Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07GENEVA2048
2007-08-29 08:31:00
CONFIDENTIAL
US Mission Geneva
Cable title:  

DAS SINGH AND AMBASSADOR REES' GENEVA TALKS -

Tags:  KUNR PHUM PREF UNHRC 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGV #2048/01 2410831
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 290831Z AUG 07
FM USMISSION GENEVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5053
INFO RUEHZJ/HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
C O N F I D E N T I A L GENEVA 002048 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

IO FOR SINGH AND REES

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/28/2017
TAGS: KUNR PHUM PREF UNHRC
SUBJECT: DAS SINGH AND AMBASSADOR REES' GENEVA TALKS -
HUMANITARIAN MEETINGS

REF: GENEVA 01992

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, Mark Storella. Reason 1.4 (b)(d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L GENEVA 002048

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

IO FOR SINGH AND REES

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/28/2017
TAGS: KUNR PHUM PREF UNHRC
SUBJECT: DAS SINGH AND AMBASSADOR REES' GENEVA TALKS -
HUMANITARIAN MEETINGS

REF: GENEVA 01992

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, Mark Storella. Reason 1.4 (b)(d)


1. (SBU) Summary: IO Deputy Assistant Secretary Singh and
Special Representative for Social Issues Rees used a human
rights-focused August 6-8 visit to Geneva to also address a
range of humanitarian, refugee, and health issues, as well as
UN reform. DAS Singh also underscored the importance the USG
attaches to U.S. employment in UN organizations. (Reftel
reports on discussions of human rights during the visit.)
End Summary.


2. (SBU) DAS Manisha Singh and Special Representative for
Social Issues Grover Joseph Rees held a series of discussions
on humanitarian, refugee and health issues as well as U.S
employment in UN organizations and UN reform during their
August 6-8 Geneva visit. They met with Director of the
Geneva Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) Kasidis Rochanakorn and his senior staff; with Craig
Johnstone, Deputy at the Office of the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR),and his staff; with the Executive
Director and others in the World Health Organization (WHO);
and with Debbie Wynes, Chair of the Joint Inspection Unit
(JIU).

Humanitarian Affairs
--------------


3. (C) Rochanakorn, who heads the Geneva OCHA, and his senior
staff outlined OCHA priorities. He said Undersecretary
General for Humanitarian Affairs, Sir John Holmes, was
focused on consolidating the UN humanitarian reform process,
maintaining a strong advocacy and policy role for OCHA and
developing an OCHA structure that could meet the expectations
that humanitarian reform had placed on it. He expressed
concern about the erosion of humanitarian space, as evidenced
in Lebanon, &where we were stuck in hotels.8 This would
require reinforcement of the UN,s ability to work closely
with various partners, including the Red Cross/Red Crescent
Movement.


4. (C) Rochanakorn said that OCHA did not have enough trained
personnel to deal with civilian military affairs in a major,
tsunami-like humanitarian crisis. However, Gerhard

SIPDIS
Putman-Cramer, head of the OCHA Emergency Services Branch,

averred that OCHA did not need simply to increase overall
training ) that might even be scaled back ) but should
place more focus on better targeted civilian-military
training. Rochanakorn said the humanitarian community
accepted the special role of the military, but that issues
were more sensitive in complex humanitarian crises involving
conflict situations, where military units would focus on
force protection while humanitarians would focus on
integrating with the local population. DAS Singh also asked
about the Global Humanitarian Platform, and Rochanakorn
responded that the reform effort was seen as too UN-centric
and that the platform was a necessary step to rebuild
confidence with UN partners.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees
--------------


5. (U) DAS Singh and Ambassador Rees also met with Johnstone,
the Deputy at the UNHCR. Johnstone (AmCit) noted UNHCR,s
overall responsibilities, including its primary role to
protect refugees and ensure that governments uphold and
respect relevant legal instruments. He added that stateless
persons and internally displaced persons (IDPs) were also
populations of concern to UNHCR and were covered within
UNHCR,s crosscutting protection issues. Johnstone noted
that UNHCR worked closely with the office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR),particularly on the
rights of refugees and IDPs. He noted that UNHCR had been
working with the Jordanian government to fulfill displaced
Iraqi children,s rights to education in Jordan and that the
Syrian government was being very responsive by ensuring the
protection of displaced Iraqis in Syria. He described the
human rights situation in Iraq as seriously lacking due to
the Iraqi government,s inability to respond adequately to
human rights abuses. Johnstone hoped the USG would resettle
the UNHCR-referred Iraqi refugees, recognizing the delays
related to security issues.


6. (U) Emphasizing the importance of protection, Ambassador
Rees noted that precautions against sexual exploitation of
refugees were of concern to the USG. He asked about UNHCR
mechanisms to prevent such exploitation, adding that
perpetrators could also be NGO workers, peacekeepers, and

refugees themselves. Both Johnstone and Merida
Morales-O,Donnell, Director of the Division of Human
Resources Management, emphasized that UNHCR was very
cognizant about responding to such misconduct and that the
organization had a zero tolerance policy, including summary
dismissals. Morales-O,Donnell explained that all UNHCR
staffers were required to sign an agreement to uphold the
Code of Conduct that outlines the policy against exploitative
and non-consensual relationships with beneficiaries and
requiring disclosure to superiors of relationships that the
UN employee regarded as consensual and non-exploitative. She
added that UNHCR partners were also obligated to sign the
agreement.

U.S. Employment in UN Agencies
--------------


7. (U) DAS Singh underscored to Johnstone that employment of
U.S. citizens in UN organizations continued to be highly
important for the USG. Asked for his thoughts on how to
increase the number of Americans at UNHCR and retain them,
Johnstone replied that it was currently difficult for UNHCR
to hire new staff due to a hiring freeze. He added that the
organization was also cutting back staff positions to make
UNHCR leaner and more efficient under the current reform
efforts.

World Health Organization and Maternal Mortality
-------------- ---


8. (U) In meetings with the Executive Director of the WHO
Director General's Office and with WHO officials working on
family health and maternal mortality issues, Ambassador Rees
explained his portfolio as Special Representative for Social
Issues, its link with President Bush's Human Dignity Agenda,
and USG interest in WHO maternal mortality programs. Dr.
Bill Kean noted that improving maternal mortality centered on
effectively managing pregnancy with pre-natal visits by
qualified health workers as well as on managing labor. In
Kean's view, the world should be ashamed that maternal
mortality had not been reduced.


9. (U) Daisy Mafebelu, Assistant Director General for Family
and Community Health, and Dr. Quazi Monirul Islam, head of
the WHO's Making Pregnancy Safer program, described the WHO's
work on maternal mortality. Ambassador Rees emphasized USG
interest in seeing the WHO be more programmatic on maternal
health issues rather than merely holding conferences and
advising governments. Islam lamented that improvements
towards Millennium Development Goals on women and children,
while real, had not made a dent in the problem. WHO was
still working to increase the number of skilled birth
attendants and move small communities away from overwhelming
dependency on unskilled traditional birth attendants. Islam
also highlighted the close worldwide link between maternal
mortality and the survival of the child, particularly female
children. The WHO had instituted "essential newborn care
training", in conjunction with UNICEF and UNFPA, to address
some of these issues. Commenting that USAID funding for
maternal health had decreased in recent years because money
was diverted to fight HIV/AIDS and malaria, Islam hoped that
USG funding would increase again to reflect the importance of
maternal health issues.

UN Reform
--------------


10. (U) DAS Singh met with Debbie Wynes, Chair of the Joint
Inspection Unit (JIU),to discuss U.S. reform goals for the
UN. Wynes emphasized the importance of the new initiative to
implement oversight committees at the UN and at various
agencies. Where oversight committees existed (in World
Meteorological Organization ) WMO - and World International
Property Organization - WIPO),their effectiveness was
limited by lack of expertise among committee members. This
also affected the JIU structure and effectiveness. Wynes
urged the U.S. to encourage senior representatives from
member states - both Western and G-77 - to nominate only
top-level people to the oversight committees.


11. (U) DAS Singh asked for examples of &success stories8
that would illustrate achievements by the UN in the area of
reform. Wynes did not cite any specific examples and noted
that many oversight mechanisms were relatively new. She
indicated that while it might appear redundant, an oversight
structure consisting of internal audit, external audit and
oversight board was a standard practice in the private
sector. She further stated that UN members needed to get the
structure right, with adequate funding and qualified staff.

Wynes also noted that leadership was very important, citing
the WMO and WIPO as contrasting examples of the role of the
director general.
STORELLA