Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Thank you Mr President,
New Zealand is pleased to see increasingly active outreach on ethics across a number of internal communications platforms, and notes with approval the resulting increase in enquiries. We recognise that this uptick increases pressure on Ethics Office resourcing, and encourage the respective Offices to engage with UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS management, and if necessary the Board, if additional staff are required.
New Zealand urges UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS to continue to strengthen measures to protect whistleblowers from retaliation, and to seek to understand the reasons why complainants may withdraw, or decide not to pursue, valid complaints. Internal accountability measures are only ever as strong as staff confidence that they will remain safe when using them. Where safety measures are identified as inadequate, New Zealand encourages UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS to continue to seek improvements, in ways consistent with natural justice and robust due process.
We note that increasing awareness of ethical behaviour should both reduce incidents of unethical behaviour and increase staff confidence to report it when it does occur.
New Zealand wishes to express again its appreciation for the improvements in transparency and process demonstrated by UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS and their accountability functions, which we acknowledge are the result of continuous efforts.
The confidence of Member States – and more importantly of the global public – in the UN depends upon its representatives’ upholding the highest ethical standards.
Thank you.