Ms Catherine Russell, Executive Director
UNICEF, New York
21 November 2023
Dear Ms Russell,
As retired and former staff of UNICEF, we greatly appreciate that despite your accident – of concern to us all – you continued your visit to Gaza to support the courageous UNICEF staff and others working there to save children. We extend our wishes to you for a speedy recovery.
XUNICEF members welcome and strongly support your call for an immediate ceasefire, sustaining the best tradition of UNICEF highlighting “children as zones of peace” during similar circumstances in the past.
Most compelling is your lament, strongly articulated in televised interviews: Children do not start wars; yet they bear the brunt of death and suffering. Again, we are solidly behind you in emphasizing the world’s responsibility as duty bearers to protect all children. Clearly, UNICEF leadership means you are in a position to find forceful and novel ways of putting a stop to the current slaughter and negotiating peace!
As former UNICEF staff, we laud the work of our colleagues in Palestine and in Gaza itself, along with the work of UNWRA and the efforts of Regional Director Adele Khodr and her colleagues in MENARO. Likewise appreciated is your having taken the time while in Gaza to meet and listen to our beleaguered staff there. We support their assertion that UNICEF should take stronger positions to protect Palestinian children, preventing them from populating “the graveyard for children” already portrayed in the media. At the same time, we mourn the Israeli children who lost their lives or continue to suffer from the October 7 attack. Moreover, because children should never be held hostage, UNICEF must demand the immediate release of the Israeli child hostages.
We likewise urge you to consider returning to Gaza as soon as possible in the company of the Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on the Situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, signatories to the 5 November statement that called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. That is in keeping with our conviction that UNICEF’s worldwide leadership will continually remind the public, and particularly political leaders, that it is children and their families who pay the price of warfare. An immediate humanitarian ceasefire is therefore imperative to save children!
If any of our retired staff’s skills can prove useful pro bono to UNICEF in Gaza and the Middle East, please do not hesitate to let us know so that we can connect them with NYHQ or MENARO.
Mary Racelis,
Former UNICEF Regional Director, ESARO, in behalf of XUNICEF
maryracelis@gmail.com
UNICEF, New York
21 November 2023
Dear Ms Russell,
As retired and former staff of UNICEF, we greatly appreciate that despite your accident – of concern to us all – you continued your visit to Gaza to support the courageous UNICEF staff and others working there to save children. We extend our wishes to you for a speedy recovery.
XUNICEF members welcome and strongly support your call for an immediate ceasefire, sustaining the best tradition of UNICEF highlighting “children as zones of peace” during similar circumstances in the past.
Most compelling is your lament, strongly articulated in televised interviews: Children do not start wars; yet they bear the brunt of death and suffering. Again, we are solidly behind you in emphasizing the world’s responsibility as duty bearers to protect all children. Clearly, UNICEF leadership means you are in a position to find forceful and novel ways of putting a stop to the current slaughter and negotiating peace!
As former UNICEF staff, we laud the work of our colleagues in Palestine and in Gaza itself, along with the work of UNWRA and the efforts of Regional Director Adele Khodr and her colleagues in MENARO. Likewise appreciated is your having taken the time while in Gaza to meet and listen to our beleaguered staff there. We support their assertion that UNICEF should take stronger positions to protect Palestinian children, preventing them from populating “the graveyard for children” already portrayed in the media. At the same time, we mourn the Israeli children who lost their lives or continue to suffer from the October 7 attack. Moreover, because children should never be held hostage, UNICEF must demand the immediate release of the Israeli child hostages.
We likewise urge you to consider returning to Gaza as soon as possible in the company of the Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on the Situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, signatories to the 5 November statement that called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. That is in keeping with our conviction that UNICEF’s worldwide leadership will continually remind the public, and particularly political leaders, that it is children and their families who pay the price of warfare. An immediate humanitarian ceasefire is therefore imperative to save children!
If any of our retired staff’s skills can prove useful pro bono to UNICEF in Gaza and the Middle East, please do not hesitate to let us know so that we can connect them with NYHQ or MENARO.
Mary Racelis,
Former UNICEF Regional Director, ESARO, in behalf of XUNICEF
maryracelis@gmail.com
Nobody asked me if I wished to be represented in this letter from Mary Araceli’s, purporting to be on behalf of XUnicef. Totally illegitimate communication, I fear…
ReplyDeleteEchoing this feeling.
DeleteThank you, Mary. As a former UNRWA staff member in Gaza and, later, a UNICEF Palestine staff member, this initiative is appreciated.
ReplyDeleteXUNICEF is a diverse group. I don’t feel represented by the letter. My focus would have been completely different. Aside, all former staff members are free to communicate with anyone in UNICEF to offer advice, in their own personal capacity.
ReplyDeleteI agreee with Detlef and don't feel represented in the letter.
DeleteMary, this is such an excellent letter. It certainly took a lot of effort and patience on your part, with all us "cooks" chiming in with our 2 cents!
ReplyDeleteI'm really curious to see what Ms. Russell's response will be. She is being lobbied and pressured from all sides; I wouldn't want to be in her shoes. Let's hope she pushes the envelope as much as is feasible for a UN agency.
Sending you much gratitude as Thanksgiving approaches
Robert
Thanks dear Mary. We can share each thru our various networks.
ReplyDeleteNiloufar x
Thank you Mary, an excellent well crafted letter. I wonder if the children who saw their siblings and parents and friends die today will make good partners for peace tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteDear Mary: Thank you for this initiative.The letter expresses good intentions and should be taken with a positive spirit.
ReplyDeleteDear former colleagues. I have read and re-read the letter from Mary Racelis. I do not feel ignored or unrepresented as some of you do. It would be interesting to see your complaints against the initiative from our former colleague and friend Mary Racelis. I do not support or agree with using anonymous as an answer to who you are, but would appreciate your reasons and how you arrived at this position. In the middle east there are very few angels in the choir loft and two wrongs do not make a right. I support the difficult and ungainly place that our ED finds herself. Also, an effort by a selfless Mary to provide some support to Ms. Russell. Let us give thanks and respect to our current leader. Let us pray for the peaceful repose of the many souls who have been removed from our world during this ongoing horrific event. Jim Mayrides
ReplyDeleteMary suggested more discussions on the participatory process and the content:
ReplyDeleteOn the participatory process:
There might be situations where consultations have to be cut short. It is necessary that those taking a decision on behalf of all, include a fair representation of the main prevailing ideas. Many ‘young retirees’ (if such exist) keep themselves updated on new policies and procedures, the changing programme environment, or UN reform. Many maintain connections to current UNICEF staff members, who have insights in the existing or lacking operational efficiencies, advocacy positions and internal politics. A participatory process is not just good for the sake of it, but is required to arrive at decisions or recommendations that are more likely to have some effect.
On the content
The time is over where the world’s problems are solved by self-appointed leaders talking to leaders, including those appointed by others. We do not need leaders making more statements, but leaders who seek solutions through direct engagement with those having conflicting views.
For the voice of UNICEF (as represented by the Executive Director) to be taken seriously, UNICEF needs to be respected and credible. UNICEF is no longer the premier advocate for bringing the senses back in the fog or war, for many reasons. They include the direction of UN reform, and UNICEF’s operational laissez faire, its bloated bureaucracy, its focus on seeking to handle ever larger budgets and its inability to demonstrate results.
What do we expect the Executive Director to do or say differently in yet another visit to Gaza? What about the reception of her by UNICEF staff? Who will be welcoming her? Who, at the present time, needs to be convinced by the Executive Director that the situation is really horrible? Who can claim today that he or she didn’t know? Does UNICEF have any specific proposal that will bring peace and relief?
Gaza requires a multi-agency relief operation of unseen proportions. With all the Core Commitments for Children, risk assessments and endless emergency preparation exercises, WASH is the only cluster that UNICEF leads, supposedly coordinating more than 65 (and probably many more) agencies and civil society organizations that help local authorities to bring water to the people. UNICEF performance will not be measured according to how many speeches someone made or how many water bottles or tons of fuel UNICEF sent into Gaza, but how well UNICEF coordinated the overall GAZA WASH support. I have been enquiring and engaging with those concerned. As of now, six weeks into the disaster, the WASH cluster lead is not able to say what currently is done to plan, prepare, and coordinate a response that most likely will be going on for a long time, on a massive scale. Everyone of us can engage with our colleagues, including with those on the thirteenth floor who may have been there for the last 20 years.
Besides
Not that this is the time to discuss it, nor put it into any letter - but where have UNICEF leaders (and former UNICEF colleagues) been over the last 50 years, where it must have been clear to everyone that the Palestinian situation will not go away, but would require continuous engagement for a fair and peaceful solution? Why did we wait until hell broke loose?
Detlaf, of the many points you raise – and claims you make – that could be responded to, I’ll use one to focus on what might be a weakness in UNICEF’s decentralised structure. You’ve said: “… where have UNICEF leaders (and former UNICEF colleagues) been over the last 50 years …”.
ReplyDeleteIn February 2013, UNICEF released a briefing paper entitled "Children in Israeli military detention: observations and recommendations". It was the culmination of two or more years of detailed research, extensive cross-checking, and endless consultation with high level Israeli government and military authorities. To use your own words Detlaf, the process saw UNICEF leaders seeking solutions through direct engagement with those having conflicting views.
For the record, I am not blowing my own trumpet here as my role was insignificant. Due to the highly sensitive nature of the initiative, Jean Gough, the Representative, navigated the process. With the technical support of Saudamini Siegrist, CO Chief of Child Protection, and close (!!) consultation with both the Regional Office and HQ, it was a textbook example of what UNICEF can achieve. Largely due to Jean and Saudamini’s credit, the publication was substantial and significant in what has long been a vexed context. It was not a workload for the fainthearted.
Periodic reviews of the Recommendations were anticipated, and these did happen under Jean’s successor. But then there were other successors. The international Child Protection personnel changed (Saudamini had left just before the report was launched). The Regional Director changed … often! As we all know, personalities have their own preferences and agendas. Ten years later, and the report seems to have been relegated to the too-hard basket. The Israeli military will not be sending any reminders for the periodic reviews.
UNICEF’s leadership roles (and in humanitarian coordination, they go well beyond the WASH cluster lead!) may have been uneven over the last 50 years, but you seem to suggest that they have been non-existent. That is neither accurate nor fair.
The question is: when a leading work is achieved that requires follow-up (in your words: “continuous engagement for a fair and peaceful solution”) across successive Representatives and Regional Directors, where is the mechanism for accountability to ensure the momentum is not lost? If there is none, does UNICEF’s structure undermine its own credibility? The Israeli government and military will have been counting on it.
Doug, this is the kind of discussion we should be having.
ReplyDeleteI am not belittling any of the good work that staff members have been doing, and I have the highest regard for Sigrid and your work. What you identify as a weakness in UNICEF’s decentralized structure, is the failure of the organization to fully embrace the concept of the ‘whole of UNICEF’. I don’t recall who invented the term, but it sticks. It means that any UNICEF staff or country office anywhere can count on the full support by the organization including experts elsewhere, from the RO and HQ up to executive level for political support, if the matter so deserves. And if the ‘whole of UNICEF’ is behind a certain issue, any new rep or senior staff will quickly get the point.
The situation of Palestine and its children is such a matter. It didn’t need a genius to predict the violence that we see now. It was only a question of time. The UN had more than 50 years to work with all sides to find a durable solution. Development is not possible in the presence of unresolved underlying massive conflicts and injustice. It is irrational to get all enraged now, while nothing much visible was done – together with all and everyone - while the emotions could still be controlled. Much of the violence in the larger region could be traced back – or has some connection - to the unresolved Palestine situation.
We know that no American UNICEF executive director can ever squarely engage on Palestine. With UNICEF consistently reaping more income than it can spend, and having topped 8 billion Dollar annually, my proposal is that the SG and UNICEF forfeit the 1 billion USD that it receives from the US, cuts out the fat, sells its crypto, and becomes the facilitator and mediator it is meant to be.
On your leadership/cluster point: Leadership has to be earned through clear positions, unambiguous communication and operational effectiveness. One may leave it to judgement of the observers whether an organization is leading or not. I pointed to the WASH cluster, because the global relief community has assigned UNICEF to be the coordinator for the many dozens of agencies operating or planning to operate in Gaza, and this is where the global community will assess UNICEF’s performance and leadership. So far, I haven’t seen much else than UNICEF blowing its own trumpet.
For some of my other points and claims, you may browse through some of Insights from Outside the Bubble which all are available here on the blog.
Recognizing the fact that we are no longer in active service, I believe our interventions are best placed to encourage and appreciate efforts pf our serving unicef-ers! Reminds me of the age old saying, “a shoe pinches the most those wearing it”! One can only imagine what our colleagues and their near and dear ones are going through in these conflicting times. I think we should be thinking of sending a note of support and encouragement to those serving and those affected by these tragic events the most. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteTo anonymous: Why don't you draft such a note? Remember that we cannot send it anonymously.
Delete