ICP
Asks UN Global
Compact's
Kingo If Arms
Trade Can
Join, Yes If
Legal, She
Says
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 21
-- When new UN
Global Compact
chief Lisa
Kingo took
questions
about upcoming
private sector
events on
September 21,
Inner City
Press asked
for her view
on the need
for
substantive
standards for
this UN
program, to
avoid
"blue-washing."
Video
here.
Kingo
replied that
the focus on
the Global
Compact is on
reports. Inner
City Press
asked, then,
if arms
manufacturers
or traders
could join.
Kingo
replied that
"illegal areas
like the ones
you mentioned"
couldn't join.
But,
Inner City
Press pointed
out, armed
manufacturing
and trading is
legal. She
replied that
"special kinds
of bombs"
might not be.
So: no
standards?
We'll have
more on this.
Back on June
25, 2015, the
UN Global
Compact was
studied and
praised in a
205 page study
by DNL-GL.
Inner City
Press asked
DNL-GL's
Henrik Madsen
if he has
listened to
critics of the
Compact as
"bluewashing,"
having as
members banks
like HSBC
which engage
in tax evasion
and predatory
lending.
Madsen
replied that
he would be
telling
companies
later in the
day that they
should pay
their taxes.
Fine - but
HSBC has
helped its
customer to
evade taxes.
What about
that?
Georg
Kell of the
Compact said
Madsen will be
joining the
Compact board
of directors;
earlier he
said he's told
the Compact
principles are
in the Koran.
Inner
City Press
asked about
Westpac, which
cut
remittances to
Somalia. This
was not
directly
answered.
Back on June 5
financial
inclusion was
the topic at
the UN when
Queen Maxima
of the
Netherlands
held a press
conference at
the UN, for
which she's
the the
“Special
Advocate for
Inclusive
Finance for
Development.”
Inner
City Press
asked Queen
Maxima what
she has done
on the issue
of banks like
Barclays and
Westpac
cutting of
remittances to
Somalia. Video
here.
Queen Maxima,
who had cited
remittances in
her opening
statement,
replied among
other things
that banks
take a
“risk-based
approach,” and
that the
smaller
profits they
make on
remittances
make them cut
them
off.
It is
on just this
type of
thinking, we'd
say, that this
UN office
ought to be
raising its
voice, for
example in the
case of
Westpac, which
is a member of
the UN Global
Compact.
Inner
City Press
also asked
Queen Maxima
if UN agencies
like UNRWA and
UNHCR are
working on the
issue of the
unbanked,
trying to
ensure that
the payments
they make help
recipients to
establish bank
accounts. This
too is unclear
- the answer
was that the
UN is studying
this, is
producing
knowlege. It
will be good
to produce
results. We
will stay on
this. Follow @innercitypressFollow @FUNCA_info
, 
