Wednesday
Jun022010
UN Can't Get Off So Easy On Sexual Harassment
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 11:57AM
UN officials will not be allowed diplomatic immunity according to a petition launched this week in Washington with the United States Supreme Court. Plaintiffs in the high profile sexual harassment case against the United Nations persuaded the court to challenge the generous offerings of diplomatic immunity granted in previous years to UN officials committing these crimes.
TRNS reported on this highly controversial issue in March, unbelievably, on International Women’s Day, as the case between Mr. Rudd Lubbers, former Chief of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and his employee, American Cynthia Brzak was being dismissed by a US appeals court.
Brzak, a US citizen and former UN employee, charged Lubber (formerly Prime Minister of the Netherlands), with sexual harassment by alleging he groped her during a meeting in his Geneva office in 2003.
The case had taken years to get to a US appeals court which upheld a previous ruling that the United Nations has full immunity from such lawsuits. The ruling rejected Brzak's rights to a follow up appeal and shocked many women’s rights advocates who repeatedly called for action against Lubbers.
Following the ruling, Brzak and other petitioners in the case filed a writ of certiorari seeking a Supreme Court review of a March 2010 judgment by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that upheld a dismissal of the case by the US Federal Court for the Southern District of New York. The District Court ruled that UN officials are legally granted immunity under the 1946 Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.
Lubbers was eventually forced to resign from his post-not from duty, but from an onslaught of bad press and allegations that retaining his post may damage UNHCR’s credibility.
For the first time ever, the Supreme Court will rule on the legal basis for UN immunity from American laws that have traditionally been limited to sovereign governments and their officials. The ruling will most likely come this fall 2010.
The petition was filed by workplace harassment victims Cynthia Brzak and Nasr Ishak, and accuses former Secretary General Kofi Annan and former UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers.
Secretary General Kofi Annan refused to acknowledge several reports from the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) which confirmed the complaint and recommended strict and timely disciplinary action be taken against Lubbers.
“My client, an American citizen, experienced criminal behavior that would land any other employer in jail. But at the UN, it’s just another day at the office,” said Edward Flaherty who is representing the petitioners.
“Cynthia Brzak was first the victim of sexual harassment by a powerful ex-prime minister and head of an entire UN agency. When she blew the whistle, she and Ishak then became the targets of repeated retaliation that continues to this day,”added Flaherty. “Yet because of where she happens to work, her assailant is beyond the law. The question being placed before the Supreme Court is whether this system should be allowed to stand in the United States, where no one is supposed to be above the law.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has acknowledged the troubled system for investigating these cases and plans to set up a new internal structure this summer to deal with all employee vs. employee actions. Among those agencies recently accused of sexual harassment: UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, DPKO (Department of Peacekeeping Operations), and UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency in Palestine)–and those are just the cases that have been reported.
TRNS reported on this highly controversial issue in March, unbelievably, on International Women’s Day, as the case between Mr. Rudd Lubbers, former Chief of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and his employee, American Cynthia Brzak was being dismissed by a US appeals court.
Brzak, a US citizen and former UN employee, charged Lubber (formerly Prime Minister of the Netherlands), with sexual harassment by alleging he groped her during a meeting in his Geneva office in 2003.
The case had taken years to get to a US appeals court which upheld a previous ruling that the United Nations has full immunity from such lawsuits. The ruling rejected Brzak's rights to a follow up appeal and shocked many women’s rights advocates who repeatedly called for action against Lubbers.
Following the ruling, Brzak and other petitioners in the case filed a writ of certiorari seeking a Supreme Court review of a March 2010 judgment by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that upheld a dismissal of the case by the US Federal Court for the Southern District of New York. The District Court ruled that UN officials are legally granted immunity under the 1946 Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.
Lubbers was eventually forced to resign from his post-not from duty, but from an onslaught of bad press and allegations that retaining his post may damage UNHCR’s credibility.
For the first time ever, the Supreme Court will rule on the legal basis for UN immunity from American laws that have traditionally been limited to sovereign governments and their officials. The ruling will most likely come this fall 2010.
The petition was filed by workplace harassment victims Cynthia Brzak and Nasr Ishak, and accuses former Secretary General Kofi Annan and former UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers.
Secretary General Kofi Annan refused to acknowledge several reports from the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) which confirmed the complaint and recommended strict and timely disciplinary action be taken against Lubbers.
“My client, an American citizen, experienced criminal behavior that would land any other employer in jail. But at the UN, it’s just another day at the office,” said Edward Flaherty who is representing the petitioners.
“Cynthia Brzak was first the victim of sexual harassment by a powerful ex-prime minister and head of an entire UN agency. When she blew the whistle, she and Ishak then became the targets of repeated retaliation that continues to this day,”added Flaherty. “Yet because of where she happens to work, her assailant is beyond the law. The question being placed before the Supreme Court is whether this system should be allowed to stand in the United States, where no one is supposed to be above the law.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has acknowledged the troubled system for investigating these cases and plans to set up a new internal structure this summer to deal with all employee vs. employee actions. Among those agencies recently accused of sexual harassment: UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, DPKO (Department of Peacekeeping Operations), and UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency in Palestine)–and those are just the cases that have been reported.
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