Exploring The United Nations’ Unfair Treatment of Whistleblowers

Recently it has emerged that a united nations investigator who spoke out about the unreported rape of a refugee in Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a decade long battle with UN officials over her being removed from her position.

Ms Caroline Hunt-Matthes believes her dismissal was provoked by her disclosure about the refugee. She claims to have been suddenly dismissed from the organisation while on a period of leave, and has never received either compensation or an apology for the decision despite a decade of legal efforts against the UN.

This high-profile case, along with several others, has led to concern that UN staff may not feel confident enough to speak out about abuse that they witness. Ms Hunt-Matthes, who has since left UN employment entirely, summed up the severity of what she experienced: “The bottom line is the UN is not a safe working environment at the minute. You can’t report misconduct and be protected. What could be more serious than that?”

A recent assessment by the Government Accountability Project (GAP) regarding claims made to the UN ethics office has recorded that the office had been approached a total of 447 times by UN employees concerned about the treatment they experienced after speaking out. This study relates only to cases existing prior to July 2014; suggesting the complete figure is actually even higher.

GAP examined between 113 and 135 recorded cases and concluded that 14 of them resulted in immediate negative treatment by the UN towards the whistleblower. Four of them involved cases that were found to be genuine.

This disturbing figure was criticised by GAP’s International Director, Bea Edwards, who claimed that the number of whistleblowers receiving adequate support is “abysmally low”. She added that GAP is now seeking justice for other cases by “working with UN whistleblowers who have simply resigned rather than endure such a protracted and complex internal process.”

Further accusations regarding corruption within the UN involves soldiers on peacekeeping missions committing acts of rape and exploitation, sometimes involving children. One shocking case comes from a report by Amnesty International which details the rape of a 12-year-old girl and the killing of a 16-year-old boy by peacekeepers from the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission during a peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic.

The report alleges that one of the reasons an incident like this was hushed up is due to the countries in question not wanting their soldiers to be named as culprits in such crimes, and are threatening to pull their soldiers out of UN peacekeeping missions should such information be revealed.

Numerous claims of this kind have led to widespread criticism of the UN, resulting in secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, announcing that any country whose soldiers are believed to have committed acts of rape and/or sexual exploitation during peacekeeping missions will be put on trial for their crimes.

The secretary general went on to say that preventing sexual violence by peacekeepers was “a number one priority” and that the recent cases alleging such conduct had not gone unnoticed.