UN Chief Admits He Removed Saudi Arabia From Child Killer List Due To Extortion

[DemMomma4Sanders]

Source: Intercept

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon publicly acknowledged Thursday that he removed the Saudi Arabia-led coalition currently bombing Yemen from a blacklist of child killers — 72 hours after it was published — due to a financial threat to defund United Nations programs.

The secretary-general didn’t name the source of the threat, but news reports have indicated it came directly from the Saudi government.

The U.N.’s 2015 “Children and Armed Conflict” report originally listed the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen under “parties that kill or maim children,” and “parties that engage in attacks on schools and/or hospitals.” The report, which was based on the work of U.N. researchers in Yemen, attributed 60 percent of the 785 children killed and 1,168 injured to the bombing coalition.

After loud public objections from the Saudi government, Ban said on Monday that he was revising the report to “review jointly the cases and numbers cited in the text,” in order to “reflect the highest standards of accuracy possible.”

Read more: https://theintercept.com/2016/06/09/u-n-chief-admits-he-removed-saudi-arabia-from-child-killer-list-due-to-extortion/

[dhill926]

1. so he publicly acknowledged this?

what the fuck? Basically took a bribe...

[herding cats]

2. No, but he did imply he was extorted into the action.

UN Chief Took Saudis Off Blacklist Over Threat to Stop Funds

UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday he temporarily removed the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen from a U.N. blacklist for violating child rights because its supporters threatened to stop funding many U.N. programs.

Ban said he had to consider "the very real prospect" that millions of other children in the Palestinian territories, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and many other places "would suffer grievously" if U.N. programs were defunded.

"This was one of the most painful and difficult decisions I have had to make," he said.

U.N. secretary-generals are always subject to pressure from the 193 member nations. But in a rare rebuke, Ban said in this case some unnamed countries had gone too far, declaring "it is unacceptable for member states to exert undue pressure."

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/06/09/world/middleeast/ap-un-united-nations-saudi-yemen-children.html?_r=0

[MisterFred]

4. Not a bribe, per se.

Moon won't personally financially benefit from how much money is given to the U.N. by member nations. I can understand his concern as an administrator, though he made the wrong choice.

[newthinking]

3. This is going on in NGO's throughout the world.

If you can control rights organizations you can turn them into weapons of war.

[elljay]

5. I support the concept of the UN

but they have been playing politics since the beginning and corruption is rampant. The current membership of the UN Human Rights Council not only includes Saudi Arabia, but China, Ethiopia, Congo and some other nations who are some of the worst violators of human rights.

And, in terms of countries threatening to withhold payment to force UN policy changes, the U.S. has played that game perhaps more than any other country (apologies for some of the right wing links, but they're there to show that both sides of the aisle have used funding threats to influence UN policy):


https://betterworldcampaign.org/news-room/press-releases/u-s-ambassadors-urge-congress-not-to-withhold-un-dues-ad-campaign/
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=40286#.V1nxguROLjU
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/3667
https://www.google.com/search?q=us+withhold+un&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/14/world/africa/us-senators-threaten-un-over-sex-abuse-by-peacekeepers.html
https://www.whistleblower.org/blog/122517-us-withholds-funding-un-agency-inadequate-protection-whistleblowers
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/31/us-could-withhold-funds-to-un-agency-after-vote-to-grant-membership-to.html
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2007/09/congress-is-right-to-withhold-funds-from-the-un-human-rights-council
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5aca2708-d875-11d9-8fa7-00000e2511c8.html