Talk Radio News Service

International Women’s Day Celebrated By UN’s “Immunity” To Sexual Harassment

The United Nations commemorated International Women’s Day (celebrated annually on March 8th) today with activities spanning from human rights of women in Palestine to panels which featured indigenous women and ministers for gender equality. Behind the curtain, the UN spokesperson remained hush-hush with a “no comment” about the high profile sexual harassment case between Mr. Rudd Lubbers, former Chief of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and his employee, American Cynthia Brzak.

Brzak charged Lubbers with sexual harassment by alleging he groped her during a meeting in his Geneva office in 2003. Lubbers also served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

The case has 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 this week, shocked many women’s rights advocates who repeatedly called for action against Lubbers and demanded the set up of preventive measures to avoid future sexual harassment cases.

Lubbers was forced to resign from his post after weeks of bad press and allegations that retaining his post may damage UNHCR’s credibility.

Brzak is a US citizen and former UN employee. Her attorney has pledged to appeal in a written statement.

“As the retaliation against (her) by officials within both UNHCR and the UN…(she has) no choice but to seek vindication of (her) constitutional and other rights before the US Supreme Court. The aim is to end the impunity exercised by UN officials everywhere who are placed beyond the reach of national laws by the UN’s outdated immunity… and on behalf of the many UN staff who have suffered and continue to suffer illegal and/or criminal acts in the workplace…”

“If there was sexual harassment, we know this is widespread, then the UN  should be a role model. Peacekeeping forces should be better behaved than other groups. It is unacceptable to me the UN should be exempt from this type of violence against women.” said Tarcila Rivera Zea, Enlance Intercontinental de Mujeres Indigenas, at a briefing this afternoon during the Commission on the Status of Women.

This case has brought attention to the slew of UN staff and personnel who have been raped and harassed by UN peacekeepers in refugee camps in Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Occupied Territories (Gaza) and Sri Lanka–to name a few.  Critics of the sexual harassment monitoring system at the UN say the organizational bureaucracy is just too thick to be able to accurately represent these cases. The UN office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) is tasked with ensuring transparency and accountability, but to avoid scandal and embarrassment, pushes the accused out of the system through retirement or reassignment–before justice is served.

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. Many women remain silenced for fear of losing their jobs or suffering the same fate as Brzak.