A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Thursday, May 30, 2013
UN Judge Rules In Long-Running Investigator's Case
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GENEVA
(AP) — After nine years of legal wrangling, former U.N. investigator
Caroline Hunt-Matthes has won a judgment that she was unfairly punished
for documenting a woman's rape case in Sri Lanka a decade ago.
Hunt-Matthes told The Associated Press on Wednesday the long-running
case is "a consummate story of abuse of power" by U.N.'s oversight unit.
The twin rulings by U.N. Dispute Tribunal Judge Coral Shaw in Nairobi,
which were issued late Tuesday, are highly critical of the U.N.'s
accountability system. They follow a hearing earlier this year in Geneva
on Hunt-Matthes' complaints filed against the United Nations dating to
2004.
They say Hunt-Matthes, who had been consistently rated an exceptional
employee, lost her job at the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees because of retaliation and suffered other damages after she
collected evidence in 2003 that an agency employee had raped a refugee
in Sri Lanka.
The U.N. staffer, an administrator in the agency's Sri Lanka office, was
reprimanded and left the refugee agency after the rape was reported. A
review of the case by the U.N.'s legal team substantiated the rape. The
victim, a teenager who cleaned the offices of the refugee agency in Sri
Lanka, was fired after reporting the rape.
"There can be no doubt about the serious stress and reputational damage
caused to" Hunt-Matthes, the judge wrote. "In addition, she has borne
the disappointment of retaliation against her by formerly respected
colleagues for identifying and insisting on an investigation into
misconduct she genuinely believed was occurring."
There was no immediate comment from U.N. officials.
Hunt-Matthes said she couldn't find work right away, and has been doing
mostly part-time consulting and teaching since leaving the U.N. She's a
lawyer by training but her career as an investigator was over.
The rulings, which can be appealed, award Hunt-Matthes a year's salary
and benefits, legal costs, plus $58,000 for her damages and suffering —
some caused by what the judge described as the incompetence and failings
of the U.N. ethics office to protect her as a whistleblower after she
carried out her duty to report misconduct by a U.N. staffer.
"Which translates into the fact that U.N. staff members are working in a
very dangerous environment," Hunt-Matthes said. "If you want to stand
up and speak the truth about something that's gone wrong, there's going
to be no protection for you. So what does that mean for the U.N.?"