Transparency, Oversight and Accountability in the UN System: Problems and How to Fix Them

The Associated Press reported this year that that the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services failed to pursue cases of corruption over the last five years, including major cases inherited from the Procurement Task Force that was disbanded in December 2008. The movie, The Whistleblower, was released in 2010 focusing on the abuses and retaliation suffered by former UN peacekeeper Kathryn Bolkovac who exposed sex trafficking involving peacekeepers in Bosnia. The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization was accused of covertly authorizing the transfer of dual use technology to Iran and North Korea and acting illegally in efforts to identify the author of anonymous letters accusing him of financial improprieties and sexual harassment. In late 2013, the UN Dispute Tribunal ruled that two whistleblowers were retaliated against for exposing evidence tampering by a top UN official charged with investigating corruption. The former spokesperson for the UN mission in Darfur revealed that the operation has routinely obfuscated or refused to report evidence of attacks on civilians by the Sudanese government and its allies. How emblematic are these incidents of the UN system? What has changed, what still needs doing, and what levers are effective in pushing reform? Join us for a discussion of problems within the UN system what can be done to address them.