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In Censoring UN of Guterres UNESCO Sinks in Disorganization & Lawless 1-Candidate Election

By Matthew Russell Lee & sources, Exclusive

UN GATE, August 29 – UNESCO, like the entire UN system under Antonio Guterres' leadership, is collapsing into absurdity and corruption. Recent events in Haiti, Ethiopia, Syria and Afghanistan have proven once again its total irrelevance and absence from the major decision-making processes. Song here.

   At UNESCO though, it is the destructive business as usual since the election in 2017 of the French Director general Audrey Azoulay. The maneuvers of Azoulay and her team surprise even the Agency's politically minded ambassadors.

 After individually lobbying member state representatives on the Executive board to obtain their public statements in favor of her re-election, after the public announcement that Azoulay, like the North Korean regime (and following the example of Big Tony) , will be the only candidate for the DG position this year, thus locking in her re-election next November, diplomats are watching with genuine amazement the frantic agitation of Azoulay and her Office to obtain additional letters of support for her candidacy. Contrary to all rules and regulations, these efforts make no sense at this time, when there is no other candidate vying for UNESCO's top job. 

An explanation is emerging, however. Some observers note that, in the current circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a debate to convene an extraordinary session of the General conference of the organization in order to decide on the rules of procedure for a possible virtual holding of this major statutory event for UNESCO which is convened every two years.

 Azoulay's and French Ambassador Roger-Lacan's nervousness could be explained by the fact that if such an extraordinary session were to be held, there is a risk that the candidacy for the post of DG would be reopened, and that the current President of the General conference, the highly respected diplomat Altay Cengizer, would run against Audrey Azoulay.

This could indeed be one of the reasons why Audrey Azoulay is frantically collecting more letters of support.  However, and despite the decision of the Executive board to “call according to Article IV.D.9 (a) and (b) of the Constitution, for an extraordinary session of the General Conference, on 4 September 2021, to decide solely on (a) the format of the General Conference and (b) the adoption of [its] working methods”, there is still no indication of any political move in that direction. 

The consultation of member states that was to have been organized by Executive board Chairman Agapito Mba Mokuy has not yet taken place, and it is not certain that it will take place at all in the short time remaining until September 4. This shows how far UNESCO is sinking into mismanagement and rulelessness. 

Over the past three years, the Paris based Agency has experienced corruption and abuse of power on a number of occasions, but never before has the lack of respect for governing body procedures and for the Constitution reached such proportions. UNESCO is clearly losing its solid constitutional foundation with the French DG seemingly afraid of the option of fair competition in the re-election process from the beginning. 

The Nordic countries and Western democracies have had nothing to say about these blatant cases of influence peddling. They always claim to be the paragon of righteousness and morality, but in the case of the French DG, they all preferred to timidly turn their backs on rules and procedures. What is more, the French Government and the EU countries flip-flopped on all constitutional principles so as to protect fully the French DG in her dishonest demarches. 

Thus, Audrey Azoulay's maneuver has set a dangerous precedent of a parallel decision-making process linked to elections, replacing the one adopted by the General conference. This is where UNESCO is today. A UN agency where corruption, unconstitutional political maneuvering, promotion based on sexual performance, abuse of power and nepotism thrive. We'll tell you more about it.

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