UN Policy Still Fails to Protect Whistleblowers

"The secretary-general issued his new whistleblower policy in January. While different in some respects to the previous policy, the new policy remains flawed beyond the issue of coverage for consultants and individual contractors.

Peter Gallo, former U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services investigator, concluded that the new whistleblower policy would not have made substantive differences in the treatment of past whistleblower cases.

In particular, the Ethics Office retains discretion over whether to grant protection or allow cases to move forward. This is troubling considering evidence that the Ethics Office was compromised in the situation involving retaliation against Anders Kompass after he informed the French government of sexual abuse by peacekeepers-some from France-in the Central African Republic..."