UN WHISTLEBLOWERS have joined forces in demanding that the organisation change a global system they say deters employees from exposing crime, corruption and other wrongdoing.

In a letter sent to secretary-general Ban Ki Moon on Wednesday, nine current and former UN workers said that current policies offered “little to no measure of real or meaningful protection” from retaliation that can include sacking, harassment and intimidation.

Miranda Brown, the chief of the east and southern Africa section of the UN human-rights office, said that within days of being called to testify in a major investigation of a UN agency where she had alleged wrongdoing, she was told that her contract would not be renewed.

When she complained, she was told she would be transferred from Geneva to Fiji.

“I believe this is a result of reporting wrongdoing,” she said.

She has asked for the decision, made last year, to be reversed.

The letter-writers want Mr Ban to extend whistleblower protection to the nearly 130,000 UN peacekeepers around the world as well as contractors and others who might speak out.

They also want an external system to handle claims of retaliation, and the option of external arbitration.

The whistleblowers said they have had no response from the UN secretariat.

“They want the issue to go away, but the problem is spreading,” said whistleblower James Wasserstrom, who lost his UN job after unmasking a $500 million (£341m) kickback scam involving officials in Kosovo.

by Our Foreign Desk