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Criminal accountability of United Nations officials and experts on mission, STATEMENT BY THE PERMANENT MISSION OF COSTA RICA TO THE UNITED NATIONS ON BEHALF OF THE COMMUNITY OF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STATES

Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Location: 
New York

Mr. Chairman

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States CELAC.

CELAC States would like to start by stressing that any type of misconduct, especially criminal behavior, committed by UN personnel on Mission, is unacceptable and must never go unpunished. These acts are particularly grave because of the nature of the functions of the perpetrators, and the special vulnerability of the persons victimized.  The commission of these crimes have a detrimental effect on the fulfillment of the United Nations mandates and on the credibility of the Organization. It causes great harm to the victims while mining the reputation of the UN.

In this regard the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States reaffirms the need to ensure that all personnel of the United Nations performs its duties in a manner that preserves the image, credibility, impartiality and integrity of the United Nations.

Mr. Chairman

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States would like to thank the Secretary General for his report contained in document A/69/210. Among other things, the report shows, through the information provided by Member States, that steps have been taken by some States to establish jurisdiction, enact the appropriate legislation related to the criminal jurisdiction over the crimes of a serious nature involved in this matter, and that there is a basic framework at different levels for the cooperation and exchange of information to bring to justice its perpetrators.

However, in lieu of repeated incidents, it is very clear that we need to do much more, as members of the international community, in order to ensure collectively that impunity associated with such crimes will not find room anywhere, any more.

Mr. Chairman

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States  takes note in particular of the information prepared by the Secretariat contained in Section IV, regarding the process of reporting credible accusations to the State of nationality, and  in Section V, in relation to the strengthening of  existing training on UN standards of conduct. The Group encourages the Organization to continue to implement its policies in accordance with resolution 66/93. 

CELAC reiterates the importance we attach to receiving continuous information from the Secretariat on statistics about substantiated allegations.  We are still not convinced that the registered number of allegations of criminal activities and abuse by United Nations officials and experts on mission reflects the true extent of the problem. We believe that a better reporting practice will benefit our understanding of this problem so that we can address it properly. 

In this regard, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States requests the Secretariat to continue its efforts to improve the information  and communication with concerned Member States immediately after learning of any incident with possible criminal implications. We take note of the efforts being undertaken by the Secretariat to standardize a process for notifying Member States of serious allegations of misconduct involving uniformed personnel deployed as experts on mission.  We believe this same process should also be followed for incidents involving UN officials and non-uniformed experts on mission. It is vital to ensure that notification processes are implemented effectively and efficiently.

CELAC also urges States to which cases have been referred, to give the proper follow up and inform the Secretary General of the actions taken.  We regret that even though the Office of Legal Affairs requested  said States to keep the U N informed of any action taken by the national authorities in relation to those cases, no State has contacted the Office to note that the matter had been raised with the relevant officials, according to paragraph 15 of the SG report.

We are convinced that there are many areas where cooperation can be improved and we are looking forward to discussing and acting on them during this session

 

Mr. Chairman

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States would like to reaffirm its serious concern over the instances of sexual exploitation and abuse reported by the Secretary General in relevant reports. CELAC reiterates its full support to the zero tolerance policy in the cases of sexual exploitation and abuse and other criminal conduct, while we restates the need for the observance of the rule of law for its implementation. We are at a critical juncture where more is expected of the United Nations; in particular, to set standards in meeting the needs of those whose rights have been violated and in leading the way forward.

In this regard, he Community of Latin American and Caribbean States would also like to highlight the shared responsibility of the Secretary-General and all Member States to take every measure to prevent and punish said criminal activities committed by persons working for the United Nations and to enforce standards of conduct in that regard.  We take note with appreciation of the practical measures described in the section V of the SG report concerning training and awareness-raising on UN standards of conduct and fully endorse the three-pronged comprehensive strategy to address sexual exploitation and abuse consisting of: prevention, enforcement and remedial action.  It is important to continue the dialogue with the Secretariat, on measures and activities for the training and capacity-building of UN officials and experts on mission, and on the issue of privileges and immunities, to prevent their abuse

CELAC is looking forward to the implementation, this last quarter of 2013, of the accountability framework developed by the Secretariat to measure the performance of field missions in connection with a number of indicators relating to conduct and discipline. We believe this quarterly report will promote accountability.

Mr. Chairman

The Community would like to highlight the need to address other areas that present critical challenges, such as investigations in the field, investigations during criminal proceedings, the provision of evidence, and its assessment and value in the administrative and jurisdictional procedures. 

We also believe it is important for UN personnel to comply with relevant UN Policy Guidelines regarding their expected standards of conduct, inter alia, those stablished in documents A/67/775 and  A/67/828 .

CELAC is confident that during the Sixth Committee sessions, as well as in other fora, Member States will take the necessary steps to move forward against the critical and appalling problem of the criminal activities carried out by some UN officials and experts on mission and by doing so, to contribute to ending impunity. I would like to reiterate the willingness of CELAC to collaborate during our discussions in a constructive manner.

I thank you.