UN staff pass resolution critical of leadership News
UN staff pass resolution critical of leadership

[JURIST] The UN staff union passed a resolution late Friday critical of the UN's senior management in the wake of allegations of fraud and corruption in the Iraq oil-for-food program and several supposed incidents of sexual harassment and favoritism. An earlier draft of the resolution was sharper and had expressed a lack of confidence in senior staff including UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan; the final version, however, expressed support for Annan. Annan has suffered a series of scandals during his senior management time at the UN, most recently due to his controversial decision to pardon two senior officials, Dileep Nair, the head of the UN internal oversight office, and Ruud Lubbers, the top UN official for refugees, who each faced allegations of harassment; Nair also faced allegations of favoritism. Read more about the internal UN investigation that waws the basis for Annan's action here. A UN spokesman said Friday that UN management would meet with the staff association next week to deal with their expressed concerns. AFP has more.