DPI/NGO
Briefing
The
Different Faces of Ethics
26
October 2006
Looking at the Issue of Ethics within
the United Nations
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Left
to rigth: Mr. Jean Marc Coicaud,
Head of the United Nations University
Office at the United Nations in
New York; Juan Carlos Brant, Chief
of the Department of Public Information;Mr.
Randy Cohen, New York Times Magazine;
Mr. Tunku Abdul Aziz, Special Adviser
on the Establishment of the Ethics
Office, and Ms. Nancy Hurtz-Soyka,
Director, the Ethics Office.
Photo:
Figen Bingül, Light Millennium
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Figen
BINGÜL
Secretary
General of the Light Millennium
A briefing held for the NGO representatives in the United Nations
Headquarters, New York, titled "The
Different Faces of Ethics" made it
once more clear that ethics is a vast
issue to be dealt with diligence. In our
daily lives, we face many ethical dilemmas
at personal, institutional, national,
and international levels. It is certain
that everything we do has an ethical aspect.
And we often find ourselves asking the
question "Is this the right thing
to do?" Surely, everyone has different
reasons or justifications to look at these
dilemmas; and most of the times, there
are more than one points of view to resolve
these conflicts. Therefore a certain conduct
of rules in every institution is necessary
to be able to define what is ethical and
what is not. Of course, there are national
and international ethics to be considered
along with institutional ethics. Where
does the United Nations stand on how to
deal with the issue of ethics?
To give an overview in this frame, the panel started underlining
that the main attributes around the issue
of ethics are transparency and accountability.
Within this perspective, the audience of the briefing was informed
about the necessity of establishing an
Ethics Office within the United Nations
because ethics plays a large role in public
service. Therefore it was a must to define
an ethical etiquette in order to help
the staff members to be able to distinguish
whether or not their acts were in accordance
with the ethical expectations of the United
Nations. With the belief that ethics should
be improved with human resources, United
Nations established in 2006 an independent
Ethics Office that reports directly to
the Secretary General.
Not limited to the United Nations, but as a
general statement, it was stated that
ethics was central to social life and
the key to the delivery of public good.
It was also mentioned that democratic
values improved the centrality of ethics.
Moreover, ethics was a point of reference
in putting leadership at a legitimate
position. When one had more power he/she
had more duties; this required legitimate
exercise of power. Therefore, legitimizing
power required upholding the ethical standards
of transparency and accountability.
It was concluded that while practices may vary culturally, principles
did not. Therefore, fundamental principles
were needed before any actions could be
evaluated. And another key value to deal
with ethical clashes was to treat others
with respect.
Another point made during the discussion after the panel was regarding
the instances where ethical etiquette
of an institution conflicts with one's
loyalty to his/her culture, nation, or
religion. The UN is a good example to
this since it employs many people coming
from different national, religious and
cultural backgrounds. What if a person's
loyalty to his/her nation and religion
clashes with the ethical etiquette of
the UN? As a solution to this, it was
suggested that under the UN, one must
separate himself/herself from his/her
national, cultural and religious boundaries
and should act within the principles of
the UN.
For more information, a summary of the briefing
prepared by the Department of Public Information,
NGO Section, is presented below.
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DPI/NGO Briefing
The
Different Faces of Ethics
26 October 2006
Summary
The weekly NGO briefing on 26 October
2006 looked at the question of ethics
and its implications of transparency and
accountability. Mr. Tunku Abdul Aziz, Special Adviser on
the Establishment of the Ethics Office;
Ms. Nancy Hurtz-Soyka, Director, the Ethics
Office; Mr. Jean Marc Coicaud, Head of the United Nations University Office
at the United Nations in New York; and
Mr. Randy Cohen, New York Times Magazine,
shared their insights into the role ethics
plays in our institutions and our everyday
lives.
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Mr.
Aziz
began by introducing the newly established
Ethics Office in the United Nations.
He addressed the question of why the
United Nations needed an Ethics Office
by dispelling the popular belief that
it was in direct response to the Oil-for-Food
Programme scandal and other incidences
involving peacekeeping missions. He
clarified that the Ethics Office was
born out of the United Nation's staff
consensus that ethics played a large
role in public service and there was
no substitute for ethical behaviour
in the international public service.
The Ethics Office, therefore, brought
the ethical dimension of the United
Nations to the conscious level and helped
staff members locate the hidden ethical
traps in their work. He pointed out
that while some of the things people
did were completely legal they may not
be entirely ethical.
Ms. Nancy Hurtz-Soyka
outlined the operational role of
the Ethics Office, which was one of
the newest offices at the United Nations,
established at the beginning of 2006.
Duties of the Ethics Office included:
providing confidential advice and guidance
to staff; developing content for ethics
training modules (i.e. user friendly
guides, training and education on ethics
issues); administering, not reviewing,
the financial disclosure programme;
and protecting staff against retaliation
for reporting misconduct or cooperating
with authorized audits or investigations.
Ms. Hurtz-Soyka concluded by saying
that the Ethics Office was the manifestation
of the ideals first established by the
United Nations Charter over sixty years
ago. She also mentioned that the entire
United Nations senior management team,
including the Secretary-General and
the Deputy-Secretary-General participated
in an ethics training course about two
weeks earlier.
Mr. Coicaud summed
up three main points about ethics that
he had learned over the years. The first
point was that ethics was central to
social life. It was not the icing on
the cake, but rather the core of social
life and the key to the delivery of
public good. Second, democratic values
enhanced the centrality of ethics. And
finally, ethics was a benchmark in putting
leadership at a legitimate post. Elaborating
on the final point, Mr. Coicaud explained
that power was not an entitlement but
a set of responsibilities and duties
that increased accordingly. Therefore,
legitimizing power required upholding
the ethical standards of transparency
and accountability.
Mr. Cohen examined the
conflicts that arose when the ethical
systems of different cultures clashed.
Providing an anecdote as an example,
Mr. Cohen told the story of a woman
who came to him for advice when faced
with a moral dilemma. She was in the
process of hiring a real estate agent
who, as a result of his religious beliefs,
refused to shake her hand due to the
fact that she was a female. This left
the woman in a situation where, as a
feminist and a believer of religious
tolerance, her civic and religious values
were conflicting. Mr. Cohen considered
whether ethics was a manifestation of
cultural values and whether calling
an action religious made it right. He
concluded that while practices may vary
culturally, principles did not. Fundamental
principles were therefore needed before
any actions could be evaluated. Applying
this rule to the above dilemma, Mr.
Cohen determined that gender should
be accorded equal respect and in this
case, religious practice did not justify
gender discrimination.
During the question-and-answer period,
NGOs and the panel further discussed
the ethical issues faced by the United
Nations as an organization of Member
States with different cultural values.
The discussion began with a reference
to the Freudian idea that, in a group
setting, moral sensitivities regressed
to the primitive. Mr. Cohen reinforced
that idea by sharing a social experiment
that proved that when in a group setting,
human beings were less willing to respond
and act in accordance with their moral
values. How, then, did this affect the
Organization's ability to resolve issues
facing the global community? Mr. Aziz
explained that to overcome this obstacle,
the world body needed to act with greater
transparency and accountability. Mr.
Coicaud said that sovereignty did not
pose a threat to ethics since sovereignty
and ethics were the same. When dealing
with international ethics, it was important
to distinguish between two types of
ethics: the national ethics of a state,
and the international and universal
ethics of mankind. The United Nations
was an organization that faced unique
dilemmas when addressing the question
of ethics. To overcome these challenges,
qualified transparency and accountability
were vital. In response to a question
about the environment of the Organizations
from an ethical point of view, Mr. Aziz
responded by saying that as a relative
newcomer to the United Nations system,
he was rather shocked by the pervasive
feelings of mistrust, unhappiness and
despair in the Secretariat. He pointed
out that many of the problems had to
do with the quality of leadership. Mr.
Coicaud agreed with Mr. Aziz by expressing
concern that the United Nations was
weak on the inside which made it hard
for the Organization to be strong and
provide hope on the outside. He also
called for an improved, ethical human
resources system at the United Nations.
A video, produced by NBC Media Productions,
entitled 'Integrity: The Spirit and
the Letter of Our Commitment', was screened
before the panel discussion.
The briefing was attended by about 150
representatives of NGOs, UN and Permanent
Mission staff. The archived webcast
of the event is available at www.un.org/webcast
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