said. I was told that a supervisor would come out, and that UNODC would speak to them. But after one hour it never happened. Guterres' chief of staff Maria Luiza Viotti left the building and I audibly told her, I'm invited but I'm being blocked. She did not even break stride.

  The UN has given me nothing in writing that I am banned. Guterres' spokesman has stated it as a fact, without explanation or rationale, on October 9 and 11, while refusing to answer my e-mailed questions despite Smale's promise they would be answered to supposedly respect my "journalistic endeavours."

   Another UN Security officer told me, No one is going to help you. You are on the list. I asked him, who else is on the list? He mentioned “demonstrators” and "political activists" and others. Audio here.

  Tellingly, NOT on Guterres' banned list are those who pleaded guilty to UN bribery for example in the Ng Lap Seng - John Ashe case. They are not banned by Guterres, UNlike the journalist who most closely covered those convictions, and the current UN bribery case of Patrick Ho and the China Energy Fund Committee. Guterres is fine with bribery, but bans those who investigate and expose it.

UNSG Guterres thinks he can ban people without no notice, no due process, no review? And that it won't be noticed or reviewed? Watch this site.

***

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