ROME - In a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a group of nine employees from various UN agencies has this week called on the organisation to give whistleblowers more security. According to the group, the current policies “afford little to no measure of meaningful protection.”

 The nine employees, who have all exposed gross misconduct or even criminal acts as UN whistleblowers in the past, say that revenge towards those who speak out is commonplace in the organisation.

 “As our experience shows, retaliation against whistleblowers affects the entire UN system,” say the group in the letter. “Some UN whistleblowers have been fired or demoted; others have been subject to more subtle forms of abuse like non-renewal of contracts or sudden transfer to duty stations on the other side of the globe. Put simply, the UN system of justice fails whistleblowers.”

 The group has called on Ban Ki-moon and other UN agency directors to take swift and necessary steps to address the issue, which include accepting that whistleblower rights are the same as human rights and must be respected. Furthermore, the letter demands that whistleblowers have an external arbitration option; with a decision maker elected by mutual consent and that the lengthy appeals processes, which befall many, are abolished forthwith.

 According to the nine employees who have put these demands to Ban Ki-moon, should the UN policy on whistleblowers remain the same, it will damage the organisation’s moral standing and legitimacy.