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Gaza Resolution Vetoed by U.S., While North Korea Faces Veto and Chechnya Unread

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.

UNITED NATIONS, July 13 -- The first of some long-delayed voted was taken in the UN Security Council Thursday afternoon. On the agenda was a resolution about Gaza, sponsored by Qatar. Just before three p.m., U.S. Ambassador John Bolton stopped at the stakeout and said that efforts to hold off the vote had failed, that he had received his instructions from Washington and these would be clear in his vote and statement.

            Inside the chamber, of the fifteen Council members ten voted in favor, four abstained, and one, the U.S., used its veto. The resolution failed. The abstainers consisted of Peru, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and Denmark. Speeches were given by each. John Bolton sped down the second floor hallway, avoiding a crowd of reporters surrounding the U.K. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry. Next stop / vote: North Korea.

DPRK a/k/a North Korea

On Chechnya, Ignorance Is Bliss?

            One P-5 Ambassador who rarely comes to the stakeout, Russia's Vitaly Churkin took questions on Kosovo and other matters. After Amb. Churkin spoke about the situation of the Serbian minority in Kosovo, he jokes that he only wants easy questions. So Inner City Press asked Amb. Churkin to comment on the Wall Street Journal's June 24, 2006, front page article describing how paid demonstrators ostensibly protesting those who criticize Russia's actions in Chechnya are filmed by Russian state television and broadcast in Russia as real news.

            Amb. Churkin said that this couldn't be true and claimed that he'd never seen the article.  Click here to view. Perhaps that's because the WSJ is not free on the Internet, although one would expect an Ambassador to keep us with such press accounts. But here are some fair-use quotes from the article:

"Demonstrators had a simpler goal: getting paid. "Where's the moneyman?" shouted one of them, Pat Bradley. Mr. Bradley said he and his wife, Kellie, recovering heroin addicts, had run into a rally organizer that morning outside their methadone clinic and were promised $15 each if they would ride a bus to a park in the Queens borough of New York City and chant slogans for 15 minutes. Mr. Bradley says he alternated shouts of "Stop the terrorism!" with a more mercantile cry: "Show me the money!" The rally last December was one of nearly a dozen paid-for protests organized by Russian émigrés in the U.S. in the past two years. They spent $150,000 to $200,000 in some months, accounting records indicate, to rally thousands of demonstrators near spots such as United Nations headquarters and the World Trade Center site. State-controlled Russian television, whose content is closely guided by Kremlin handlers, covered some of the events, often as the only news organ present, showing video of them on the evening news back home....

Russian state television, called First Channel, has portrayed the U.S. demonstrators as part of an international movement in support of extraditing militant Chechens to Russia. A person familiar with the state television channel's operations said that influential people within Russia had ordered it to cover the U.S. demonstration movement, even though "at First Channel, everyone knows it is a fake."

... payment varied from person to person. Russian pensioners from Brooklyn got $35, he wrote, but African-Americans and Hispanics only $20.

            One would think that a UN Ambassador would take note of such a front page article in the major business newspaper in the city in which he lives. We'll see.

            On Uganda, Inner City Press asked the Council president, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, when the issues of the Lord's Resistance Army will be on the Council's agenda, now that the Secretary-General's report is fully public. "In the second half of July," Amb. de La Sabliere replied. At the noon briefing, Inner City Press asked the spokeswoman if the Secretary-General has any comment on Ugandan President Museveni's offer of full amnesty to the LRA's Joseph Kony, despite his indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Ms. Okabe said that the Secretary General is opposed to impunity, and is suggesting on envoy on the LRA issues. Click here to view, and watch this space.

Feedback: editorial [at] innercitypress.com

UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 718-716-3540

 

BTC Briefing, Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N

UNITED NATIONS, July 13 -- An oil pipelines gambit came to interim fruition on Thursday. The Baku - Tblisi - Ceyhan curving route, avoiding Armenia, breakaway parts of Georgia and most Kurdish parts of Turkey, is a testament to its precarious position. At a briefing at the UN, Inner City Press asked the outgoing Ambassador of Georgia Revaz Adamia to explain BP's funding of a 700 person defense force for the pipeline.  "They are not soldier," Amb. Adamia answered. "They are high tech people."

            Inner City Press asked the Ambassador of Azerbaijan Yashar Aliyev about the avoidance of Armenia. We cannot deal with them until they stop occupying our territory, he said. "You mean Nagorno - Karabakh?" Not only that, Amb. Aliyev answered. That's only four percent. Few people know this, but Armenia has occupied twenty percent of our territory.

            But we digress. The pipeline is more than a tube for oil, the Ambassadors read from their scripts. A four-minute movie was shown. Later the full 20-minute film was screened, as waiters served lamp chops and salmon on a skewer. "Bill Clinton was there at the birth," a Georgian representative said. "He offered American guarantees so the work would get done. It avoids this" -- he pointed on a map at Russia -- "and here," pointing to Iran and the Middle East. "If only Turkmenistan agrees to provide its gas," he said wistfully. He added his view that Armenia gets away with incursions in Azerbaijan due to U.S. support. It's an issue rarely touched on at the United Nations.

Georgia

            Inner City Press asked outgoing Georgian Ambassador Ademia where he's going.  "Back to science and business," he answered.  "Oil," guess-whispered one wag -- not this one -- in the crowd.

   Full disclosure: this reporter consumed, on the pipeline proponents' tab, several skewers of meat and a glass of Borjomi mineral water, named for a national park in Georgia which environmentalists say is put at risk by the BTC pipeline.

At the UN, A Day of Resolutions on Gaza, North Korea and Iran, Georgia as Side Dish

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.

UNITED NATIONS, July 12 -- Just as there are big countries and little countries, at the UN there are big issues and then other issues, sometimes called non-issues. On Wednesday at the UN, there were serial stakeouts by the Ambassadors of France and the United States, off the cuff comments by the Ambassadors of Russia, China and the UK, and side speeches by the Palestinian Permanent Observer and the UN's head of peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno.

    Taking questions from a half-dozen journalists at the noon briefing -- where Inner City Press asked about a UNHCR conflict-of-interest investment with Ivan Pictet, who's on the UN Investment Committee, click here for that article -- was the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Georgia, Heidi Tagliavini, soon to leave her post and return to Switzerland. Still she was diplomatic, preferring not to comment on yesterday's outbursts from Georgia's parliamentary speaker and the Russian ambassador, rather referring obliquely to "mis-information" being a problem in Abkhazia.

            Inner City Press asked if she views as mis-information the allegations of money laundering, including for terrorism, in Abkhazia.

            "Thank God my mandate doesn't include bank regulation," she replied. She went on to describe Abkhazia as a "dark area" where certainly money laundering could happen.  In response to Inner City Press' second question, about South Ossetia, she described the Abkhazians as more professional, and having a longer independent history, than is the case in South Ossetia. Asked if Georgia should be allowed to speak before the Security Council when it is on the agenda, she respond that she personally thinks that's right, but it is of course up to the Security Council. In the hall outside Room 226, the Georgia ambassador noted that Russia should not be able to block Georgia's attendance and speaking, since these are procedural and not substantive matters. That and a token, a New York wag replied.

            At another stakeout, Inner City Press asked the UN's head of peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno for more information on the release of the final five of the peacekeeper in Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mr. Guehenno replied that the problem in Ituri is "young men with guns," and that even those are disarmed can't find a job. He said, in a sanitized on-camera version, that those negotiated with, Peter Karim, changed from day to day.  Inner City Press asked if in his briefing to the Council about the African Union summit in Banjul, the issue of the Secretary-General's new deference to a "Mugabe-selected mediator" came up. Mr. Guehenno replied both that it had not come up, and that he was not sure if the mediator was Mugabe-selected. Inner City Press asked, "what is the mediator's mandate? Between whom is he mediating -- Mugabe and the Blair government in the UK, or Mugabe and the opposition in Zimbabwe?" Mr. Guehenno said he is not the one to ask, that the question should be directed to and answered by Department of Political Affairs. Okay then.

            The main action was dueling resolutions: the Qatari resolution on Gaza, not expanded to cover Lebanon, texts and more texts on North Korea, and forthcoming text on Iran. In the midst of these, all covered elsewhere, French ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere let drop that he met with the Thai candidate for Secretary-General. Inner City Press pursued at the stakeout the fate of the Gaza electrical power plant, which UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said Tuesday should be repaired by Israel. Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador John Bolton if he had any comment on this. He replied, "I don't have any comment." Dan Gillerman, the Ambassador of Israel, said that his country has "no intention to punish" civilians, but that he has "no information on the plant." Inner City Press asked to be updated, and asked OCHA to amplify Jan Egeland's reference to an "American insurance company" now possibly barred from paying out on the policy due to sanctions against Hamas. Who paid the premiums? Especially, after the insurance company became arguably barred from paying on the policy?  Developing....

UN's Corporate Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and UNDP Continues

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.

UNITED NATIONS, July 13 -- The UN under Kofi Annan has increasingly worked with corporations. Questions have been raised about background checks and safeguards. A day after Inner City Press reported that the UN's Geneva-based refugee agency had not known that Swiss banker Ivan Pictet is on the UN Investment Committee when the UNHCR Kashmir Relief Note placed money with the Pictet Funds India Equity fund, the agency's spokesman mused, "Isn't the UN Investment Fund based in New York?"

            Inner City Press asked if it would have been helpful to UNHCR if the UN system had a database of the companies controlled by the outside business people who serve on bodies like the UN Investment Committee. A Google search for that committee and Pictet found close to nothing. It appears that there is no easy way to find who is on the UN Investment Committee.

            UNHCR's Ron Redmond answered that that it would "have been helpful to have that type of information... For UNHCR to look it up is labor intensive, with all the possible company names." He later added in writing, "Any additional information on prospective corporate partners is of course always welcome; it would facilitate our screening processes." Mr. Redmond states that UNHCR was never required to ask SocGen to cease using the UNHCR visibility logo, in part because the brochure that it was on was only intended to be used for a brief period. But records show that individuals high in UN Headquarters chided UNHCR for the use of such terms as UNHCR "teams up" with SocGen. Despite this in-house chiding, or perhaps because the chiders refuse in their defensiveness to comment for the record, this practice continues in the UN system to this day, literally. Click here to view the UN's World Tourism Organization's July 12, 2006 press release, "UN tourism agency teams up with Microsoft," which was published on the UN News Center just as UNHCR SocGen-derilab's April 5, 2006 press release was. They just keep teaming up.

            As the UN increasingly has intercourse with corporations, basic safeguards are still not in place. Inner City Press has previously reported on the lack of background checks when corporations are allowed to join the UN Global Compact, and has twice been rebuffed in requests to interview or ask questions of corporate CEOs who have come to meet the Secretary General or on other Global Compact business.

            At Thursday's noon briefing, spokeswoman Marie Okabe was asked if any of the individuals in the Secretariat who were asked to comment on the UNHCR - Pictet - Societe Generale transaction had in fact spoken or provided guidance. We're still working on it, Ms. Okabe answered.

            Near six p.m., Ms. Okabe called Inner City Press and said she had spoken about the matter, as requested, with Under Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown. "They are aware of the issues," Ms. Okabe said. "This case highlights the complexities of the UN's partnerships with the private sector and so current guidelines and practices of various funds and agencies and programs will be reviewed" to try to avoid "potential conflicts of interest" and misuses of UN logos.

            Great. But what about the continued "teaming up," now with Microsoft? There's more work to be done.

[A note on UNHCR's work about Uzbekistan: the agency managed to visit in Kazakhstan with Gabdurafikh Temirbaev, the Uzbek dissident threatened with refoulement back to Tashkent, and has, its spokesman said, gotten a commitment to be able to review Uzbekistan's extradition request.]

            Alongside UNHCR's work, unlike at the UN Development Programme, at least UNHCR answered the questions and acknowledged that things could be better. On UNDP and human rights, on UNDP and refusal to answer press questions, what will happen?

Zimbabweans

            On the issues surrounding UNDP, the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General managed to get some response from UNDP to a question Inner City Press asked UNDP in writing more than a week ago: why does UNDP help the government of Uzbekistan to collect taxes, given the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' finding that this government shot and killed its own people in Andijan in May 2005. Here now is UNDP's response:

"As far as your UNDP/Uzbekistan questions from the other week, here's what I can tell you... in Uzbekistan and most of the 140 developing nations where UNDP operates, UNDP works with government and civil society on a broad range of governance projects, including economic reforms, of which tax administration and fiscal policy are a significant component. Other governance projects in Uzbekistan focus on gender equality, internet access, and public administration reform. It may be worth noting that UNDP works in a wide range of political environments, from Costa Rica to North Korea, with the belief that UNDP's mandate as a development agency is to work constructively on behalf of the people of the developing world wherever and whenever possible."

            One wag wondered if UNDP's programs in Uzbekistan might involve technical assistance on not putting political dissidents in boiling water, as the U.K.'s former ambassador in Tashkent has testified takes place. And see above, that UNHCR has managed to visit in Kazakhstan with Gabdurafikh Temirbaev, the Uzbek dissident threatened with refoulement back to Uzbekistan, where he would face torture -- perhaps with tax funds UNDP helped to collect. UNDP has still not even purported to answer the week-old question about UNDP's funding of Robert Mugabe's purported "Human Rights Council." Now the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has called for a boycott.  What was that again, about UNDP working with civil society? To be continued.

Feedback: editorial [at] innercitypress.com

UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 718-716-3540

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Conflicts of Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.

  

UNITED NATIONS, July 12, 11:45 am, updated 7 pm -- Eager to "team up" with banks Societe Generale and Pictet & Company, the United Nations' refugee agency allowed SocGen to use the UN logo in a way subsequently criticized by UN legal staff, and to invest Kashmir Relief Notes funds in a Pictet & Cie fund despite owner Ivan Pictet being a member of the UN Investment Committee. Criticized by other UN units, UNHCR agreed to cease renting out the UN logo, but said nothing can be done about the investment with Pictet et Cie.

    Inner City Press first raised these matters in April 2006. Earlier today UNHCR in Geneva finally responded, confirming but defending the investment in a Pictet fund.  UNHCR's Ron Redmond wrote to Inner City Press that

"based on the information available to us, there is no conflict of interest created for Mr. Ivan Pictet, managing partner of Pictet & Cie, and ad hoc member of the UN Investments Committee, by the fact that Pictet Funds Indian Equities is one of the funds in which KRN funds are invested. Societe Generale, the issuer of the Note, is solely responsible for choosing the funds and this selection is based on recognized risk management and hedging criteria; UNHCR plays a purely passive role as the recipient of a donation and has no interest in the performance of the Note. Moreover, Mr. Pictet's membership in the UN Investments Committee was unknown to all parties involved in drawing up this investment product, and we trust therefore that the decision to include a fund managed by Pictet & Cie was taken in good faith."

         Whether this is in keeping with current and proposed UN standards of ethics and transparency will be seen in coming days. Whether the stated lack of knowledge of Mr. Pictet's membership on the UN Investment Committee comports with minimal corporate or competence standards is also in question. The problem is a wider one: in a defensive internal memo reviewed by Inner City Press, UNHCR lawyer Helmut Buss argues that UNICEF similarly partners with FIFA and NIS Petrol Co, and that the World Food Programme does the same with TNT Airways and the World Rugby Board. Nevertheless, UNHCR has agreed to drop the logo use and the "teams up" language deployed in its April 5 press release.

            The investment in a fund controlled by a member of the UN Investment Committee UNHCR defends, including by pointing out that Morgan Stanley's Francine Bovich is also on the UN Investment Board, while the UN does much business with JPMorgan Chase. (Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, despite the comment reference to Pierpont, are not related companies.) The UNHCR memo's argument is that it's too complicated or burdensome to avoid conflicts of interest. UNHCR's earlier justification to Inner City Press argued that "we are not talking about the usual procurement procedure," when talking about an investment in a fund controlled by a member of the UN Investment Committee.

            This conflict-or-reform debate has included at least in the carbon copies Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch-Brown, who appears to have agreed that UNHCR's actions were improper. The paper trail may be important. The story began with a UNHCR press release on April 5 of this year, headlined "New corporate investment scheme helps fund UN quake relief efforts" and stating that "the United Nations refugee agency has teamed up with two Swiss investment companies in a scheme that will benefit its earthquake relief operation in Pakistan. The joint project launched by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Zurich-based Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking, and derilab s.a., a derivatives company, will allow investors to participate in a financial product that affords a unique opportunity to support reconstruction and relief efforts."

   Inner City Press inquired into the release and published a round-up article on April 11 questioning the partnership: "It might well be on the level. But it's not yet clear that if it weren't, the scheme would not proceed. It would help if the follow-up questions were answered."

Inner City Press' article included at length the statement of UNHCR's Olivier Delarue:

From: Olivier Pierre Delarue
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Sent: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 14:18:54 +0200
Subject: Re: Fwd: Press inquiry concerning how Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking, and derilab s.a were selected for participation with UNHCR

I work in UNHCR's Private Sector Fund Raising Service as Senior Corporate Relations Officer and your query about this fund raising initiative was forwarded to me... Based on the previous exchange of email you sent, your focus seems to be on the procurement and bidding process done by the UN. This particular initiative, however, is a fund raising project first proposed by  corporate entities and aimed at raising funds for UNHCR's humanitarian program.  Therefore, as with any fund raising project, we are not talking about the usual procurement procedure.

In my capacity as Senior Corporate Relations Officer, my role is to work on creating new partnerships with the corporate world in order to increase our donor base and receive greater financial and expertise from the private sector. In this particular case, Derilab s.a. approached us in the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia and proposed to assist us pro bono in finding new ways of raising donations from the financial market for this emergency. As this was never done in the past, a financial product which incorporated a charity/donation component was not easy to build. Derilab presented the project to all the major banks involved in structured and derivative products. Only Societe Generale showed a serious interest in working on this new concept. As matter of principle, UNHCR screens all new partnerships with the private sector. Societe Generale, the only bank to show an interest for this project, was screened. As a result of our careful review, Societe Generale was screened positively for various reasons, including their participation in the UN Global Compact. Please note that in the case of this initiative, UNHCR is only a receiver of donations through this financial product -- but is not endorsing the product itself

  The phrase "we are not talking about the usual procurement procedure" may have been an understatement, given the investment with a company controlled by an individual who is a member of the UN Investment Committee. Regarding the last above-quoted phrase, even the UN Headquarters staff who subsequently questioned UNHCR's program apparently found dubious this last point: the use of the phrase "teams up" implies an endorsement, the question-memo noted. ICP reiterated its broader questions to UNHCR in Geneva on June 1, including directly to Mr. Delarue, to whom UNHCR's spokesman's office also forwarded the request.

     Several UN officials contacted Inner City Press about its initial story. Subsequently UN staff in New York wrote to UNHCR in Geneva, demanding an explanation including of the seemingly violative use of the UN logo contrary to GA Resol. 92(I) of 1946.  More than a month later, UNHCR's Helmut Buss sent back a multi-page memo, acknowledging the investment in Pictet Funds Indian Equity Fund, and that Ivan Pictet is on the UN Investment Committee. Mr. Buss claimed to have determined that this conflict had been stumbled into "in good faith," and that avoiding conflicts would be difficult, given for example that Morgan Stanley's Francine Bovich is also on the UN Investment Board.

   How will conflicts of interest be avoided in the future?  More than 12 hours before initial publication of this report, Inner City Press put these questions to UNHCR in Geneva, as well as to Ivan Pictet by fax at his place of work. Inner City Press' request for UNHCR's comment stated that "while it shouldn't need to be said, Inner City Press has been appreciative of UNHCR's responses, when received, on refugee-related questions on Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, etc.. This inquiry, which began in April and was attempted to be concluded in June, is neither anti-refugee nor anti-UNHCR. As many have said, transparency is good for the UN system, in the long run. In this short-run, this is a formal request for UNHCR's written comment as quickly as possible."

            In the short and medium-run, UNHCR has declined to answer press questions about this, back in April, in early June, and now. What will happen in the longer run remains to be seen.

            At 8:15 a.m. New York time, 12 hours after sending its written request for comment, Inner City Press telephoned UNHCR deputy spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis in Geneva and reiterated the request for comment. Ms. Pagonis indicated that the request had already been forwarded to Mr. Delarue for response by midday. But since he had been asked back in early June to comment on developments of which Inner City Press was even then aware, and he did not respond, to await Mr. Delarue's belated second response seemed neither necessary nor appropriate. "It is not really about Mister Delarue," Inner City Press explained to UNHCR's Jennifer Pagonis. "It's about UNHCR and the wider United Nations."  Subsequently, the following was received:

From: REDMOND [at] unhcr.org

To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com, BUSS [at] unhcr.org, DELARUE [at] unhcr.org

Sent: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 11:01 AM

Subject: Re: Request for comment asap on UNHCR / Societe Generale's Kashmir Relief Note/ Pictet Funds - on deadline

Dear Mr. Lee,

Olivier Delarue and colleagues have looked into your questions and their reply follows.

- Use of UN name and logo: UNHCR has not authorized Societe Generale to use the UN name and logo, nor of the UNHCR official logo, both of which are indeed protected under GA/RES/92(I) of 1946. In line with the "Guidelines on Cooperation between the United Nations and the Business Community", issued by the Secretary-General on 17 July 2000, however, UNHCR has, for the sole purpose of the raising of funds for UNHCR, allowed SocGen to use, on its brochure announcing the KRN, the UNHCR "visibility logo" with the addition "in support of". For your information, Article 16 (d) (ii) of the a/m Guidelines authorizes the use of the name and emblem "to assist in the raising of funds for the Organization".

- Potential conflict of interest: Based on the information available to us, there is no conflict of interest created for Mr. Ivan Pictet, managing partner of Pictet & Cie, and ad hoc member of the UN Investments Committee, by the fact that Pictet Funds Indian Equities is one of the funds in which KRN funds are invested. Societe Generale, the issuer of the Note, is solely responsible for choosing the funds and this selection is based on recognized risk management and hedging criteria; UNHCR plays a purely passive role as the recipient of a donation and has no interest in the performance of the Note. Moreover, Mr. Pictet's membership in the UN Investments Committee was unknown to all parties involved in drawing up this investment product, and we trust therefore that the decision to include a fund managed by Pictet & Cie was taken in good faith. In any event, Mr. Pictet had no involvement whatsoever in UNHCR's decision to accept the funds thus raised by SocGen. Finally, you may also note that the volume of this investment (US$1 million shared over a number of funds, only one of which is Pictet & Cie's) cannot be considered to benefit Mr. Pictet in any substantial manner.

- Screening of Corporate Partners: Societe Generale is a member of the Global Compact . Moreover, our research at the time demonstrated that Societe Generale was rated over the past years as one of the best banks in the world, and the best in terms of derivative products. For your information, private sector partnerships are a relatively recent addition to UNHCR's fundraising strategy. In its dealings with the private sector, UNHCR consistently bases itself on the a/m Guidelines issued by the Secretary-General. In addition, UNHCR is in the process of installing an advisory board to ensure even more checks and balances. This process, by the way, was already on the way before the KRN was even first considered.

Derilab, finally, is not a signatory to the Global Compact. It is a very small Swiss company consisting of former bankers, that offered to provide its expertise in the highly specialized field of derivative products to come up with innovative approaches that could increase UNHCR's ability to raise funds from the financial market.

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. The past month is one of the busiest times of the year at UNHCR.

Regards, Ron Redmond

Head, Media Relations & Public Information, UNHCR Geneva

Update 1 p.m. July 12 -- Asked at the noon briefing if UNHCR is correct in invoking in its defense of this program and investments Kofi Annan's "Guidelines on Cooperation between the United Nations and the Business Community," spokeswoman Marie Okabe said that UNHCR has submitted a detailed response and that she, and presumably for now the Secretariat, have nothing to add to it. While UNHCR's written response was, as always, appreciated, on-the-record inquiries will continue, first into whether this UNHCR program, SocGen's initial use of the logo and the investment with Pictet & Cie, are viewed within the Secretariat and elsewhere as comporting with current and proposed standards of transparency and ethics.  Inner City Press is aware of views within the Secretariat, not close to the ground, which are at odds with UNHCR's positions and actions. These views are being solicited, on-the-record.

If Ambassadors to the UN, even from the Permanent Five, answer questions at the Security Council stakeout about their positions on such issues as amnesty for the Lords Resistance Army's Joseph Kony, and who should repair the Gaza electrical power plant, the Secretariat should answer regarding this UNHCR program. Watch this space [and see Report of July 13, 2006, above.]

Inner City Press' earlier story on this, followed by UNDP - Uganda, etc.

Inner City Press Global Inner Cities Report - April 11, 2006

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, April 11 -- An inquiry to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, about what they called a financial "scheme" with Société Générale and derilab s.a., resulted in the following answer:

From: Olivier Pierre Delarue

To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Sent: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 14:18:54 +0200

Subject: Re: Fwd: Press inquiry concerning how Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking, and derilab s.a were selected for participation with UNHCR

I work in UNHCR's Private Sector Fund Raising Service as Senior Corporate Relations Officer and your query about this fund raising initiative was forwarded to me... Based on the previous exchange of email you sent, your focus seems to be on the procurement and bidding process done by the UN. This particular initiative, however, is a fund raising project first proposed by  corporate entities and aimed at raising funds for UNHCR's humanitarian program.  Therefore, as with any fund raising project, we are not talking about the usual procurement procedure.

In my capacity as Senior Corporate Relations Officer, my role is to work on creating new partnerships with the corporate world in order to increase our donor base and receive greater financial and expertise from the private sector. In this particular case, Derilab s.a. approached us in the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia and proposed to assist us pro bono in finding new ways of raising donations from the financial market for this emergency. As this was never done in the past, a financial product which incorporated a charity/donation component was not easy to build. Derilab presented the project to all the major banks involved in structured and derivative products. Only Societe Generale showed a serious interest in working on this new concept.

As matter of principle, UNHCR screens all new partnerships with the private sector. Societe Generale, the only bank to show an interest for this project, was screened. As a result of our careful review, Societe Generale was screened positively for various reasons, including their participation in the UN Global Compact. Please note that in the case of this initiative, UNHCR is only a receiver of donations through this financial product -- but is not endorsing the product itself.

     Inner City Press responded with follow-up questions, including regarding Societe General's long embroilment in a money laundering scandal, and asked:

-is membership in the Global Compact the main screen UNHCR applies to its corporate engagements, whether philanthropic or in procurement? What are the other "various reasons"? Did your careful review of Soc Gen -- just as an example -- include the issues raised by the money laundering allegations sketched below, including those in Nigeria (we're aware that Soc Gen has not been convicted of anything, but that wouldn't seem to be the standards for a careful review).Again, these questions don't go to the merits of how the funds are used by UNHCR -- as an aside, hats off for your work in the Balkans and with Return, Afghanistan, etc.

- is derilab s.a a signatory to the Global Compact? (I'm aware I could look it up, but the question also includes -- if a company is not a signatory to the Compact, what else do you look at?) 

   Neither question has yet been answered. A Web search for derilab reflects that nearly all of the "hits" are about its recent "scheme" with UNHCR. It's own web site says only

"derilab(R) was recently founded by experts in the field of financial derivative and structured products. derilab's focus is to provide it's [sic] customers with key information on derivative and structured products. derilab also advises on the structuring of financial products."

            It might well be on the level. But it's not yet clear that if it weren't, the scheme would not proceed. It would help if the follow-up questions were answered.    

Other Inner City Press reports are archived on www.InnerCityPress.org

UN Grapples with Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without Explanation

In North Korean War of Words, Abuses in Uganda and Impunity Go Largely Ignored

On North Korea, Blue Words Move to a Saturday Showdown, UNDP Uzbek Stonewall

As the World Turns in Uganda and Korea, the UN Speaks only on Gaza, from Geneva

North Korea in the UN: Large Arms Supplant the Small, and Confusion on Uganda

UN Gives Mugabe Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned

At the UN, Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe

UN Acknowledges Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions

In Uganda, UNDP to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and see The New Vision, offsite).

Disarmament Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending

Disarmament Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance

Alleged Abuse in Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given: What Did UN Know and When?

Strong Arm on Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of Karamojong Villages

UN in Denial on Sudan, While Boldly Predicting the Future of Kosovo/a

UN's Selective Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs

UN Habitat Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at Vancouver World Urban Forum?

At the UN, a Commando Unit to Quickly Stop Genocide is Proposed, by Diplomatic Sir Brian Urquhart

UN's Annan Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants Freedom of Information

UN  Waffles on Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from Algiers

At the UN, Internal Justice Needs Reform, While in Timor Leste, Has Evidence Gone Missing?

UN & US, Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty and Senator Tom Coburn

In Bolton's Wake, Silence and Speech at the UN, Congo and Kony, Let the Games Begin

Pro-Poor Talk and a Critique of the World Trade Organization from a WTO Founder: In UN Lull, Ugandan Fog and Montenegrin Mufti

Human Rights Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News Analysis

In Praise of Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial Exclusion

UN Sees Somalia Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and Everything But Congo

AIDS Ends at the UN? Side Deals on Patents, Side Notes on Japanese Corporations, Salvadoran and Violence in Burundi

On AIDS at the UN, Who Speaks and Who Remains Unseen

Corporate Spin on AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence (May 31, 2006)

Kinshasa Election Nightmares, from Ituri to Kasai. Au Revoir Allan Rock; the UN's Belly-Dancing

Working with Warlords, Insulated by Latrines: Somalia and Pakistan Addressed at the UN

The Silence of the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank

Human Rights Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins from SUVs

Child Labor and Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu

Press Freedom? Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security Council

The Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens

Background Checks at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from Turkmenbashi's Single Book

Ripped Off Worse in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds

Burundi: Chaos at Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated by Forty Until 4 AM

In Liberia, From Nightmare to Challenge; Lack of Generosity to Egeland's CERF, Which China's Asked About

The Chadian Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come

Through the UN's One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations, Even Nuclear Areva

Racial Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks

Mine Your Own Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the Paparazzi

Human Rights Are Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still Murky

Iraq's Oil to be Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear

At the UN, Dues Threats and Presidents-Elect, Unanswered Greek Mission Questions

Kofi, Kony, Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala

As Operation Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if Iraq's Oil is Being Metered

Cash Crop: In Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in their Camps

The Shorted and Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't Add Up

UN Reform: Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance Contract

In Congolese Chaos, Shots Fired at U.N. Helicopter Gunship

In the Sudanese Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says

Empty Words on Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia

What is the Sound of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War at UN

Kosovo: Of Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of Ferronikeli Mines

Abkhazia: Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia

Post-Tsunami Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives

Who Pays for the Global Bird Flu Fight? Not the Corporations, So Far - UN

Citigroup Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference

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