UNESCO flatly rejects donation from Davidoff Swiss Indoors
Saturday, 06 March 2010 19:02
In two press releases (one dated 15 May 2009, the other one dated 18 August 2009), the organisers of the Basel tennis tournament announced, in much fanfare, that the Davidoff Swiss Indoors would make a donation in support of UNESCO. The donation would be received by Montserrat Cabballé, the world renowned opera singer, in her capacity as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. Here is an extract of the first communication:
Donations in support of UNESCO
The UN charity UNESCO (sic!) will benefit from the Davidoff Swiss Indoors’ humanitarian focus this year. It will receive all the proceeds from the event organised by the Business Club, the Basel tennis tournament network, on 21 September 2009 in the Grand Casino Basel. UNESCO will also receive the corporate donations, which are submitted on the basis of the aces served during the final round of qualifying matches on 1 November 2009. The cheque will be presented to the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Montserrat Caballé by the Tournament President Roger Brennwald at the opening ceremony on 2 November 2009 on the centre court.
Note that UNESCO is incorrectly described as a "UN charity". The second communication goes along the same register, except that this time, UNESCO is described as a "UN relief organization". It seems the organizers didn't really bother to verify what UNESCO actually was - the name just sounded right as recipient of a donation.
A first for Caballé
Federer’s on-court variety and culture will combine in harmony with Caballé’s majestic voice. "As a citizen of Nadal’s homeland, I am delighted to be able to see Federer play live", said Montserrat Caballé, who is also a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and is this year supporting the humanitarian campaigns being run by the Basel tournament. For every ace served during the final round of qualifying matches, companies and sponsors will donate a certain amount. All of the proceeds will go to the UN relief organisation UNESCO.The Davidoff people saw it as an opportunity to appear as responsible citizens and buy themselves a good conscience and cheap respectability, by having UNESCO accept a donation from the Davidoff Swiss Indoors. There was, however, one major drawback in their plan, which they either overlooked or thought they could ignore: receiving tobacco money is strictly against United Nations rules, to which UNESCO is subjected. Furthermore, in its decision 155EX/8.6, the Executive Board of UNESCO said that involvement in the production or distribution of tobacco disqualifies private sector funding sources from collaboration with UNESCO. Finally, the Davidoff donation to UNESCO violated a key recommendation of the Guidelines on Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC), an international treaty now ratified by 169 countries (which binds the overwhelming majority of UNESCO member states). These guidelines contain the following directive:
The Parties should ban contributions from tobacco companies to any other entity for "socially responsible causes", as this is a form of sponsorship. Publicity given to "socially responsible" business practices of the tobacco industry should be banned, as it constitutes advertising and promotion.
Fortunately, shortly after the second press release was issued, UNESCO learnt about the planned donation. Upon reading the announcement, the Director-General of UNESCO got very upset. We know from a highly reliable source that he sent Mr. Brennwald a very strongly worded letter in which he flatly rejected the donation, saying that UNESCO was not in the position to accept funds raised during a tobacco-related event. He said that Ms. Caballé would be advised accordingly. And finally, he asked that UNESCO's name be removed from all communications concerning the tournament. This was a very serious rebuff for the Davidoff people - their plot to implicate UNESCO by creating a fait accompli had been uncovered on time and defeated.
The organizers of the tournament complied with the request of the Director-General: no mention of UNESCO was made in subsequent communication. However, in line with their ostrich policy, they have made strictly no comment on the incident, even when it was reported in the press.