From: decvax!r-node.gts.org!ndallen@decwrl.dec.com (Nigel Allen)
Subject: U.N. Short-sightedness Puts Future at Risk, Says UN Staff Union
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 23:13:56 GMT

Here is a press release from the Federation of
International Civil Servants Associations (FICSA).

 U.N. Short-sightedness Puts Future at Risk Says Federation of
International Civil Servants Association
 To: Foreign and National desks
 Contact: Tom Netter, 617-742-4498; or
          Edward J. Freeman of the Federation of International
          Civil Servants' Associations, 212-986-5013

   NEW YORK, Nov. 11 -- Following is an op-ed piece by Edward J. 
Freeman, president of the Federation of International Civil 
Servants' Associations (FICSA) representing 32,000 staff of the
United Nations and its specialized agencies:

       At The U.N., Short-Sightedness Puts The Future At Risk

   For the staff of the United Nations, 1992 has proven to be the
most lethal year on record.  Staff have been killed in the line of
duty, injured as a result of a surge in armed conflicts and personal
attacks, and exposed increasingly to hazards such as disease,
abduction and unwarranted detention.
   Violence and attacks have killed many U.N. staff this year in such
scattered areas as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Croatia, Ethiopia, Iraq,
Kenya, Lebanon, Somalia and Sudan.  Many more U.N. staff have been
injured in the line of duty.  The number of staff killed this year
represents one third of all U.N. staff who have died in the line of
duty since 1973.
   Almost everywhere, the situation for U.N. staff is worsening,
ranging from an increase in the number of unusually dangerous
conflicts being faced by the staff of the U.N. and its 20 specialized
agencies around the world, increased exposure to diseases, or a
deterioration of security and public safety in many duty stations.
   Indeed, working for the U.N. can carry unique dangers.  This is
ironic, because the vast majority of U.N. staff carry no guns or
weapons.  Those who have been killed or injured are trying to keep
peace, or are assigned from one humanitarian mission after another to
help the less fortunate.
   U.N. staff face other dangers while carrying out their functions.
Not only do they risk their lives from armed conflict, they are also
exposed to disease and illness that could prove debilitating or even
fatal.  U.N. staff often work in areas where diseases such as
malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhoeal diseases, schistosomiasis,
leishmaniasis, leprosy and other diseases are endemic.
   On several occasions over the years, entire U.N. operations have
had to be evacuated from areas that had become too dangerous.
Offices in Beirut and Liberia have been bombed, for example.  Some
staff remain, working perhaps in basements or bunkers.
   In addition, U.N. staff are also exposed to political threats,
including harassment, detention, abduction and imprisonment without
charge.  Beyond the risks inherent in working in such countries, for
years as many as 150 staff have been imprisoned at any one time
without just cause or due process.  And staff who have gone home to
visit their families have been thrown in prison or put under house
arrest and kept incommunicado from U.N. managers who have tried to
ascertain their status.
   There are about 52,000 staff members within the U.N. system,
including the United Nations and its specialized agencies.  Staff are
currently posted to over 600 duty stations.  The U.N. performs a
unique function in the world, in that much of its work focuses on
political questions, providing a forum for multilateral discussions
and deliberations that often prevent the spread of conflict.
   The specialized agencies, such as the World Health Organization,
International Labour Organisation, the Office of the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees and the Food and Agriculture Organization,
to name but a few, work on health, agriculture, refugees, disaster
relief, labor, economic and social development issues,
telecommunications, meteorology, peaceful application of nuclear
technology, air and sea travel, education and culture, the
environment, peaceful use of outer space and regulation of trade
between nations.
   The staff are urging the U.N. General Assembly to reject the
short-sighted recommendations of the International Civil Service
Commission (ICSC) that would slash U.N.  pay and pensions of locally
recruited staff.  Furthermore, the members of the U.N. General
Assembly should take appropriate measures to restore the
competitiveness of salaries and pensions of internationally recruited
staff (such as doctors, physicists, engineers, computer programmers
and others), while maintaining the methodology for determining
salaries and pensions of locally recruited staff (such as
secretaries, clerks and drivers).
   Already, remuneration for internationally recruited staff is not
competitive with that of other international organizations such as
the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, European Communities and
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development which
compete for the same type of staff as the U.N.  Recognizing that
squeezing the salaries and pensions of its own civil servants has
been counterproductive, leading to a mass exodus to higher paying
private jobs and an "experience and brain drain", the United States
adopted measures in 1990 that will make the salaries in its public
sector competitive.  Why ignore the U.N.?
   In light of recent developments, the mounting toll being taken on
U.N. staff lives, health and security, underscores the specific
nature of theirs work, and the inherent dangers and challenges.  All
the more reason to give the U.N. staff a remuneration that is
commensurate not only with the responsibilities they face, but the
realities of working in difficult conditions around the world.
   It is a fallacy that the U.N. is just the people working in the
New York Secretariat or secure offices around the world.  In fact,
U.N. staff are in the field 24 hours a day, working for the
betterment of human kind.  Some of them are giving their lives
or their freedom, sacrifice that deserves a fair shake from
the Fifth Committee members debating day and night at the U.N.
edifice.  This fact must be recognized, if the U.N. is to continue
to function as a viable international service organization.
 -30-

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