PerspectiveLeak Suggests UN Agency Self-Censors on Climate Crisis after U.S. Pressure

Published 11 September 2019

Leaked communications suggest that the UN’s migration agency is censoring itself on the climate crisis and the global compact on migration, following pressure from the U.S. government. an email sent by a U.S.-based official of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on 28 August to colleagues around the world relayed that the U.S. state department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) told the agency documents related to program activities it funds “must not be in conflict with current [U.S. government] political sensitivities.” These sensitivities include mentioning climate change and the UN sustainable development goals. 

Leaked communications suggest that the UN’s migration agency is censoring itself on the climate crisis and the global compact on migration, following pressure from the U.S. government.

Emanuel Stoakes writes in the Guardian that an email sent by a U.S.-based official of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on 28 August to colleagues around the world relayed that the U.S. state department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) told the agency documents related to program activities it funds “must not be in conflict with current [U.S. government] political sensitivities.”

Sensitivities include the climate crisis, sustainable development goals, the global compact for migration and “anything that seems at odds with the administration’s take on U.S. domestic/foreign issues,” the official wrote in the email.

“Documents related to program activities, especially those that will be published online, may require prior review and approval by the donor,” they went on, requesting that colleagues use “discretion” and share relevant documents “in enough time to make any necessary adjustments in coordination with PRM.”

The email’s author noted that “PRM is very willing to cut funding in areas that it deems are not in line with U.S. foreign policy objectives,” and asked that the substance of the email be conveyed by regional coordinators “to all country focal points.”