PERSONNEL

Open letter to the Secretary General
« Mutatis Mutandis »

Taking UN norms seriously, by Xavier Campos, ONUG

Over the last decade the world has witnessed a sustained effort by international organizations to integrate human rights, democracy and good governance standards in the main stream of their activities. Regrettably, these initiatives have systematically ignored the «ugly reality at home», namely, the appalling record of human rights observance, access to justice and good governance of UN system organizations. International civil servants have become the «missing link» in the process. While they were expected to «actively sell» the new emphasis on human rights, justice and democratic governance approaches to «extra-muros» audiences, they have been deprived of the enjoyment of these rights and standards.
Apparently, the fundamental human rights, justice and democratic governance guarantees and facilities UN system attempts to promote worldwide, including in the poorest and most under-developed countries, are too good for the very international civil servants that are the backbone of global developmental and human rights protection efforts. Inside the UN bureaucracy, not only are these international standards ignored, but they are not even discussed in connection with basic «competencies» and «core values», or taken into account for training and skills development efforts, particularly at management level.
UN staff members (and particularly managers) appointed on the basis of their geographical origin come from countries with different political and legal systems.
This makes all the more necessary that a “common culture of peace” based on shared UN proclaimed human rights and democratic social dialogue standards be firmly established ALSO INSIDE the Organization.

The «Mirror Approach»

At the present juncture, this double standard can no longer be tolerated. International organizations can no longer afford to tell their interlocutors to «do as they say, and not as they do». They must «preach by their own example». In order to regain their credibility, UN system organizations must take the lead and show that they are capable of «doing to themselves (that is, to their own staff members and employees) what they say they want to do for everybody else».

First Step : Upgrading the UN Internal rules

The main conclusions contained in the report prepared by Deloitte about the results of the Secretariat wide Survey on Integrity, as emphasized in your letter of 4 June 2004 informing the staff about the results of the survey, pointed to the need of:

1. Providing a safe milieu for staff who feel unprotected from reprisals for reporting violations and abuses.
2. Securing an adequate and transparent follow up of investigations, including the provision of copies of the investigation reports and detailed information on sanctions and disciplinary action taken as a result of the findings.
3. Ensuring that managers, particularly at the top level lead by personal example in connection with integrity, honesty and fairness requirements.

Unfortunately, things have not improved since then.

Mr. Secretary General,
It is both paradoxical and demoralizing for UN staff members who are nationals of and work in duty stations based in European and other countries with democratic rule of law systems, to have to forgo the protection of their national constitutional guarantees and «leave their rights at the gate» every time they access their workplace inside the United Nations. The UN Charter predated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the International Covenants on Human Rights, but it specifically refers to the «highest standards» and implicitly recognizes the existence and the applicability of ius cogens norms and erga omnes obligations.
In the meantime, these universal human rights, justice and decency standards have been made explicit and justiciable all over the world to great extent thanks to the United Nations. It is imperative that the UN internal staff and administration of justice rules be upgraded to incorporate universally recognized (and UN proclaimed) independence, impartiality, competence and due process standards and guarantees to provide for swift, equitable and effective access to justice for all and to ensure accountability, as a strong incentive for early conflict resolution and as an essential deterrent against impunity.
It is time to provide for a «most favored legal system clause» for staff members of the United Nations, so that they can have the benefit not of the lowest but of the highest human rights and labor standards. If, we want the United Nations to be taken seriously (as we do), let us then be serious about making universal norms part of UN internal law. Adding a simple paragraph to the UN Staff Rules will suffice. It could simply state that: «All international instruments containing universal human rights standards and erga omnes norms promulgated by and through the United Nations shall apply mutatis mutandis as part of the internal United Nations Staff Rules and Regulations».
By so doing, we shall also be contributing to boosting our Organization’s credit and credibility and promoting the self esteem of its staff.

We sincerely thank you for your attention.

The author is an Interpreter and a Member
of the Staff Coordinating Council, UNOG on
behalf of Force Intersyndicale.