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With UN Justice Delayed, Ban Blames Member States,
Rushes Ad on Intra-Net, Leaves No Remedy
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 3 -- Criticized for his
delay in implementing a new system of justice in the UN, Ban Ki-moon
has sprung
into action, posting notices of job openings on the UN's intranet and
blaming
his delay on the member states. But sources tell Inner City Press that
for many
of the jobs purportedly being advertised, candidates have already been
identified outside of the formal process.
The UN
Staff Union has presented a
counter-proposal to the members of the European Union; they say that
Ban is
violating at least four provisions of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights
he is set to celebrate on December 10. Most notably, Article 8 says
that
"everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent
national
tribunals." On that theory, the Union says its prepared to file cases
in
the U.S. courts starting January 2.
On November
21, Inner
City Press asked Ban's
spokesperson Michele Montas about the delay, and "what is the plan
for
January 2?" Ms. Montas replied that "we’ll find out, first, whether
they will be able to start as planned in January... to avoid any vacuum
in the
justice system."
After some
of the decision-makers the UN had been counting on began to resign or
threaten
to, and Inner
City Press wrote the story, European countries asked the
Secretariat, what is going on? On December 2, the Secretariat put on
its
internal i-Seek web site a statement quoting Under Secretary General
Angela
Kane that "we are behind schedule. This is partly due to a delay in the
adoption of the statutes by the General Assembly."
First,
blaming the bosses -- that is, the GA -- is rarely a good idea. Second,
Ban was
already given a one year extension, and now is reportedly preparing to
ask for
six months more. He intends to hold over many of the same people who
made the
justice system broken in the first place.
UN's Ms. Migiro, HC of Human Rights
Pillay: but do human rights obtain in the UN?
In a
purportedly confidential submission to the General Assembly on "Item
129,
Administration of Justice," the Secretariat says that "for any of
these options, structures of the current system would need to be
retained...
including the Panel of Counsel, the JAB/JDC Secretariats, the UN
Administrative
Tribunal, and the legal unit of the EOSG that advises the Deputy
Secretary General
on taking decisions on JAB and JDC recommendations."
One of the
flaws of the current system is that there is no separation of powers:
the
Secretariat, which is most often the defendant in these cases, can
simply
ignore and not follow the "recommendations" that are made to it. Even
in the proposed new system, the Ban administration is trying to avoid
"specific performance," that is, having to give someone back their
job. The idea is that damages are enough -- money paid for by none
other than
the member states. For Ban to blame these member states for his own
delay will
prove unwise, many diplomats are saying. We'll see.
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