Row at UN domain-name body WIPO: Probes shut down, payout from controversial chief

'Mr X' fingered in tale of DNA skulduggery

We need a responsible adult in here

Pooley gives an account of the strange occurrences at WIPO over the past year:

After my report of serious misconduct by the Director General circulated in Geneva, he had the WIPO legal counsel issue legal threats against me ...

The WIPO Chief Ethics Officer, who complained of a lack of both resources and respect for his function, committed suicide.

Independent, professional investigators tasked with assessing the matters raised in my report called for a full investigation; but after that investigation was underway it was inexplicably terminated.

Several days after she received notice to be interviewed in that investigation, another whistleblower and former senior WIPO official, then working for another UN agency, was abruptly told that her employment would be terminated and she and her family would need to leave Geneva within thirty days.

Another whistleblower, the President of the WIPO staff union who had reported illegal shipments by WIPO of American-made computer equipment to North Korea, was summarily fired by the Director General days before he was to deliver a critical speech to member states ... The WIPO administration has since offered him over half a million dollars for his silence.

Pooley notes recent US legislation which demands the US government withhold 15 per cent of its contribution to the budget of any UN agency which fails to protect whistleblowers.

Insiders complain that the US normally acts as "responsible adult" in overseeing UN agencies, because it normally provides the lion's share of their budgets. But because WIPO mostly raises its own money by charging businesses for its services, it escapes such US scrutiny and control. WIPO brings in almost £500m a year charging businesses for international patents, copyrights and settling domain name disputes. WIPO settles non-national top level domain disputes as well as running dispute resolution for dozens of countries.

Although Pooley is a well-connected Silicon Valley lawyer who once represented Steve Jobs, his campaign to clean up WIPO has not picked up much support in political, diplomatic or media circles. This may be because Mr Gurry and his associates are known to be litigious.

Meanwhile WIPO is being drawn into a wider narrative of a bankrupt UN culture which seeks to silence criticism while failing to deal with internal misconduct. The UN exists outside traditional employment laws – WIPO staff complaints are dealt with, very slowly, by ILOAT (Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organisation) – an organisation created as a result of the Treaty of Versailles and the creation of the League of Nations.

James Wasserstrom, a US diplomat and former UN staffer, has accused the international organisation of turning on whistleblowers instead of properly investigating their claims.

In the wake of leaks accusing UN soldiers of child sexual abuse offences he said the UN showed “reckless disregard for very serious allegations of wrongdoing in order to go after the whistleblower”.

A UN report completed last year found evidence of such abuse but the UN took no action until it was leaked to the media. Meanwhile Anders Kompass, who leaked the UN Sexual Abuse on Children by International Armed Forces report, has been suspended from his job.

Wasserstrom commented:

“Over and over and over again, the UN goes into denial, into dismissal and into cover-up, and then tries to retaliate against the whistleblower.”

Wasserstrom knows of what he speaks. When working for the UN mission in Kosovo in 2007 he made allegations of a $500m corruption pot being shared by UN officials and Kosovan officials. He was sacked and then arrested by UN police.

After a six year legal battle he accepted a $50,000 payment from the UN but damned the settlement as “an insult to whistleblowers and a green light to retaliators".

The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is supporting nine other UN whistleblowers complaining that they suffered retaliation as a result of making complaints about UN behaviour. Moncef Katab, the sacked head of the WIPO staff council, has joined the group of whistleblowers represented by GAP.

WIPO is currently advertising for a director of internal oversight. The job description makes clear that the successful applicant will report directly to the director-general – making oversight of Mr Gurry's behaviour rather difficult.

Finnish ambassador to the UN Paivi Kairamo is chair of the ambassadorial committee overseeing WIPO and as such is ultimately responsible for the proper running of the agency. The Register contacted the Finnish mission to Geneva for comment but had received none by time of publication. However Fox News reports that Ambassador Kairamo has requested that the UN internal watchdog, the Organization of Internal Oversight Services, look into the matter.

WIPO representatives declined to comment. ®