On
UN Reform, NYC's Liaison
Tells ICP There's Nothing UN
Could Improve, Even on Cholera
in Haiti
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
April 12 – When New York
City's Bill de Blasio
administration's liaison to
the UN Penny Abeywardena came
again to the UN on April 11,
about an upcoming Oceans
Conference, Inner City Press
asked her about de Blasio's
talk about banning plastic
bags, and to name a single
thing the UN could reform or
do better at. She declined to
name a single thing. Video
here. There are those
who love the UN so much they
leave it weak. Shouldn't a New
York City administration speak
up for the UN's ongoing evasion
of responsibility for
negligently spreading cholera
and killing Haitians, many of
whom live in NYC? Ban
Ki-moon's 11th hour promise
has not been fulfilled; Ban's
now-gone head censor Cristina
Gallach, whose no due process
eviction of Inner City Press
leaves it still restricted in
covering the UN's second
floor, falsely claimed that
all was going well. Ironically,
Penny Abeywardena cited what
Gallach had said. Has she not
done the most basic research
into the UN's failing response
to having brought cholera to
Haiti? We will stay on this.
Back
in December 2016 Abeywardena took
questions about the United
Nations' impact on New York
City, she answered Inner City
Press' question about
Legionaires disease by saying
the UN works with the City to
comply with applicable local
laws.
On
December 7, Inner City Press
asked the UN's deputy spokesman
if this compliance extends to
the US First Amendment and due
process guarantes, both of which
Abeywardena's co-panelist
Cristina Gallach of the UN
appears ot have violated. From
the UN transcript:
Deputy
Spokesman: I would refer you
back to what Penny Abeywardena
said yesterday in her role as
the New York City Commissioner
for International Affairs about
the more than $3.3 billion, I
believe it was…
Inner
City Press: I asked her whether
the UN is subject to New York
City health rules like on
Legionnaires' disease and on
self-inspection, and she sort of
said, oh, we work very closely,
the UN basically kind of
philosophically accepts all of
these things even if it's not
legally required.
So I'd wanted to know, one,
things like the First Amendment,
as to the freedom of the press
or due process, is there… can
you say that the UN is… is… is
accepting, in the same way she
described as Legionnaires'
disease and health regulations,
of freedom of the press and due
process provisions of its host
country?
Deputy Spokesman: It's not
about the laws of the host
country. Of course, the UN
also upholds the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and
as you know, that includes the
freedom of the media, freedom of
expression, freedom of assembly
and many other key rights.
Then how could the UN's Gallach
order Inner City Press out of
the UN, for seeking to cover an
event in the UN Press Briefing
Room, without once speaking to
it - i.e. providing any due
process at the time, with no
right to appeal in the nine
months since?
On December 6, there was an
initial joke about parking
tickets, as if that would be the
extent of issues New Yorkers
might care about.
But
while the
City's study enumerates
people directly employed by the
UN Community, their lack of
labor and other rights due to
immunity was not acknowledged in
the study.
Inner City Press covers both the
UN and its headquarters city,
New York, and routinely receives
complaints from diplomats'
domestic workers and drivers
about work place abuse and lack
of benefits, and the lack of any
recourse. Due to immunity, not
only defrauded workers but those
subject to physical abuse are
left without rights.
What about the UN having brought
cholera to Haiti and killed
10,000 people, leaving sorrow
and economic harm in many New
York City communities - does the
de Blasio administration have a
position on that? Abeywardena
did not answer, leaving the
question for the UN moderator
Cristina Gallach.
But Gallach,
as mentioned even in the New
York Times, is responsible
for the ouster and eviction of
the investigative Press from the
UN, and its confinement to
minders to cover events on the
UN's second floor for the past
nine months and for the
foreseeable future.
Gallach
purported to give Inner City
Press' longtime shared UN office
to an Egyptian state media,
Akhbar al Yom, which rarely
comes into the UN and never asks
any questions.
Abeywardena answered Inner City
Press' second round of questions
by saying the City works with
the UN on such issues as testing
for Legionnaires Disease -
something legally required for
(other) buildings in New
York.
We
question whether the City
administration is doing or
should do anything to ensure
that the UN lives up to the
basic principles, applicable
right outside the UN's gates, of
press freedom and due process.
Gallach's
pretext for throwing Inner City
Press out and restricting it
since was Inner City Press'
attempt to cover an event in the
same UN Press Briefing Room on
January 29, as part of its
coverage of the ongoing Ng Lap
Seng UN bribery case set for
trial in the US District Court
for the Southern District of New
York in January 2017.
Inner
City Press left the briefing
room - which had no “closed”
sign on it - as soon as a single
UN Security officer said to, at
the request of UN spokesman Stephane
Dujarric. But three weeks
later, without once speaking
with Inner City Press, Gallach
ordered it out on two
hours notice.
When Inner City Press was
physically thrown out onto First
Avenue on Gallach's orders on
February 19, 2016 (audio
here) and its laptop
thrown onto the sidewalk, it
called the New York Police
Department, which said it had no
recourse at all, the UN controls
even the sidewalk in front of
it.
While
the UN certain does some good
work, is this censorship and
impunity something New Yorkers
should be represented as
supporting? We'll have more on
this.
***
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