UN's Patricia O'Brien make pledge to UN's Ban, transparency and accountability not shownINNER CITY PRESS
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, March 3 -- The UN's new top lawyer, asking Tuesday about the funding and corruption crisis at the UN-affiliated genocide tribunal in Cambodia, refused to answer any questions about it.
At a press conference at UN headquarters in New York, Patricia O'Brien purported to respond to twenty minutes of questions about the so-called Hariri Tribunal, concerning the deaths of some two dozen people in Lebanon. The Cambodia tribunal, already plagued by allegations that local Cambodian staff paid bribes to get their jobs, is threatened with closure according to its top judge due to a lack of funds.
As Inner City Press asked what the UN is going to do, Ms. O'Brien said she would not answer any questions on that or any other non-Hariri Tribunal topic. Inner City Press followed up, will there be another opportunity to ask these questions? I am not undertaking any further commitment of availability, Ms. O'Brien said.
Several comparisons came to mind. The Cambodia tribunal deals with more than a million deaths, while the Hariri Tribunal deals with two dozen. On the latter, however, the UN has good news, or thinks it does. Its corruption-plagued tribunal, the UN would apparently prefer just went away.
Of this UN-assisted tribunal, "a report surfaced last week on the German legislature's Web site alleging that a top U.N. tribunal official had acknowledged the kickbacks and accused a senior Cambodian administrator of corruption. The head of public affairs for the tribunal refused to comment on the report."
Ms. O'Brien's predecessor Nicolas Michel, while more focused on Lebanon than Cambodia, nevertheless answered questions about Cambodia. Ms. O'Brien, since being awarded the UN's top legal job, has rarely if ever been available to the media. She came to one press conference and left before taking any questions.
Two weeks ago, Inner City Press approached Ms. O'Brien in the hallway of the UN, after a ceremony in which she and two dozen other Under Secretaries-General signed "accountability" compacts with Ban Ki-moon. Inner City Press told Ms. O'Brien of recent instances of corporations publicly using and misusing the UN logo and name to promote their business. Previously, when Inner City Press had raised such cases to the UN Office of Legal Affairs, which Ms. O'Brien now heads, some actions had been taken. Ms. O'Brien instructed Inner City Press to proceed as it had in the past.
Inner City Press e-mailed to Ms. O'Brien, at her UN-listed address, a half-dozen examples of corporate use of the UN logo. Having no response, Inner City Press sent the examples again, on the eve of Tuesday's press conference. Still no response, until the terse statement that only Hariri Tribunal questions about be entertained, and no other Q&A opportunity was envisioned.
The UN is ostensibly a public organization; in any event, Ms. O'Brien's salary is paid by taxpayers all over the world. While Ban's UN talks about accountability and transparency, even its top lawyer appears to resist or oppose both. We will have more on this.
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, March 3 -- The UN's new top lawyer, asking Tuesday about the funding and corruption crisis at the UN-affiliated genocide tribunal in Cambodia, refused to answer any questions about it.
At a press conference at UN headquarters in New York, Patricia O'Brien purported to respond to twenty minutes of questions about the so-called Hariri Tribunal, concerning the deaths of some two dozen people in Lebanon. The Cambodia tribunal, already plagued by allegations that local Cambodian staff paid bribes to get their jobs, is threatened with closure according to its top judge due to a lack of funds.
As Inner City Press asked what the UN is going to do, Ms. O'Brien said she would not answer any questions on that or any other non-Hariri Tribunal topic. Inner City Press followed up, will there be another opportunity to ask these questions? I am not undertaking any further commitment of availability, Ms. O'Brien said.
Several comparisons came to mind. The Cambodia tribunal deals with more than a million deaths, while the Hariri Tribunal deals with two dozen. On the latter, however, the UN has good news, or thinks it does. Its corruption-plagued tribunal, the UN would apparently prefer just went away.
Of this UN-assisted tribunal, "a report surfaced last week on the German legislature's Web site alleging that a top U.N. tribunal official had acknowledged the kickbacks and accused a senior Cambodian administrator of corruption. The head of public affairs for the tribunal refused to comment on the report."
Ms. O'Brien's predecessor Nicolas Michel, while more focused on Lebanon than Cambodia, nevertheless answered questions about Cambodia. Ms. O'Brien, since being awarded the UN's top legal job, has rarely if ever been available to the media. She came to one press conference and left before taking any questions.
Two weeks ago, Inner City Press approached Ms. O'Brien in the hallway of the UN, after a ceremony in which she and two dozen other Under Secretaries-General signed "accountability" compacts with Ban Ki-moon. Inner City Press told Ms. O'Brien of recent instances of corporations publicly using and misusing the UN logo and name to promote their business. Previously, when Inner City Press had raised such cases to the UN Office of Legal Affairs, which Ms. O'Brien now heads, some actions had been taken. Ms. O'Brien instructed Inner City Press to proceed as it had in the past.
Inner City Press e-mailed to Ms. O'Brien, at her UN-listed address, a half-dozen examples of corporate use of the UN logo. Having no response, Inner City Press sent the examples again, on the eve of Tuesday's press conference. Still no response, until the terse statement that only Hariri Tribunal questions about be entertained, and no other Q&A opportunity was envisioned.
The UN is ostensibly a public organization; in any event, Ms. O'Brien's salary is paid by taxpayers all over the world. While Ban's UN talks about accountability and transparency, even its top lawyer appears to resist or oppose both. We will have more on this.
1 comment:
Sir,
I realise this comment is rather belated considering the date this article was published, however I feel it absolutely necessary to respond to your various accusations of the Legal Counsel to the UN.
If I may refer particularly to the press conference where Ms O'Brien made it quite clear she would be discussing the matters on the Hariri Tribunal only, I cannot comprehend why any questions on Cambodia would be relevant at that moment in time. If I remember correctly Ms. O'Brien stated at the beginning of the conference that she would only be answering questions relating to the Lebanon. Therefore questions on Cambodia were out of place and her refusal to answer them was merited. It would have been unprofessional of the Under-Secretary General to be trailed away from the purpose of the conference to discuss other issues.
In your article you compared the severity of the Cambodia Tribunal and Hariri Tribunal however I believe, without disregarding the individual circumstances, that they must BOTH be treated with careful and precise attention, to ensure that justice is upheld in both situations. I do not believe you can draw comparisons between the two scenarios by weighing up one as more important than the other.
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