If you cannot find a UN scandal/follie story here, you can likely find it at FOX.

Commentary and reporting on the hapless mismanagement of systemically corrupt IO's

The definitive up-to-date information resource about the UN and other international organisations, and their embarassing follies

CAIO was formed in response to a demand from Staff Associations, Staff Unions and a recognition from the Geneva and International Legal Community of systemic problems within the UN and international organisations: the lack of legal protection for international civil servants and third parties who are victims of civil and criminal wrongs.

Investigative reporter and attorney Matthew Russell Lee is digging out a scandal a minute with his dispatches from UN HQ in New York--a must read.

The UN Forum is an open and independent forum on UN news and issues, not connected with the UN. It provides a very incisive, well-informed, and ongoing analysis of behind-the-scenes activities inside the UN Secretariat. It reporting stands in marked contrast to the concurrent flood of official UN "public information" materials. The UN Forum is particularly useful for its "Insider" and "Agenda" archives, which extend back to the year 2000.

Eye on the UN is a project of the Hudson Institute and the Touro Law Center. Its purpose is to make transparent the UN's record on its fundamental promises on human rights actions and responses to international peace and security threats. Its information base includes not only daily articles but extensive archived articles on "serious shortfalls exposed in the UN record", under such categories as Corruption and Mismanagement, Management Issues, Oil-For-Food Scandal, Sexual Harassment, U.N. Peacekeepers, and U.N. Expansion.

Claudia Rosett, whose thorough work on the UN in the oil-for-food scandal and subsequent events appears throughout this website,provides current commentary in The Rosett Report.

One can use this site to search for a UNAt judgment by number or session. The companion link for the UN's Panel of Counsel (http://www.un.org/staff/panelofcounsel/aboutpoc.htm) has a number of summaries of some but not all the UNAT cases.

This site has a better search engine for ILOAT cases than the UNAT has for its own cases, but it still leaves a lot to be desired (the ILOAT's own key word index is biased and ignores many pertinent cases). Even if one does not find a pertinent case using the Triblex search engine, try doing a word search and one may find more pertinent cases. NOTICE--as neither the UNAT nor the ILOAT follow the legal principle of "stare decisis" (being bound by their own precedents/jurisprudence), even if one finds a prior case which agrees completely with the current case, their is no guarantee that either court will abide by the prior decision--this is so-called UN Infernal Justice!!

The UN Staff Rules provide that a staff member may be represented by any other serving or retired staff member when initiating formal appeals before the Joint Appeals Board (Staff Rule 111.2(i)) or replying to charges of misconduct and defending themselves against those charges in a hearing before the Joint Disciplinary Committee (Staff Rule 110.7(d)), whether or not they are a member of the Panel of Counsel. Before the Administrative Tribunal, a staff member may be represented by another serving or retired staff member or by an outside attorney of his or her choice. Counsel also advise or assist in other appeal mechanisms such as the Advisory Board on Compensation Claims (ABCC), and the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Board (UNJSPB), and assist in the preparation of Performance Appraisal Rebuttals. The Panel of Counsel was established to support the work of the volunteer advocacy mandated by the Staff Rules and Article 13 of the Administrative Tribunal Statute. The Panel of Counsel is composed of a group of serving and retired staff members who have agreed to represent their colleagues in various stages of appeals, disciplinary and other claims. Their work is supported and administered through the Office of the Coordinator, Panel of Counsel, Department of Management at Headquarters, New York. AS AN ATTORNEY CANNOT REPRESENT TWO MASTERS (CLIENTS), THIS SITE DOES NOT RECOMMEND THAT STAFF MEMBERS BE REPRESENTED BY COLLEAGUES FROM THE PANEL OF COUNSEL AS THEY HAVE AN INHERENT CONFLICT OF INTEREST (THEY ARE BEING PAID BY THE DEFENDANT ORGANISATION AND HAVE A CLEAR CONFLICT OF INTEREST--IF THEY REPRESENT YOUR CASE TOO ZEALOUSLY, THEY MAY LOSE THEIR OWN POST!). HOWEVER, THE PANEL OF COUNSEL SITE HAS SOME VERY GOOD RESOURCE MATERIAL.

SUEPO is the Staff Union of the European Patent Office--although primarily concerned with the welfare of EPO staff, this Union has been at the forefront of championing rights of international civil servants around the world. EPO usually has the hightest number of cases pending against it at any ILOAT judgment session, thanks in great part to the support and assistance of SUEPO. The site is useful--check it out: We represent staff interest In a first instance SUEPO represents the interests of EPO staff in general and those of its members in particular. SUEPO takes particular care to maintain acceptable working conditions for the Staff of the European Patent Office. This concerns not only the remuneration of the EPO staff, but a wide range of everyday aspects of working conditions at the EPO, such as working time, working pressure and ergonomics. Unlike similar categories of employees in the national public administration or in private industry, the working conditions of the Staff of the European Patent Office are determined by the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation. The result is that a wide range of aspects of labour law normally regulated by national parliaments, is determined by an Administrative Council, which has only limited accountability, be it only because of the fact that the supervision of the functioning of the Administrative Council is the responsibility of the 19 parliaments of the Contracting States. The result is that the Staff Union of the EPO is involved with issues which go beyond the scope of activities that are normally the work of Staff Unions at a national level. The Staff Union of the European Patent Office is affiliated to the Union Syndicale Fédérale, which is a federation of staff unions which are active in the European Union institutions as well as in other European and international organisations.

The UN's own panel of experts called the UN's current infernal system of justice "outmoded, outdated, dysfunctional", and "failing to meet the minimum standards of due process" set out in various international human rights instruments, many of for which the UN is the repository. Talk about a case of do as I say, not as I do! Interesting read--makes the case whjy the UN and its senior officials do not deserve to be protected by immunity.

A devastating critique by a former UNHCR staffer--hardly the typical hagiography like so many of those recently written about our poor Prince Milquetoast--the real skinny! October 2006 | 127 -- The decline of Kofi. Kofi Annan's ten years as United Nations secretary-general have left the organisation in worse shape, politically and adminstratively, than it has ever been Alexander Casella -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alexander Casella worked for the UN high commissioner for refugees from 1975-96. He is now a consultant . ____________________ Earlier this week, the security council officially nominated Ban Ki-Moon, South Korea's foreign minister, to become the next secretary-general of the United Nations. Ban's nomination will shortly be rubber-stamped by the general assembly, and his term will begin on 1st January 2007. But the new secretary-general will inherit an organisation in deep trouble; and much of the blame for this can be laid at the door of the outgoing secretary-general, Kofi Annan. Six months ago, Annan's waning credibility was dealt a death blow by the UN general assembly. By an overwhelming majority, including most developing countries, the member states rejected his last reform proposal, aimed at placating a hostile America. Following the vote, the African daily Fraternité Matin called Annan “the African who tries to please his white masters.” For Annan it was a watershed. Having reaped the resentment of the Bush administration for not having supported the war in Iraq and the hostility of the Arab world for not having opposed it, Annan had now achieved the ultimate indignity; the scorn of the continent he represented. Coming eight months before the end of his mandate, the rebuke carried for Annan no practical consequences. There were no longer cries for him to resign and he was assured of completing his term. But it was made all the more potent by coming only five years after he had, at the peak of his popularity, received the twin accolades of a Nobel peace prize and a triumphal re-election to a second term. Annan joined the UN in 1962 and over the following 34 years slowly climbed the bureaucratic ladder to the position of under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations. During these years he stood out as a courteous and dedicated UN staff member who radiated calm and good fellowship, enjoyed life and was both liked and respected by all those he worked with. By nature he was also cautious to the point of risk-averse; he shunned confrontation and had a penchant for compromise, qualities that served him well in his functions as an international civil servant. These qualities alone, however, would never have qualified him for the post of secretary-general had he not benefited from a constellation of circumstances outside his control. By early 1996, Washington had decided to block any re-election bid from the then secretary-general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Acknowledged as an intellectual giant, the Egyptian was also arrogant, abrasive and did not suffer fools, a category to which he relegated most of those who crossed his path