The organization suffers from a multi-ethnic problem
The United Nations favors Westerners in top jobs at the expense of Third World employees
African states are underrepresented in United Nations organizations.
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The United Nations has long been associated with the struggle for equal rights and racial justice stemming from its duties during the decolonization era, as well as its support for the American civil rights movement and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
But during this year of global protests calling for racial justice, this global organization is coming under increasing criticism for its failure to promote equality in its ranks, especially employing young people from developing countries in more influential jobs.
The United Nations is one of the most diverse institutions in the world’s workforce, with 193 countries joining its membership. Yet, according to its critics, this organization has a problem with diversity.
However, the United Nations still absorbs more employees from the United States (about 2531 or 6.75% of its total workforce) than any other country, according to the United Nations report issued in April 2019 on the demographics of the staff of this organization, and this happens even with the complaint of the President's administration The American, Donald Trump, from America's diminishing influence in the organization and the tremendous influence of other countries.
Overrepresentation
Many European powers, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain, are considered overrepresented in the United Nations, which means that they have more employees per head than most other countries in the world.
For people from the developing world, there are plenty of field jobs available in conflict zones, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Mali, but most of the highest-paying jobs at UN headquarters in Geneva and New York go disproportionately to Westerners.
The gap between poor and rich countries is most evident in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
This office was established by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1991 to coordinate the activities of the numerous United Nations relief agencies, in response to natural disasters or complex emergencies resulting from conflict or political collapse.
OCHA's hiring practices have drawn criticism from staff - including from Western nationals in high positions - who say OCHA operates like a neocolonial fiefdom with a particularly Anglo-Saxon skin.
The glass ceiling of the United Nations remained particularly impenetrable for Africans, despite the presence of some prominent African leaders at the United Nations, including former Egyptian Secretary-General Boutros Ghali and Ghanaian Kofi Annan.
At the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, African country-group members represent 23 percent of the total staff, according to internal data obtained by Foreign Policy, but these Africans are largely invisible in the agency's senior ranks at the United Nations headquarters.
The situation in the Asian blocs, Latin America and Eastern Europe remained even worse, with only 16%, 4% and 3% of the OCHA staff, respectively.
Over the past 13 years, this agency has been headed by four former British government officials, each of whom accepted the job in a non-competitive hiring process.
All of them were white men, except for Valerie Amos, a black woman born in British Guiana (now Guyana) who worked as a British politician before running OCHA from 2010 to 2015.
The vast majority of senior staff are recruited from Western countries that donate to the UN relief effort, even when the majority of the agency's operations are in Africa and Asia.
About 54% of UN jobs in humanitarian offices around the world are occupied by citizens of the Western Bloc, more than those held by citizens of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe combined.
At the United Nations headquarters in New York, the numbers are tilted towards the west, with citizens of Western countries holding 71% of jobs.
At least 90% of the employees in some departments and branches, including the Policy Branch and the Strategic Communications Branch, are Westerners.
Growing discontent
This disparity sparked growing resentment from staff against the head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Mark Lowcock, who took the position in September 2017.
"The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is practicing racist and neo-colonial methods," wrote a staff member of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in a complaint submitted to the United Nations internal oversight body.
The complainant adds, "Lowcock constantly employs the whites and the British in key positions."
The complaint also says, "A look at the webpage of the OCHA presidency is surprising, given the privilege and continued dominance of whites over international aid."
According to a complaint reviewed by Foreign Policy, 12 of the 15 photos on the page are white, only three are of color, and none are black.
Britain, which played a founding role in the formation of the United Nations after World War II, is one of five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, as it has secured de facto monopolies in the organization's most coveted senior positions.
Chinese diplomats led the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs for more than a decade, using the office to promote the Beijing Trade and Infrastructure Project and the Belt and Road Initiative;
For more than 20 years, French government officials have run UN peacekeeping operations, which oversee missions in Africa and the Middle East, regions where France still aspires to exert its diplomatic influence.
Former US State Department officials have headed the United Nations Office of Political Affairs since March 2007. Russia, which lacks a high-ranking position at UN headquarters, has succeeded in installing a former Russian official in a new counterterrorism position in the world body.
The former US diplomat who held the position of Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs at the United Nations, Jeffrey Feltman, says he felt it was "inappropriate" to bring his staff from Washington to the ministry he led, because the department is already dominated by American, Japanese and Italian citizens (although Many of these officials' families hail from Third World countries.)
"Since we have always been working on political issues, political surveillance, and political developments, the percentage of our employees should reflect the value of our membership overall," he told Foreign Policy.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, expressed his concern about what he saw as the lack of representation of developing countries in the United Nations, especially Africa, saying: "We are still living with the illusion that we have moved to a post-racist world."
"The creation of the United Nations was based on a new global consensus based on equality and human dignity," he said in the late South African leader Nelson Mandela’s annual lecture last July.
And he went on: "The wave of elimination of colonialism has swept the world, but let us not deceive ourselves, the echo of the legacy of colonialism still resonates."
He added, "Africa was a double victim, firstly, as a target of the colonial project, and secondly, African states were underrepresented in international institutions, which were established after World War II, before most of them gained independence." But the Secretary-General of the United Nations also stumbled on issues. Sweat.
In June, as racial justice protests erupted around the world, the United Nations Ethics Office instructed UN personnel not to participate, citing the imperative for UN civil servants to adhere to neutrality in the face of social unrest in member states.
According to diplomatic sources, the Ethics Office's instructions were initially approved by the UN Secretary-General.
However, Guterres reversed the ban after critics pointed out that the most famous African-American official and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Ralph Bunch, walked with Martin Luther King Jr. in Salmy, Alabama, during the height of the civil rights movement.
At a subsequent city council meeting, Guterres assured employees that the instructions “do not in any way indicate that employees should remain neutral in the face of racism. On the contrary, there is no prohibition on personal expression of solidarity with these rights, or civic participation.” Peaceful, provided that the participation is completely personal ».
During August, the United Nations was forced to cancel a survey on racism that asked respondents to specify their skin tone, and the survey included yellow among other human color options.
This caused an uproar considering that the color yellow was historically viewed as a racist insult against Asians.
Other color categories included black, brown, white, mixed or multi-ethnic, among others.
Poll
Last June, in response to the killing in Minneapolis of the black American, George Floyd, and the subsequent protests against racial justice, an association of United Nations personnel conducted a survey of UN employees of African descent to assess racist perceptions.
The survey conducted by the association of people of African descent, which drew responses from more than 2,000 people, revealed that about 52% had experienced some form of racism.
“We are witnessing discrimination in all areas - job opportunities, promotions, training opportunities, etc.” said one anonymous respondent.
Another noted that "it is very difficult to see the appointment of Africans at the senior leadership level."
A third complained that a disproportionate number of top jobs were going to citizens of the Western group.
A fourth said, "As an African, I have the impression that my career is limited to work centers in dangerous areas."
Inside the United Nations headquarters in New York, the numbers lean towards the west, with citizens of Western countries holding 71% of jobs. At least 90% of the employees in some departments and branches, including the Policy Branch and the Strategic Communications Branch, are Westerners.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, expressed his concern about what he sees as the lack of representation of developing countries in the United Nations, especially Africa, saying: "We still live with the illusion that we have moved to a post-racist world."
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