Madam, Sir,

Imagine this for just a moment. Your son or daughter has accepted a job with a prestigious United Nations organization. The job involves going to a war-torn country to help the people re-build their lives. Six months later, you see on CNN that your son was murdered while at his UN office, waiting to receive a response to his e mail explaining that the office was under attack. Or perhaps it was your daughter who was kidnapped, held hostage and repeatedly raped before finally being rescued ten days later.

How would you feel? Who should be held accountable for these indescribable acts of terror and violence?

Your children did not have the right to security at their UN jobs. There is no organizational rule that the lives of international civil servants shall not be put at undue risk or in undue jeopardy, nor is there the right to effective measures to protect their own lives and those of their family members.

And you, as a father or mother, have no right to know whether or not the United Nations took every possible measure to protect your children's lives. You cannot take the UN to court because it is protected by its privileges and immunities. The organization has no obligation to give you any information whatsoever about the circumstances of your children's death and misfortune. Nor are the organization and its managers accountable. It is a case of another in-service death. End of story.

International labour conventions call on employers to put in place rules and programmes to safeguard the health and lives of their workers. By those same conventions, training must be provided to workers in any occupation involving risks, be it handling dangerous chemicals or working on scaffolding. Military personnel receive training to deal with conflict situations. But international civil servants who work as civilian staff in high-risk areas may be sent like lambs to the slaughterhouse.

Staff have a right to security. The United Nations must be responsible and accountable for staff security.

The right to safety and security in the "workplace" - wherever that may be must be formally recognized for all international civil servants. The United Nations must be made accountable to its employees and their family members.

FICSA requests Member States to:

1. call for an in-depth review of the conditions that must underpin any peacekeeping, humanitarian or other assistance;

2. affirm the principle that the primary responsibility for the safety and security of United Nations and associated personnel rests with the employing organization;

3. call for the establishment of clear guidelines on the security of United Nations staff and associated personnel;

4. ratify the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, or accede thereto, and adopt legislation to give full effect to the Convention's provisions at national level;

5. revise the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel to strengthen it and, in particular, extend its scope to all United Nations and associated personnel;

6. ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, or accede to it;

7. urge the Executive Heads to mobilize all available resources for the reinforcement of safety and security measures;

8. provide adequate funding for the security system.