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In Demoting Anna Tibaijuka, UN's
Ban Did Not Consult His Gender Advisor, It Seems, UNIFEM Has No Comment
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, March 5 -- At the
UN celebrated Women's Day and itself, questions continued to grow about
its
demotion of Tanzanian Anna Tibaijuka from the top post at the UN Office
in
Nairobi. Ban Ki-moon's Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the
Advancement of
Woman, Rachel Mayanja, was asked by Inner City Press if Ban consulted
her
before demoting one of his most senior female officials.
"I am not very familiar with this
issue," Ms. Mayanja said. "I need to look into it and get properly
informed before answering to you." Video here,
from Minute 5:45. It seems
clear that Ban did not consult his Special Adviser on Women's
Advancement
before demoting a top female UN official.
Nor has Ban complied with the UN General
Assembly's
call that he appoint
an independent Special Adviser on Africa. It is known that Ambassadors,
for
example from Mozambique, have written in protest to Ban. His spokesman,
however, said he remains "comfortable" with his decision.
UN"s Rachel Mayanja, comment on Tibaijuka
demotion not yet shown
Ban is calling on Sudan's
al-Bashir to reconsider his decision to expel
NGOs from Darfur. Ban has been asked to reconsider his demotion of
Tibaijuka in
favor of the German Achim Steiner. But on
Thursday on the UN's intranet, the
appointment of Steiner was formally announced.
No one at Headquarters seems to want to answer
on
this. Representatives
of UNIFEM, the UN's women's agency and of ECA, Economic Commission for
Africa,
both declined comment when asked by Inner City Press. But the questions
continue to grow. Watch this site.
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
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
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