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Sex: do international bodies look the other way?
18 May 2011
By
Patrick Worsnip,
Reuters
Whether IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is innocent or guilty
of sexual assault, his arrest has raised questions about whether
international organizations are soft on their top officials in
such matters.
The scandal has broken at a time when private companies are
becoming less and less tolerant of any sexual misconduct by
their senior executives. A string of high-profile companies have
shed their bosses in recent years over such issues.
Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the Washington-based
International Monetary Fund, was arrested on Saturday while
about to fly to Paris after a chambermaid at a New York hotel
said he had tried to rape her earlier in the day.
His lawyer has said the French economist will plead not guilty,
but the sensational incident has probably wrecked his hopes of
running for president of France next year or of continuing to
lead the IMF.
However the case turns out, critics say international
bureaucracies may not be rigorous enough in their hiring
standards, especially when who gets to be boss is decided at
least in part by horse trading among governments.
Strauss-Kahn, who was backed by the European Union for his post,
faced earlier controversy in 2008 over an affair with a female
IMF economist who was his subordinate.
He apologized for an "error of judgment" and in an internal
probe of the affair, the IMF executive board concluded that
reports of previous extramarital entanglements had no merit in
deciding whether he would be a capable leader.
At the IMF's sister agency, the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, who
was nominated for the top job by then U.S. President George W.
Bush in 2005, resigned two years later after a battle over his
stewardship prompted by his involvement in a high-paying
promotion for his companion.
TOUGH QUESTIONS
Such episodes are evidence for some of inherent weaknesses in
selection systems.
Yasmeen Hassan, deputy executive director of women's advocacy
group Equality Now and a former U.N. employee, said of the world
body, "My sense is that when people get very high level
appointments, they are pushed through by governments and the
tough questions are not asked."
The IMF and World Bank are classified as U.N. specialized
agencies but in practice the United Nations does not control
them or appoint their leaders.
But the United Nations, whose leaders often say has a "zero
tolerance" policy on sexual harassment, has had issues of its
own. The best known involved Ruud Lubbers, a former Dutch prime
minister who became head of the U.N. refugee agency and was
accused in 2004 by a U.S. employee of unwelcome touching.
Although an internal report supported the allegation -- which
Lubbers denied -- then U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan ruled
it could not be substantiated. Lubbers resigned in 2005.
At the Hague-based International Criminal Court -- not a U.N.
body -- prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo was accused by an employee
in 2006 of sexual misconduct involving a female journalist in
South Africa. A panel of ICC judges found the allegation
"manifestly unfounded."
The United Nations says it is well aware it is under increased
scrutiny over the conduct of its staff.
U.N. human resources chief Catherine Pollard said recruitment
was "guided by a thorough and competitive selection and
appointment procedure" and candidates had to disclose any
arrests or detentions and reasons for leaving prior positions.
Senior and other staff had to complete training sessions on
sexual harassment and abuse of authority, Pollard told Reuters
in an email. "Inappropriate behavior of its staff can and often
does reflect adversely on the (U.N.) Organization ... This is
particularly the case for high-level officials."
PROTECT THEIR OWN
But not everyone is convinced. George G. Irving, a
Massachusetts-based lawyer and former counsel to the U.N. legal
affairs office, said that while background checks are extensive
for lower level jobs, at the top level "it's certainly not
transparent that they do that kind of vetting."
International organizations elsewhere defended their practices.
In Brussels, EU commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen
said the 27-nation bloc's code of conduct is "probably among the
strictest in the world" and that its president and commissioners
undergo "considerable scrutiny."
NATO officials said everyone except the secretary-general has to
go through a very rigorous security clearance by national
authorities. "This looks at everything and speaks to virtually
everyone you ever knew," one official said.
Only one NATO secretary-general has been forced to step down --
Belgian Willy Claes, a former foreign minister, who resigned in
1995 over a Belgian corruption scandal in which he was
eventually convicted of taking bribes.
The instinct of international bodies to protect their own, at
least in public, contrasts with the abrupt exits in recent years
of a number of private company bosses -- from Hewlett-Packard Co
(HPQ.N)
to BP Plc (BP.L)
-- over sexual issues.
"Corporate boards are increasingly less tolerant of anything
that's smacks, smells, looks like some degree of impropriety,"
said Linda Finkle of business coaching firm Incedo Group, based
near Washington.
"As boards in the past did not take action for infractions,
however large or small, it has come back to bite them, and so
they're extra cautious now," Finkle said. But she said that in
some government organizations she had worked with, "I'm often
surprised at the total lack of accountability."
© 2011 Reuters
Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Brussels and Braden
Reddall in San Francisco; editing by Mohammad Zargham
The content of this article
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