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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFTracker

UNITED NATIONS GATE, December 7 -- UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says he has a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual harassment, and for retaliation. But after Guterres imposed on Inner City Press on ongoing ban against entering the UN, made permanent by his Alison Smale in an August 17 unappealable letter, his two spokesman on  are refusing to answer written questions from Inner City Press about Guterres ignoring victims of abuse and harassment including at UNAIDS under Michel Sidibe. Now in Guterres' increasingly corrupt UN system, while the UNAIDS Independent Expert Panel report has belatedly been made public - and it is damning, see here - Guterres has said and done nothing. He defended Sidibe for months. From the report: "The Panel identified four primary factors contributing to systemic failures within UNAIDS:
1. GOVERNANCE: The UNAIDS Secretariat is governed in a way that has produced a vacuum
of accountability.
2. LEADERSHIP: The Executive Director of the UNAIDS Secretariat has created a patriarchal
culture tolerating harassment and abuse of authority and in his interviews with the Panel
he accepted no responsibility for actions and effects of decisions and practices creating the
conditions that led to this review.
3. MANAGEMENT: The unsafe culture created within UNAIDS Headquarters is magnified in
isolated Country Offices where directors, who may be favoured or not, often do not
demonstrate the necessary management skills or ethical compass to guide their behaviour
toward staff members.
4. COMPLAINTS POLICY AND PROCESS: There is no process that is independent of management
or offers true redress proportionate to the nature of the different types of misconduct. There
is an absence of preventive measures, and the formal and informal processes for handling
complaints are slow, ineffective, and no  trusted as confidential. Staff in field locations
have less access to the mechanisms." AIDS Free World's Paula Donovan said, "Michel Sidibé and the inner circle that has been protecting him can no longer continue to lead UNAIDS. As of 10 a.m. EST, the Secretary-General, who appointed Mr. Sidibé, has been completely silent. This is unacceptable." Yes - but not surprising. Look at Guterres' silence on the slaughter in Cameroon, travel waste at UNDP (which he shares); Guterres has had roughed and banned Inner City Press, for 156 days, as AIDS Free World and Code Blue know. We'll have more on this. Despite an official memorandum issued on behalf of UNAIDS' Programme Coordinating Board Bureau by UK Chairperson Daniel Graymore on 29 October 2018 that "the Independent Expert Panel’s report, along with a Management Response from the UNAIDS Secretariat and a Statement from the UNAIDS Secretariat Staff Association, will be discussed at the 43rd PCB meeting [on December 11th and] all reports will be posted publicly online by Monday 3 December 2018" - neither has been complied with. While some asked, when will Guterres be shown a copy of the report, this is downplaying his role. A fish rots, and is rotting, from the head. A Secretary General allowed to openly target those who question him and have them banned from all UN premises, apparently for life, is responsible when others below him in the UN System retaliate and cover up. We'll have more on this - and on this -- now after UNAIDS country director in South Africa director Erasmus Morah made legal threats in September against a women alleging, on Facebook, that he sexually harassed her, UNAIDS spokesperson Sophie Barton-Knott says the agency's South Africaa country director has (belatedly) been put on administrative leaving pending a review / cover up by WHO's OIOS which previously served Sidibe (and Luiz Loures) so well. Reuters, typically, does not mention Michel Sidibe or name the country director or his legal threat, which is easily found online. Guterres and his enablers are making the UN system more and more UNaccountable each day. See November 20 video here. After refusing Inner City Press' Cameroon question and driving off in his / your Mercedes, Guterres left town, without the UN saying to where or who's paying. Now, even while banned from entering the UN by Guterres, this is an exclusive, too: in an October 31 meeting in Conference 6 in the UN from which Guterres has in retaliation banned Inner City Press for 119 days and counting, staff were initially told that "off color jokes" could not be sexual harassment. This from a UN official who admitted that if it were his family member who was the victim, he would go to the 17th Precinct of the New York Police Department. What hypocrisy, when this same part of the UN refuses to investigate and act on Guterres' Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins' July 3 (and June 22) assaults on Inner City Press with other UN DSS officers unnamed, and UN Security lobbies NYPD not to respond to Inner City Press' Freedom of Information Law requests. Another UN official said that harassed staff members are pressured not to go to the press. And in Rome, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization mimics Guterres by attacking - there legally, not like Guterres physically with Security and lawlessly with a secret list - the media that reports on it. The Italian Insider has reported in detail on sexual harassment charges against FAO's human resources official Fernando Servan. On November 6, still banned from the UN noon briefing for the 125th day and with no one who is allowed in asking about this, Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokesmen and Deputy and USG Smale questions including: "November 6-4: On UN system sexual harassment, what is the SG's comment and action on the involuntary kissing of an FAO staffer by Peruvian human resources official reported in The Italian Insider, and on FAO / official suing Italian Insider?" There was no answer to this, despite the promise Guterres' USG Alison Smale made not only to the Government Accountability Project then to Inner City Press, but also to the UN's own Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Information David Kaye, in her evasive answer two months after to his (some of) his questions about her ouster of Inner City Press -- no answer on appeal. Inner City Press asked the question again, sharpened, on November 7:

Hours later, rather than response by Guterres who claims he takes sexual harassment seriously, another buckpassing and bout of impunity as with Michel Sidibe at UNAIDS: "Regarding your questions on FAO, FAO has the following to say: 'The allegation was made in an article by the Italian Insider on a rumour concerning activities outside the workplace and, pending any formal complaint, it would be inappropriate to comment at this time.
FAO has a policy of zero tolerance towards any form of sexual harassment, sexual exploitation or abuse. The Organization is committed to ensuring a work environment that is free of harassment, in particular sexual harassment, as well as the highest standards of conduct for its employees with regard to sexual exploitation and abuse.'" So when UNSG Guterres is asked about FAO allowing rank sexual harassment, Guterres' spokesmen provide only the self-serving response of FAO which is suing the press that reported on the harassment, with Guterres silent or cheering, as he bans Inner City Press... Guterres after his junket in Lisbon is meeting with the UN Chief Executives Board, who have put up with his censorship and debasement of the UN, including the Director of FAO. We'll have more on this.
This Guterres cover up extends to what the UN views as separate, sexual exploitation and abuse. Inner City Press asked, without answer by close of business: "November 6-5: On UN sexual exploitation and abuse, yesterday you said “Vannina in my office has more information.” But all I was sent was the script / note that was read out, nothing additional. So what was the additional information you said on camera was in your office? Please immediately provide it - including figures for civilian personnel, partners, and personnel of UNSC authorized operation (not, it seems, on the Conduct and Discipline website)."  In the October 31 meeting - we have the names but out of respect for now for some current UN staff don't use them - an intern complained about the prevalence of sexual harassment for delegates or diplomats. It was claimed that Guterres is working on this - while he most recently had a female foreign minister change from a meeting in his office on the 38th floor to his residence on Sutton Place and even then summoned her upstairs, not from the flags and meeting room on the mansion's first floor but up into his personal quarters. A fish rots from the head. This meeting and the claims made about Guterres' responses were a matter of derision and disgust among many staff members - we'll have more on this.

This also was an Inner City Press exclusive: at the International Civil Service Commission, sexual harassment at which Inner City Press asked Guterres spokesmen about in person until roughed up and banned, the chairman Kingston Rhodes facing complaints is rounding up signatures of support, much like Louis Loures and now Michel Sidibe at UNAIDS. This is Guterres' UN: no standards, every man for himself and smash and ban the Press that asks. Here is a photo of the "petition" Kingston Rhoades has launched. We are also informed from UN / OIOS sources, not the filer, that a filing has been made with the Office of Internal Oversight Services, which has yet act on Inner City Press' filings on Cameroon, Guterres, Dujarric, Smale and others. This is Guterres' UN. And so, since corrupt Guterres, Smale and Dujarric continue to ban Inner City Press from their dying briefing since July 3, but we are here asking these questions: How many signatures one would need to clear a perpetrator?
How many signatures are needed to protect victims not only from sexual harassment, but from continuous retaliation and intimidation?
What are the duties of the UN staff during an investigation, are they allowed to harass further the victims and whistle blowers?
Is this how SG Guterres is protecting from victims from retaliation as he promised?
Is this what 'gender equality and empowerment of women" when women are used by those in power to attack the victims further?"   We'll have more on this.

For the PBS Frontline "UN Sex Abuse Scandal" documentary, Guterres arrogantly refused to be interviewed - by contrast he did 30 minutes with RT recently - and went on vacation on the broadcast date, after ousting and banning Inner City Press which has asking him about UN sex abuse. Guterres foisted off Jane Holl Lute, who has been saying the same thing on the issue for a decade. On August 27, Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric and Farhan Haq, as well as Smale and Guterres' Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed, "August 27-2: As asked Friday, please confirm that the SG's envoy Jane Holl Lute is still on the Board of Directors of Union Pacific railroad AND the President and CEO SICPA, North America. Given that she now has two UN jobs and these other two jobs, at least, please explain how there are no conflicts of interest and why she had not made public financial disclosure -and, as Inner City Press has repeatedly asked, why USG Smale has not." On August 28 at 11 am Dujarric replied on this (nothing on Cameroon) that "MS. HOLL LUTE SERVES “UNDER WHEN ACTUALLY EMPLOYED CONTRACT.” SHE’S FULFILLED HER OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE RELEVENT ETHICS RULES OUTLINED HERE: https://undocs.org/ST/SGB/2006/6 . HER OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES ARE CLEARED BY THE ETHICS OFFICE." We'll have more about this - but what about Smale, who without due process and without recusal banned Inner City Press for life? 

 On July 25, banned from entering the UN by Guterres for the 22nd day Inner City Press put written questions to several missions and has received this, to his credit, from Swiss Mission spokesman Johann Aeschlimann: "I do not have any comment on Cameroon, but regarding your question on sexual abuse, I would like to assure you that for Switzerland these matters are of high importance. Consistent with our national approach, we consider all instances of sexual misconduct by UN peacekeepers as unacceptable. Switzerland is working closely with the offices of the Special Coordinator on improving the United Nations response to sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), Ms. Jane Holl Lute, and of the Victim’ Rights Advocate (VRA), Ms. Jane Connors. Moreover, the President of the Swiss Confederation is a member of the Secretary-General’s Circle of Leadership on the prevention of and response to SEA in United Nations operations. Switzerland holds that an adequate response to SEA should be victims-centered. In the upcoming negotiations in the Fifth Committee this fall, Switzerland will engage for a strengthening of the office of the VRA... On the matter of your access problems to the UN premises, I appreciate your information." We'll have more on this - including on the EU response. It was covering the July 3 meeting of the referenced Fifth (Budget) Committee that Inner City Press was roughed up by Guterres' Security and has been banned by him since, 24 days and counting. Back on July 25, banned from entering the UN by Guterres for the 22nd day Inner City Press put questions on First Avenue to the French Mission's political coordinator (who refused to answer, video here) and French UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric who said without explaining that Guterres chosen to to speak and sent Lute. Inner City Press in the morning wrote again to the French Mission: "Dear Ambassador Gueguen,, Ms Bree, Ms Negga, others: This is a reiterated request for your, your Mission's and Ambassador Delattre's comment on three issues: first, the troubling issue of UN sexual abuses, detailed in a one hour Frontline documentary broadcast an hour ago, for which UN Secretary General explicitly refused to be interviewed while now going on vacation. What is your mission and country's comment on  this? Here at the Delegates Entrance, banned from the UN for 22 days with no end in sight, I asked your Mission's political coordinator this morning. Nothing. Second, again, the human rights abuses by the Cameroon army and security forces, not only in the Anglophone areas (which I have been asking about in the UN since early 2017) but now also in the north, video linked to in Inner City Press, here, as verified by Amnesty International. (Now HCHR has commented, today - why is there no meeting of the UNSC, at least under Any Other Business?) Given that the Security Council has supported these Cameroonian forces, and given France's role in Cameroon and the region, this is a request for comment on deadline including on whether your Mission will now seek and/or support a Security Council meeting on these abuses, and if not, why not. I am asking these questions in writing now because I was banned all week from entering the UN and could not ask them at the Security Council stakeout.This notifies your Mission that I have been banned from the UN since at latest July 5, with no due process. See, The Independent (UK), July 12, 2018, “UN 'roughs up and bans' investigative reporter long considered thorn in side of world body officials, Mr Lee has written about UN in connection to Haiti, Burundi, Sri Lanka and other nations." Frontline did well by interviewing victims, but entirely misrepresented several interviewees' roles, most notably Isobel Coleman, who did not criticize the UN when she worked for Samantha Power, and stood by as the UN evicted Inner City Press from its work space and made it a "non resident corresponent." (Guterres has gone much further, trying to strip even that, deploying violence and banning the Press.) There was no mention of "R&R" Ladsous' role, nor of Lacroix. It was filmed some time ago, with David Gressley. But a key point is the 32 new allegations this year, each of which Inner City Press has asked the UN about before being targeted with violence and Guterres ban. That, and his arrogant refusal to answer, and going on vacation, should have consequences. Watch this site.

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