UNICEF India Chief Faces Sexual Assault Charge, Fired Whistleblower Barred From Ethics Office
By Matthew Russell Lee
Inner City Press
October 24, 2007
UNITED NATIONS, October 24 -- In India the minister for Woman and Child Development has recommended that immunity be lifted to allow the prosecution of UNICEF's top representative Cecilio Adorna, on charges of sexual abuse. The complainant appears now to also have suffered retaliation, having had her contract terminated two months after she blew the whistle on Adorna.
While many, including the U.S. Mission to the UN, have expressed surprise at the UN Development Program's claimed exemption from the UN Ethics Office's jurisdiction to protect whistleblowers from retaliation, UNICEF under Executive Director Ann M. Veneman has adopted the same position as UNDP, that while it will be "under the overall guidance of the Ethics Office at the UN Secretariat," UNICEF will run its own parallel Ethics Office. This is contrary to the recent brief by the Washington-based Government Accountability Project, which in 2005 gave technical assistance to the UN to improve its "internal oversight and transparency," to "apply the rulings of the Ethics Office to the UN Funds and Programs," which include UNICEF.
The case of the complainant against Adorna make clear that UNICEF may have the same need for outside Ethics review as does UNDP, currently the subject of both an external audit ordered by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a separate investigation into charges of retaliation. Meanwhile, a week after Inner City Press asked UNICEF for its policy on providing copies of audits to member states and to the press and public, no policy has been provided.
Ms. Veneman, India's president and Mr. Adorna, UN Ethics Office not shown
In India, it is reported that
An informal government inquiry has found the India representative of UNICEF prima facie guilty of sexual harassment of a female colleague. Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury, whose ministry conducted the probe against Cecilio Adorna, has requested External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukerjee to withdraw diplomatic immunity against law given to the UN official. Complainant Rema (name changed) worked in the Delhi office of UNICEF till December 31, 2006 -- till two months after she formally lodged a complaint against Adorna. Her contract was terminated
