Expert: UN failed before Rohingya crackdown in Myanmar

An independent review of United Nations operations in the years before hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled a violent crackdown by Myanmar's military concluded that the organisation's many bodies failed to act together, resulting in "systemic and structural failures."
"Without question serious errors were committed and opportunities were lost in the UN system following a fragmented strategy rather than a common plan of action," he said, adding that the "systemic failure was further magnified by some bureaucratic and unseemly infighting."
Rosenthal said the key lesson is "to foster an environment encouraging different entities of the UN system to work together."

On a more optimistic note, he said since UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took office at the start of 2017, "there appears to be renewed recognition of the crucial importance of improved coordination."
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Guterres, who commissioned the report, has accepted all of its recommendations "and is committed to implementing them."
He said the UN system "has been relatively impotent to effectively work with the authorities of Myanmar to reverse the negative trends in the area of human rights and consolidate the positive trends in other areas."

He also noted "increasing criticism regarding the lack of leadership displayed by Aung San Suu Kyi," the government's de facto leader, "as well as her unwillingness to take distance from the military."

Although the UN's systematic failures are not down to any single entity or any individuals, Rosenthal said, "clearly there is a shared responsibility on the part of all parties involved in not having been able to accompany the government's political process with constructive actions, while at the same time conveying more forcefully the United Nations' principled concerns regarding grave human rights violations."
Rosenthal said the UN Security Council as the world body's most powerful organisation should also bear some responsibility because its divisions failed to provide support to the UN Secretariat "when such backing was and continues to be essential."

He said the UN, which has multiple ways to engage its 193 member states, could find ways "to criticise and prod governments that engage in serious violations of international law while at the same time cooperating with them in delivering humanitarian and development assistance."