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UN Denounces Gender Violence But Takes No
Questions or Actions on Peacekeeper Abuse
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
November 25 -- The UN loves to
celebrate itself and its good intentions. Usually, however, it at least
takes
questions about these. This was not followed on Tuesday, when in the
name of
Ending Violation Against Women, actress Nicole Kidman appeared with the
UN's Ines
Alberdi, who was put in charge of the UN's women's agency UNIFEM due,
experts
concluded, to her Spanish
government's monetary contributions to the UN.
Only
four questions were allowed, including
one from People Magazine and another from a ten year old girl. This
despite an
overstuffed press package reciting that the applicable UN Trust Fund
received
applications for over $500 million, including applications from UN
Country
Teams themselves, and gave out $19 million. One question by Inner City
Press would have been
whether any UN Country Team saw fit to try to address the well known
problem of
abuse of women and girls by UN Peacekeepers.
Getting the UN to try to live up
to its ideals was not, however, on the agenda. Rather, questions to Ms.
Kidman
about what she tells her teenage daughter, and when she realized that
she
"had" to do this work. Outside in the hall, a large crowd had
gathered to take cell phone shots of Ms. Kidman. This is all we have
time for,
spokesperson Michele Montas said, noting that at 1 p.m. Ms. Kidman had
to
present anti-violence signatures to Ban Ki-moon. Since the press
conference
began over 12:30, perhaps less than four speakers would have allowed
for
questions on the materials handed out. If, by chance, that's what the
UN
wanted.
Nicole Kidman and UN's Ines Alberdi, peacekeeper
action and FYRO not shown
In the
seven-page handout about the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against
Women, on
page 3 a grant is listed to the UN Country Team in... "Macedonia."
Within the UN, this is to be called the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia.
Someone was asleep at the switch, or worse, on this and other things at
UNIFEM. Or perhaps wider: UNIFEM is administered, in its way,
like the country teams, by the UN Development Program, whose
Administrator on Monday went out of his way to praise Spain for its
donations, which refusing comment on the UN's use of Spani's
international cooperation budget funds for a $25 million ceiling in
Geneva, click here for
that.
News analysis: the
UN seems to think that its work
is always and everywhere assisted by celebrities. But often it is
overshadowed.
And, getting the UN names of countries right might be considered
important.
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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