Article 100 of the United Nations Charter explicitly bars the seeking or receiving of instructions from States or other external authority – including, one presumes, incentives and disincentives. The Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service and the UN Staff Regulations and Rules apply this by covering conflicts of interest and banning receipt of gifts. Yet, their provisions deal only with the ‘without favor’ element, states GILMORE, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“The ‘without fear’ aspects are comparatively neglected,” she writes in ‘Without Fear or Favor?’, a paper published by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation as part of its ‘100 years of international civil service’ series.
Elsewhere, of course, the UN has taken a clear stand on reprisals by Member States against those who avail themselves of its human rights mechanisms – thus some effort of protection is offered for those who speak to the UN, she states. The Secretary-General has issued a policy on ‘whistleblowing’ – so some protection is offered for those who speak within the UN about the UN. “But the assurance of protection for those who speak for the UN? That is a less certain story.”
It can be tough to take risks with your professional future, but we are all worse off if international civil servants are not able and willing to speak ‘without fear’, writes GILMORE. “Protection when they do so should be unequivocal.”
Elaboration of what that means: of what service ‘without fear’ requires and how it should be protected, might be challenging. However, a first step would be for the UN Staff Rules and Regulations to spell out clearly both the requirement to speak the truth without fear – and the institution’s commitment to protecting staff who do so, she states.
“[Dag] Hammarskjöld emphasized that a UN Secretary-General is not some kind Delphic oracle. Nor is the interna-tional civil servant. Yet, the provision of evidence-based, fact-loyal, standards-upholding advice without fear or favor, including in the public domain as required, is essential. It was a point that Hammarskjöld underscored in his last ever speech to the staff of the UN Secretariat, ‘To build for man a world without fear, we must be without fear.’ Without fear that is, not merely without favor.”
