• RIVAL IS ON LEAVE WITHOUT PAY TO RUN CAMPAIGN

The leadership contest underway at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was supposed to be a shoo-in for the current Director General, Portuguese António Vitorino. Until it wasn’t: that is, after the Biden administration decided to support the DG’s own deputy—American Amy Pope, currently Deputy Director General for Reform and Management—for the top job. The race for the May 15 election, whose winner will shape global migration policies, is being held against the backdrop of European allegations of misconduct, aggressive behavior towards staff, and violations of the organization’s Code of Standards of Conduct leveled at the American candidate.

A sitting DG eligible for another term at a UN agency is rarely challenged. In this case, the US administration stands accused by some European countries not only of disrupting what has been long accepted as common practice within the UN system, but of having picked a fight with its allies by pitting two Western candidates against each other—and in a manner which is highly disruptive to the good working of the organization at a critical juncture for migration policy.

“You don’t act this way between allies, you just don’t,” fumed a senior European diplomat, expressing deep frustration at the US. By having defied the current DG nine months before the election, Washington has created a difficult atmosphere at the top of IOM, forcing people in leadership positions to take sides. “The working atmosphere among the leadership is truly unpleasant,” an informed IOM watcher told The Geneva Observer.

From its creation in 1951 until 2018, IOM was in American hands. In 2018, António Vitorino, a former European commissioner and Portuguese Deputy Prime Minister in António Guterres’ government, was elected against a highly controversial Trump-backed candidate. The US is IOM’s largest financial contributor, just above the EU.

IOM joined the UN system two years before António Vitorino’s election. With a highly decentralized structure, it delivers aid to people fleeing conflict and helps migrants “on the move,” as the 2018 UN’s Global Compact on Migration describes them.

A SHOUTING DIPLOMATIC MATCH, ON MUTE

Washington’s aggressive behavior to reclaim the UN agency has left some diplomats here scratching their heads at what they see as a deliberate diplomatic provocation.

“Ironically, the Americans may actually have weakened the chances of their candidate, whose experience and qualifications are real, because the first effect of their move has been to cement the support of the Europeans and others behind António Vitorino,” another Western ambassador told The Geneva Observer, surprised by the brutishness and tone-deafness of the US State Department's approach. "It may even make some American diplomats here uneasy.” The IOM leadership contest has become the most sensitive diplomatic topic discussed in town. And, publicly, it’s on mute.

The following account is based on conversations conducted over the last two months with more than half a dozen sources highly familiar with the matter, none inside the IOM, all speaking under the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue. Antonio Vitorino declined a request to be interviewed. Attempts to reach Amy Pope were unsuccessful. IOM declined to comment, as the contest is a “member-states driven process.” The Portuguese Mission also refused our repeated requests for comment.

REVEALING EXCHANGES

Our sources told us that the US administration was fully aware of the potential tensions and disruptions that would arise by having a Deputy Director General run against her own boss. Our investigation also reveals the lengths to which the US, the organization’s major financial contributor, is willing to go to secure the top position at IOM and reinvest in Geneva’s multilateral system to its advantage.

Washington’s decision to enter the leadership race at IOM has been carefully coordinated at the highest level of the US administration. Amy Pope was, until recently, an adviser for migration to President Biden. Pope also served as a Homeland Security adviser in Barack Obama’s National Security Council. A lawyer by trade, she joined IOM in 2021. She has no management experience.

Last year, Washington easily secured the election of Doreen Bogdan-Martin at the head of the International Telecommunication Union, facing a Russian candidate who did not stand much of a chance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Like Amy Pope today, she was able to count on the vocal support of Joe Biden, and his top diplomat, Antony Blinken, showing the importance Washington places on Geneva’s multilateral organizations.

Our sources have also shared in some detail the efforts of some European countries and others in building support for the current DG.

Outside the hushed diplomatic corridors of Geneva, others are also critical: “The US is embarrassing itself in pushing for Amy Pope’s candidacy,” reads a recent tweet from Jeffrey Crisp, a migration expert with the Oxford Refugee Studies Centre and a former senior UNHCR Official, who doubled down a few days later by directly commenting on one of Amy Pope’s many tweets, asking her: “who is paying for your extended and extensive campaign to oust your boss and put IOM under US control?” A pointed question, and one that many Member States supporting the current DG’s re-election bid—and not just those from the EU—have been asking themselves.

THE ROAD TO A CLASH FORETOLD

The official public announcement of Amy Pope’s nomination for the top position at IOM came on October 3, 2022. “The United States is proud to nominate Amy Pope to be the next Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). […] Amy Pope is the visionary and inclusive leader IOM needs at this time of unprecedented displacement and migration,” wrote US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement. President Biden himself tweeted his support the next day. But maneuvers on the ground here in Geneva had obviously started much earlier, taking a decisive turn in September, when Amy Pope invited IOM’s legal counsel for an informal lunch. Would running against her boss constitute a conflict of interest and potentially breach IOM’s Standards of Conduct, she inquired. Alleged breaches of IOM’s code of conduct became the object of sustained exchanges between IOM’s legal office and its counterpart at the State Department, trying to respond to some Member States’ requests for clarification. We understand that the question is still being debated. It is unclear if a conclusive determination has been made, as the answer is open to differing legal opinions.

Once her and Washington’s decision to move ahead was taken, about 10 days later, Amy Pope’s campaign machine was officially set in motion. The US Mission in Geneva informed the Chair of the Bureau of IOM’s Council—the organization’s 175-member elective body—of its decision to have Amy Pope challenge António Vitorino.

On October 3, the same day as Antony Blinken’s announcement, a few minutes before a scheduled in-person work meeting with António Vitorino, Amy Pope broke the news of her candidacy to her boss by email. She assured him of her loyalty during the campaign and insisted that she would not use IOM’s resources to run it. Two commitments which ended up not being kept, according to our sources.

From that moment on, Amy Pope’s campaign went into full and fast swing. Among some of Washington’s European allies, the manner and brashness in which she was conducting it, with the US administration's full weight, support, and resources behind her, immediately prompted interrogations. A contest for leadership is always a fierce competition, but given the singular nature of this one, some European countries were clearly riled up by what they saw: they concluded that the candidate was defiantly blurring the lines between her role as Deputy Director General and candidate, all the while disparaging her boss’s record, and that she was possibly in breach of IOM’s code of conduct.

Amy Pope’s own official campaign launch happened on October 11, at the US Mission in Geneva, after a press briefing with the UN Press Corps. American diplomats were “on message” for the occasion: In Geneva to attend a meeting of the UNHCR Executive Committee, Assistant Secretary Julieta Valls Noyes concluded her remarks by “highlighting Secretary Blinken’s announcement […] of our nomination of Amy Pope to be the next Director General of the IOM. […] We really think she’s the leader IOM needs at this moment of major migration challenges and opportunities around the world, and we are confident that she will be elected to head the organization.”

“Migration is going to become more and more important as an issue,” the American candidate told the reporters present. The press invitation had explicitly flagged her announcement. (Unable to attend, The Geneva Observer was provided a transcript of AS Noyes and DDG Pope’s remarks by the US Mission.) “From where I sit, it’s critical that we face that issue squarely, that we start to think much more strategically about how we address [it], but also that we use the tools we have much more effectively,” she declared, on the surface eschewing any personal criticism of the current DG. But her message was nevertheless clear: António Vitorino, the boss she was now going squarely against, was not thinking strategically, nor was he using IOM’s tools effectively. In his own statement of support, Antony Blinken had stressed that Amy Pope was a “visionary” and “inclusive” candidate, thus implying that the US administration had concluded that António Vitorino was neither.

Toward the end of the meeting, Amy Pope was asked if she had discussed her candidacy with Vitorino. “Yes, I can’t speak to what he’s doing, but he knew. There is no question he knew. Of course,” she answered.

A FAIR LEADERSHIP CONTEST OR A NAKED POWER GRAB?

António Vitorino knew indeed. And was bluntly reminded of it 6 days later when, according to our sources, he received a call from Wendy Sherman, the US Deputy Secretary of State. Antony Blinken's deputy, The Geneva Observer was told, encouraged Vitorino, who at this point had not yet publicly announced his intention to seek a second term, not to run.

With such pressure having been directly applied by Washington, and already piqued by the Biden administration’s decision to enter the contest in the first place and by the dismissive and confrontational way in which Amy Pope was seen to be acting, some European countries supportive of António Vitorino decided to push back against what they felt were unjustified criticisms against the incumbent DG, whose record at the helm of the organization is widely considered to be good. He is credited with having efficiently steered IOM through the pandemic and, above all, of having led the organization’s transformation after the 2018 adoption by the UN of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration.

Added together, these European countries' grievances read like a rap sheet. Put together, the multiple accounts shared with The Geneva Observer present a very rare and highly enlightening behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of International Geneva, and at the UN’s notoriously opaque nominating system. And they offer an instructive glimpse into how the Biden administration concretely practices the fine art of “being back” at the multilateral table.

According to our sources, Washington and the American candidate have led a sustained and vocal campaign against the DG within the Geneva-based Permanent Missions of the IOM’s Member States. Amy Pope, some claim, has often disregarded the DG’s direct instructions and has been verbally abusive towards some of her colleagues in the organization's Executive Office, which in their views amount to serious breaches of several articles of the IOM’s Standards of Conduct.

Sources familiar with the current leadership context have provided The Geneva Observer with concrete examples to support their allegations against the US candidate, from the questionable use of IOM’s institutional Twitter account early in her campaign—changed later—to her attendance at the COP 27 in Egypt, an episode deemed of particular gravity: Not part of IOM’s official delegation, Amy Pope, the sitting Deputy Director General of an international organization, took a few days of leave of absence and went to Sharm El-Sheikh as part of the US contingent. "This is particularly unbecoming for a senior international servant in an international organization," one diplomat told The Geneva Observer.

ANTONIO VITORINO FINALLY ANNOUNCES

On November 22 of last year, six weeks after Washington decided to challenge the incumbent DG, the Portuguese Government announced that it was supporting the re-election of its former minister as Director General of IOM.

“In his first mandate, and in a particularly challenging international context, António Vitorino achieved important results in strengthening the Organization. He implemented reforms in the top management structure, increased geographical and gender diversity, and established mechanisms for evaluation and accountability while improving the effectiveness of IOM’s humanitarian activities in response to various crises, including in Yemen, Afghanistan, and Ukraine,” Lisbon wrote in its official statement.

The two declared candidates would now have to work together despite the bad blood between them—an untenable situation over several months. In late November, IOM’s Council Chair informed the organization's leadership that it would have to find a way forward and demanded that Amy Pope discuss internally with her superior how to move forward to make sure the tensions between her and Antonio Vitorino would have no effect on the working of the organization. IOM’s Ombudsperson was involved in the conversation.

On December 2, Amy Pope changed her Twitter status, shifting from #UNMigration to #AmyPope4DG. The holidays came and went. But in January, informed sources told The G|O, Amy Pope organized an internal meeting in Nairobi with IOM’s human resources and some regional directors. The DG and the Executive Office were not invited. Without their involvement, the meeting would be meaningless, António Vitorino informed her, refusing to approve her travel request. Challenging her boss’s decision, she traveled anyway to Kenya at IOM’s expense, where, besides her official meetings, she campaigned actively.

Asked earlier this week for a reaction to the allegations made against Amy Pope, in an email to The Geneva Observer, Julieta Valls Noyes, US Assistant Secretary of State at the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, wrote that “bold organizational change is never easy, but the world is facing a historic and worsening migration and forced displacement crisis and the International Organization for Migration must adapt and innovate quickly in order to meet this challenge." Without commenting directly of the allegations or on diplomatic exchanges relating to the leadership contest, Julieta Valls Noyes wrote that "since day one, [Pope] has conducted her campaign with maximum transparency and campaigned only outside the confines of her duties as Deputy Director General. This approach speaks to her firm commitment to ethical leadership.”

AMY POPE IS ON UNPAID LEAVE OF ABSENCE

The high-level segment of the Human Rights Council session in February, where several ministers were present in Geneva, gave an opportunity to discuss the difficult situation. A few days later, António Vitorino responded to an invitation from ACANU, the UN correspondents’ association, to brief the press.

“Can you tell us about the dynamics at IOM right now, given the fact that one of your deputies wants to unseat you, a deputy backed by the US?” he was asked.

“Well, I can confirm to you that I have the backing of Portugal," Vitorino answered jokingly, "and I remind you that I was elected without the backing of the US. But I have no further comment. Now, it’s true that the situation we have today has never happened in the past. Let’s call it innovation! Thank you.”

What he did not disclose was that in late February, Amy Pope, his opponent of five months, had finally submitted a signed code of conduct to the Chair of IOM’s Council, committing to “work with the Director General and to avoid politicizing the day-to-day work of the organization, […] to commit to conduct a campaign that meets all the requirements of the IOM Ethics and Conduct Office, […] to be honest and respectful of the opponent’s point of view.”

"I will not use IOM official resources, staff, or premises in the conduct of the campaign," her statement states. On the treatment of staff, Amy Pope wrote that “I will be scrupulously careful not to coerce, compel, encourage, or otherwise pressure IOM employees or others to work on my campaign’s behalf, or to ask staff to choose between candidates.”

From travel to social media and press appearances to meeting with Member States and use of resources, Amy Pope’s signed pledge addresses all the concerns raised by the group of European countries determined to ensure the fair conduct of a campaign for a position in an international organization. But the issue is now moot: António Vitorino, her boss and rival, accepted Amy Pope’s request to take a leave of absence without pay from March 15 to May 12—three days before IOM’s 175 members vote by secret ballot.

Sources familiar with this particular question told The Geneva Observer that Pope had been asked to take such a leave earlier to avoid any disruption to the organization’s functioning but that she had objected before finally relenting in March. Her bid is now fully funded by the US government. Both candidates and the countries supporting them are actively campaigning, seeking support from IOM’s Member States that may not yet have decided which candidate to support.

The irony of the secret ballot procedure is that, in the end, Washington and Lisbon may never be able to assess who voted for their respective candidate and whether certain countries truly voted as promised. Over the next six weeks or so, the campaign will be more heated than ever. And it will be “a tight race until the end,” a senior non-Western diplomat told The Geneva Observer.

-PHM