A thought on the ethics of international civil service

I have been reading An Idea and Its Servants: UNESCO from Within by Richard Hoggart. The book was first published in the 1970s and is reissued in its original form, with a new introduction by John Bolton. Bolton is well known for his dislike of much about the United Nations system. Hoggart is I think ultimately a supporter of UNESCO, but so much of the book seems like griping and carping that one could easily suppose the opposite.

He did get me to thinking about how international civil servants should deal with human rights issues. The first rule is easy: don't be evil; don't do something that offends your moral sense. If the bureaucracy can't help you out of a demand that you do something wrong, quit. Of course, this is easy for me to say since I come from a democratic country with rule of law. I well remember one of my colleagues when I worked for the WHO who was kidnapped from Geneva by his government and imprisoned in a mental war when he somehow offended the powers that be.

I don't think I am especially insensitive to moral issues, but I never came near feeling a crisis that might require resignation during my service with international agencies. Of course there were issues with strong ethical aspects during my years in international development, but none in which I felt external constraints to do something I felt to be unethical.

I found it useful to realize that my judgement was fallible, and that I often did not fully understand the circumstances that I faced. I also found it useful to recognize that I had an ethical responsibility to the organizations for which I worked, something that was easier to do since I chose to work for organizations that I believed were doing important things that needed to be done. So too, I found it useful to remember that my effectiveness as an international aid worker was dependent on establishing trust with the people I worked with, especially those in the host country in which I was working.