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By Matthew Russell Lee & sources, Exclusive

UN GATE, July 15 – Inner City Press has been reporting on serious malfeasance by the French Audrey Azoulay administration at UNESCO in Paris, almost as bad as Antonio Guterres' corruption in and of the UN in New York. Almost - a fish rots from the head.

UNESCO, like the whole UN system under Antonio Guterres is falling apart into abyssal nonsense and corruption. Last April, Inner City Press reported on DG Azoulay's major setback in losing control of the presidency of the agency's Appeals Board. She has completely and poorly failed in her efforts to extend to this important position her fellow Moroccan Latifa Taoufik who has held this position for several years with a total bias in favor of the Azoulay administration. (Here) 

To corroborate this bias, which would have been unacceptable at any other time, the following statistics, provided by the Director of Legal Affairs at a public meeting during the last session of the Executive board, show that under the presidency of Moroccan Judge Latifa Taoufik, 94% of all cases examined by the Appeals Board under her authority were ruled in favor of Azoulay's administration and only 6% in favor of the aggrieved staff members. This percentage is far higher than any normal UN rate and is comparable only to the justice systems of totalitarian regimes.

 So, of course, DG Azoulay was more than upset by the decision of the Member States to oust the Moroccan Judge and replace her with Mr. Akuété Santos from Togo, as decided by the Executive Board (214 EX/Decision 15) despite DG Azoulay's opposition.   

 The position of Alternate Chair remained vacant, however, and on May 9, 2022, the Chairperson of UNESCO's Executive Board sent a letter to all Ministers responsible for relations with UNESCO, inviting Member States “to suggest suitable candidates for the office of Alternate Chairperson of the Appeals Board” (copy of the letter HERE).  

  Immediately thereafter, a nomination was submitted accordingly by Ecuador. Strangely enough, for more than a month, Ecuador's application for this position was not registered by the Secretariat of the Governing Bodies, headed by Sachin Bhatt, an expert in blindly applying Azoulay's instructions, most of the time against the interest of the organization. (About Bhatt see here previous report)  

  In the absence of any indication from Azoulay's puppets that their application had been duly processed and registered, the delegation of Ecuador sent the following email on May 14, reproduced in extenso (with typos): 

“Dear Colleagues, With great concern and surprise, the Permanent Delegation of Ecuador sends for the third time today, the Candidature of Mr. Patricio Troya Suárez to the vacancy for Alternate Chairperson to the UNESCO Appeals Board (UAB). Until this date the Permanent Delegation of Ecuador to UNESCO has not received an acknoweldge [sic] receipt from the Executive Board Secretariat to the above mentioned candidature. It highly requests to be informed of the reception of the present communciation [sic] as well as the good consideration and attention that the Secretariat of the Executive Board is taking to the Ecuadorian Candidature. The Permanent Delegation of Ecuador to UNESCO”.  The Delegation of Ecuador was rightly concerned about the obvious decision to ignore and hide its candidacy and had difficulty understanding why. However, this is not the first time that the Secretariat of the Governing Bodies has withheld information on candidacies, as in the case of the candidate for the post of DG of Kyrgyzstan. (here)   

Now, in a similar illegal move, Inner City Press has received inside information about DG Audrey Azoulay's plot in this regard. Following the unfortunate and sudden death of Mr. Lare-Sambiani, Togo's ambassador to UNESCO on June 15, 2022, who was a strong supporter of the newly elected President of the Appeals Board, Audrey Azoulay decided to lend a friendly hand and push her Tunisian pal and former Tunisian ambassador to UNESCO, Ghazi Gherairi into this arena. Gherairi lost his cushy ambassadorship on June 8, 2022 (Copy of the Note HERE).

Since that day, dispossessed and unemployed, Ghazi has been offering his services as a legal expert to every possible instance in an effort to find a position that would allow him to stay in Paris. An ambassador from the Arab group pointed out: "Ghazi's relations with the Tunisian authorities at the Palace of Carthage are quite murky these days. Thus, the Appeals Board position may appear as a solution scenario for him”.

 If things go well according to Azoulay's plot, Ghazi Gherairi could thus obtain the position of Alternate Presidency in place of the Ecuadorian, while both presidents would in this case be from Africa, which is contrary to custom. Then, with Azoulay's support, he could conspire for obtaining the Presidency of the Appeals Board before the end of the Togolese's normal four-year term.

 Azoulay's family ties to Tunisia are well known. This is why, if successful, the plot would allow the French DG "to increase to 99% the current percentage of 94 cases tried in her favor," says an insider at the Parisian agency. "If it works, in any case, the internal justice that is now moribund after 5 years of Azoulay's regime, will be completely finished with the help of Ghazi," adds the insider.

 In our next issue on UNESCO, Inner City Press will deal with the recent changes in the Agency's Protocol department and revisit the huge scandal involving the boat rented with taxpayers' money for Azoulay and her family's vacation in Venice. 

 This is where UNESCO is today, an agency where corruption, embezzlement, moral and sexual harassment, abuse of power and nepotism thrive.  We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

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