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DPI/NGO Briefing
The Different Faces of Ethics
26 October 2006

Looking at the Issue of Ethics within the United Nations

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
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.



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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