On
Whistleblowers, Jan 25 Protest
Against WIPO's Gurry,
UN Retaliation & Censorship
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
January 24 – The UN system's
mistreatment of whistleblowers
goes beyond the UN
Secretariat's firing of Anders
Kompass after he went public
with sexual abuse of children
in the Central African
Republic by peacekeepers, and
outright censorship in 2016.
At the
World Intellectual Property
Organization, Director General
Francis Gurry abused his power
after a detailed charge of
misconduct filed by then
Deputy Director General James
Pooley. Whistleblower Miranda
Brown has yet to be
reinstated.
Now there will be
a staff protest at WIPO in
Geneva on January 25. From the
staff:
"to call for the
removal of the WIPO Director
General. The agreed
demonstration will therefore
take place on Wednesday, 25
January 2017 from 12h15 to
12h45 in front of the broken
chair at the Place des
Nations. Speeches will
start at 12h15 sharp.... We
will also have some balloons
to hand out which calls for
the resignation of the WIPO
Director General.
We count on your presence at
the demonstration. Remember,
today it is WIPO, but tomorrow
it could be your
organization."
On January
6, Inner City Press asked the
UN about reports it would be
issuing a revised
whistleblower policy, and
about criticism of it. See
below.
The policy was
announced on January 23, the
first full day of the Trump
Administration in the US,
where already legislation
calls for cutting
contributions to the UN if it
does not protect
whistleblowers. Will this,
which still apparently denies
access to the UN Dispute
Tribunal, be enough?
***
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