As
Diarra Laughs
at ECA Run,
Complaints by
Female Staff
Unresponded To
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 7 --
For weeks
Inner City
Press has
heard that the
UN's Special
Adviser on
Africa Cheikh
Sidi
Diarra is a
candidate to
replace
Abdoulie
Janneh as head
of the
UN Economic
Commission for
Africa, ECA.
After
informally
asking Cheikh
Sidi Diarra
about it, on
October 7
Inner
City Press
asked him on
camera. He
replied that
he is not
aware of
an opening at
ECA -- one
heard laughter
at this point
-- and that he
is honored to
serve 90
nations in his
various roles
at the UN.
Video here.
One
of his roles
is as head of
the Office of
High
Representative
for
Least
Developed
Countries,
Landlocked
Developing
Countries
&
Small Island
Developing
States,
OHRLLS. Inner
City Press has
asked
for a response
to staff abuse
claims within
OHRLLS.
Specifically,
Inner
City Press has
reviewed
detailed
written
complaints
against the
OHRLLS Chief
of Policy
Development
Sandagdorj
Erdenebileg
from 2011
back to
2008. Click here for one.
The complaints
are
consistent, of
verbal and
other
abuse of
female
subordinates.
Despite the
2008
complaint, in
which a
female UN
staffer
described in
detail how
Sandagdorj
Erdenebileg
was
treating her
like a
"domestic
employee," was
still
reportedly
acting the
same way, or
worse, in 2011
-- telling his
assistant to
clean up his
used tissues,
for example: click here.
Inner
City
Press asked
Sandagdorj
Erdenebileg
for his
response to
the 2011
complaint, sending it to him,
and responded
to his
telephone call
asking what
the
deadline was.
Still, no
response was
received by
deadline.
Inner
City Press
told Cheikh
Sidi Diarra
just after the
NEPAD press
conference
Friday at 1 pm
that his
subordinate
Sandagdorj
Erdenebileg
had been asked
for a
response.
"How
do
you know these
things?"
Cheikh Sidi
Diarra asked.
How
indeed.
With
all
due respect,
even as
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon speaks
about
the rights of
women, many
female
employees at
the UN are
mistreated
and little is
done about it,
even when
formal
complaints are
filed.
It is
supervisors
who should be
held
accountable
for acting on
complaints,
such as the
2008 and then
2011
complaints at
issue here.
Diarra &
Ban Ki-moon, Tissue-Gate not
shown
In
this UN
system, there
is very little
review of
candidates for
top
jobs.
Inner
City
Press is
informed, for
example, the
new Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations
chief Herve
Ladsous was
simply
presented by
the French
government as
the person who
should be
given the job,
as a
replacement
for their
previous
interviewed
candidate
Jerome
Bonnafont, and
Ladsous was
given it,
despite his
statements
about
Rwanda and
then ousting
Aristide from
Haiti, and his
role as chief
of
state to
Michele
Aliot-Marie
when she flew
on Air Ben Ali
in Tunisia.
Cheikh
Sidi
Diarra has run
several UN
offices, and
it seems
obvious that
the
record of
running of
these offices,
including how
staff have
been
treated,
should along
with other
factors such
as those
described in
Friday's NEPAD
press
conference be
reviewed
before any
next position.
But will they
be?
In
the NEPAD
press
conference,
Inner City
Press asked if
the
International
Monetary Fund,
ostensibly a
part of the UN
system,
works with
NEPAD. The CEO
of NEPAD,
Ibrahim Assane
Mayaki, said
that
the IMF's
structural
adjustment
program
demands had
hurt planning
in
Africa, but
that this is
being
countered.
Video
here.
Cheikh
Sidi Diarra on
the
other hand
gave a rosy
description of
IMF
involvement
with the UN
and
various Ban
Ki-moon task
forces. This,
apparently, is
what Ban
Ki-moon is
looking for
from officials
in his UN. How
women are
treated, it
seems, is far
less
important.
Watch this
site.
, 
