The problem at the UN is not national quotas Ramesh Thakur International Herald Tribune Saturday, March 12, 2005
Who runs the United Nations? TOKYO It is sometimes said that there is a human-resources crisis in the United Nations, and that national quotas in making senior appointments is one major cause. This is a myth. Senior appointments at the United Nations are more a mix of power and money than quota politics. . The success of the pressure from governments for their nominees to be appointed is directly proportional to the location of the countries in the international hierarchy of power and wealth, and to a lesser extent to their numbers in UN geographical groups. . The quota system serves as a scapegoat for the failings of mainly Western senior managers. Almost all the powerful and big-budget posts in the UN Secretariat and in the broader UN system are filled by Westerners, including peacekeeping, political affairs, management, development and environment programs, children's fund, human rights and refugees. . Viewed from Asia, the top of the UN looks decidedly Atlantic. A senior former Asian ambassador to the UN commented at a regional seminar last year that it was difficult for Asians to connect with the UN when its senior officials dealing with Asia were non-Asians. Other ambassadors and ministers concurred. . Asians contribute about half the UN's total peacekeepers and one-quarter of its regular and peacekeeping budget (almost three-quarters just from Japan). Asians have also suffered about one-quarter of total UN peacekeeping fatalities. Yet a year ago, there was not a single Asian (and just one African) in the senior ranks of the peacekeeping department. Two-thirds of senior staff in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations are Westerners. . In the UN Secretariat overall, Asians comprise a mere 17 percent of senior UN staff at the grades of director and above. Much attention is focussed on promoting women to senior posts, yet they fare better than Asians: 35 percent. . It is worth slaying another myth, that the UN is top-heavy. Of 2,500 professional staff in the Secretariat a year ago, 13 percent were in the senior ranks. Of the senior staff, almost one third are from the five permanent members of the Security Council - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France. Between them, Canada (9) and the United States (47), which have 5 percent of the world's population, have the same number of senior staff in the Secretariat as all of Asia, which accounts for 60 percent of the world's people. . The underrepresentation of Asians in the UN system is at best a curiosity that needs an explanation and at worst a scandal reflecting the fact that Asians are the least united and cohesive of all the regional groups there. . Making a public fuss is alien to the Asian way. But in the context of a culture of self-serving and self-advancing arguments at the United Nations, the result is a failure by Asian government representatives to promote the interests of their people. They should be more assertive in proposing professionally competent Asian names for suitable senior posts, and then lobbying for them. . Maybe the United Nations has not been very effective at rebutting charges against it. Perhaps the organization needs to revamp its grievance procedures so that genuine whistle-blowers and victims are protected from the wrath of vengeful or lecherous bosses, managers are protected from mischievous charges laid against them by disgruntled employees, and staff as well as the world at large are given prompt and satisfactory accounts of action taken. . But whatever faults there may be at senior levels of the UN, the blame for them does not lie in quota appointments. They are not the source of the problem; they might provide a solution. . (Ramesh Thakur is senior vice rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo. His new book, ''The United Nations and the Changing Peace and Security Agenda,'' will be published by Cambridge University Press.) . ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
