Monday May 12, 2025
Geneva, Switzerland
By Nina Larson
Several hundred UN employees gathered in Geneva on Thursday May 01 at the emblematic Place des Nations, opposite the organization’s European headquarters, to protest against drastic budget cuts and massive layoffs.
The demonstration, called by United Nations staff unions and associations, brought together employees from the various Geneva-based agencies, as well as their families and supporters, under a blazing sun.
On the placards were slogans such as “UN staff are not commodities”, “We defend humanity”, “Stop dismissing UN staff” and “Protect the protectors”.
“We’re supposed to defend workers’ rights, so it’s very difficult,” said Lena, an employee of the International Labor Organization (ILO), refusing to give her surname.
“We feel powerless,” she confided, standing next to her daughter, sound asleep in a stroller, on top of which is a sign proclaiming “We defend better jobs in the world”.
Humanitarian organizations around the world have been reeling since the US government froze most US foreign aid and dismantled USAID, the federal development agency.
The United States has traditionally been by far the largest donor to many humanitarian agencies and organizations. Almost overnight, they found themselves with a huge hole in their budgets and few solutions to fill it.
Several agencies have already warned of the disastrous consequences of austerity measures across the UN system.
– “Sorry” –
According to UN staff unions, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees is set to drastically reduce its workforce – by up to 30% worldwide – while the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has announced that it will have to lay off over 6,000 people, more than a third of its workforce.
The World Food Program (WFP), meanwhile, is preparing to reduce its global workforce by 25 to 30%.
Thousands of jobs are also being cut at the agency responsible for coordinating emergency aid (OCHA), the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, and many more are at stake, say staff unions.
Nearly one job in ten is to be cut at the ILO, while Unicef, the UN children’s agency, will have to absorb a 20% budget cut.
All this against a backdrop of serious humanitarian crises in Burma, Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine, all of which would require more resources.
โSo many people are afraid of losing their jobs,โ says รlodie Sabau, who works at UN headquarters in Geneva.
“Humanitarians make great sacrifices to serve the most vulnerable. It’s not a job, but a true vocation. It’s outrageous to see what happens to them and the impact it has on the precarious populations we serve”, she stresses.
Ian Richards, union leader for staff at UN headquarters in Geneva, pointed out in a statement that “our colleagues have worked in some of the most dangerous, difficult and isolated places in the world.
“They could not choose when or where they would move. They sacrificed their personal and family lives, and in some cases paid the ultimate price to help those in need,โ he writes, lamenting that today โmany are being made redundant without any social or financial support from their employers.”
Lena points out that UN international staff do not receive unemployment benefits in the countries where they work, and that their residence permits expire one month after job loss.
โNow all we have to do is say to those we’ve worked with for years: ‘Sorry!โ
Humaniterre with AFP
photos crรฉdit : Radio television Suisse RTS and 20minutes
