How UNHCR’s Ethics Office is evolving to meet the challenges of an ever-changing world
This is the first in a two-part series about the role of the Ethics Office — and how it’s reshaping the way it works.
By Amy Lynn Smith, Independent Writer + Strategist
The people who work at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) want to do the right thing. That’s unquestionable, because they’ve devoted their careers to helping people in their greatest time of need, often traveling to dangerous places, leaving their loved ones behind, spending weeks or even extended periods living in challenging conditions to assist refugees. So there’s no doubt that UNHCR’s people are dedicated to making a positive difference in the world.
So if everyone wants to do the right thing, why does UNHCR need an Ethics Office? Beyond the fact that having an Ethics Office is mandated in the United Nations’ Rules and Regulations, the office serves as a guiding light in an increasingly complicated world, where it isn’t always easy to know exactly what doing the right thing means.
Traditionally, UNHCR’s Ethics Office has helped staff around the world understand the organization’s established Code of Conduct and how to live by it. The code covers the gamut of potential ethical challenges, from refusing to be manipulated by offers of money or gifts to never engaging in sexual harassment or sexual exploitation.
Without a Code of Conduct and an Ethics Office — which serves to provide guidance when questions arise, in hopes of avoiding ethics issues before they happen — trust in UNHCR could erode and it would be much more difficult for personnel in a multi-cultural environment to know how to behave appropriately.
“There’s a need to uphold the values in the organization, like integrity, professionalism and respect for diversity and inclusion,” says Helmut Buss, Director, Ethics Office. “We are here to provide tools for managers and colleagues when they are in front of the bigger problems or ethical dilemmas, both for risk mitigation and shaping the kind of behavior that will allow the organization to fulfill its mandate and vision around assistance, protection, and solutions for refugees and other people of concern.”
It’s equally important, adds Victoire Bovet, former Project Associate, Ethics Office, that UNHCR colleagues fulfill their duty. “The mandate of UNHCR is to work for people of concern — refugees, asylum seekers, stateless people — and we need to make sure that all colleagues remember and live the values that are part of UNHCR’s mandate and are dedicated to the work that’s involved.”
Where the Ethics Office is coming from
According to Buss, the Ethics Office was “parachuted” on the organization some 10 years ago following a scandal related to oil-for-food in Iraq. That was followed by sexual harassment cases in West Africa, so the UN decided Ethics Offices and Ombudsman Offices were needed to strengthen a culture of integrity and help address the kinds of ethical and workplace conflict issues people were struggling with on a regular basis.
“In the beginning, it was very reactive,” Buss explains. “The Ethics team was basically here waiting to answer questions like, ‘Can I accept this gift’ or ‘Can I engage in this outside activity?’”
These questions would often come in writing, and UNHCR personnel would get a written response referring to UNHCR’s established rules and the direction to observe them. But the world is much more complicated than that — now more than ever — as are the ethical dilemmas faced by UNHCR personnel every day.
After all, even good people may think, “What’s the harm if I accept a gift no one knows about?” Others might feel lonely, causing them to form inappropriate relationships with colleagues while stationed far from home. Even good people who want to do the right thing can make bad decisions when living for extended periods in a foreign land, often in challenging environments and with limited job security. Research has shown that high stress levels, the feeling of being treated unfairly, including job insecurity, can all be drivers to make good people behave in an unethical way.
Recognizing where the Ethics Office needed to go
In the past, Code of Conduct principles were communicated in a directive way as a set of rules to be followed, with non-adherence exposing colleagues to sanctions. The new way of engaging with Code of Conduct principles and ethics questions invites colleagues to get involved in making good ethical decisions, based on a good understanding of UNHCR values. Since 2004, the Ethics Office hosted annual refresher sessions across UNHCR about the Code of Conduct and ethics principles. But as Buss explains, it became an outdated brand, much like “a car with run-down tires” and not very engaging. After all, everyone who has ever worked for an organization knows that sitting through a presentation that doesn’t involve any group interaction can turn even an interesting topic into a mind-numbing one.
But over the last two years, the Ethics Office has been experimenting with creative solutions to not only make ethics more engaging — but even more important, to actively involve UNHCR colleagues in ethical decision-making every single day.
“We want to move attention away from the post-facto situation, where UNHCR is investigating and sanctioning, to take a preventive approach by creating curiosity and analytical skills so people understand why good people sometimes do bad things so they better understand when that can happen and stop and think before engaging in something that is unethical,” Buss says. “In the end, we strengthen our role as the conscience of the organization.”
How exactly is the Ethics Office reshaping its brand to make ethics more engaging and transform the way UNHCR personnel perceive their own role in ethics? Watch for the second part of this series to find out.
