In Other Media-eg New Statesman, AJE, FP, Georgia, NYT,  Azerbaijan, CSM Click here to contact us     .

By Matthew Russell Lee & sources, Exclusive

UN GATE, Nov 26 – UNESCO, like the whole UN system under Antonio Guterres was been falling apart in corruption and fraud.

  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. A fish rots from the head.

The UNESCO corruption series is more than 100 stories long. DG Azoulay's recent visit to Morocco as part of French President Emmanuel Macron's delegation is raising eyebrows at UNESCO. That's why, on November 18, Inner City Press sent the following e-mail to the President of UNESCO's General Conference, Simona-Mirela Miculescu: 

"Dear Ambassador Miculescu:     Greetings. You may remember me from the UN in New York, where I was a resident correspondent until, based on my accurate but uncomfortable reporting, SG Antonio Guterres had me roughed up and banned. His USG DGC Fleming has refused to answer letters of inquiry including from pro bono law firms about restoring my and Inner City Press' access. See here.

    I am asking for your views and actions on that.   But most pressingly I am writing to you about UNESCO, pre-publication.     In October, UNESCO's Director-General visited Rabat as part of French President Macron's official delegation on his bilateral state visit to Morocco. This is the first time we have heard of the Head of a multilateral UN agency being directly subordinated to the authority of a national presidency.  Since I haven't found any reaction from your office in this regard, may I know, before publishing my article, what institutional sanction the General Conference plan to impose under your leadership on DG Audrey Azoulay for this blatant violation of the basic UN rules and UNESCO's Constitution? In addition, in your capacity as President of UNESCO's General Conference, could you tell me how soon UNESCO's governing bodies will be dealing with this issue?"

We are waiting until next week for a possible reply from Madam Miculescu before writing about the elements we have concerning the question of DG Azoulay's alleged violation of the Constitution and her possible role in covering it up. We'll have more to say on the subject shortly.  Under Azoulay’s administration, France's ambassadors to UNESCO all end rather badly. The first to leave his presitigious post prematurely was Laurent Stefanini, who since her election in 2017 had publicly displayed his views on Audrey Azoulay's limited skills for the post of DG at UNESCO. He was hastily replaced by Véronique Roger-Lacan, whose uprightness also quickly became unbearable for Azoulay and was subsequently replaced by Philippe Franc.  Inner City Press has reported extensively on Mr. Franc's efforts to please Drama Queen Azoulay as much as possible in her aspirations to win unwinnable diplomatic battles, such as the 2023 elections for the presidency of UNESCO's Executive Board. 

Brazil lost by just 20 votes. Saint Lucia won the presidency of the Board with 36 votes (2 abstentions). Having lost this all-important diplomatic battle, DG Azoulay passed the buck to the French ambassador. While doing his best to please Azoulay, Mr. Franc made too many mistakes, including preparing and signing his letter of support for Brazil on November 21, when Brazil had not even been announced as a candidate for the Board presidency (here )  

  As a main corollary, France, as host country, has lost much of its political capital in the battles waged to please or protect Audrey Azoulay. The various affairs have given France the disastrous image of a host country that knows no bounds when it comes to undermining Azoulay’s political challengers, with the sole purpose of satisfying the unfounded pretentions of the French DG. According to our sources, ambassador Franc had finally had enough of his deteriorating relations with Azoulay and her Cabinet and, having obviously considered that enough was enough, decided to leave his post and sent the following letter to announce it:   

What's more, in this letter addressed to the entire UNESCO community, there is one notable omission: the French DG is not mentioned among the addressees. This is indeed a very elegant way of sending a clear message about the flat tire quality level of their relationship at the end of his diplomatic career. France will now need to quickly appoint another ambassador to contribute as much as possible to the indispensable damage control activities before Azoulay's term ends in 2025.     As far as her relations with the French authorities are concerned, DG Azoulay was not at all pleased with France's official support for the Egyptian candidate for the post of DG. It's true that it's not customary for French diplomacy to say openly which candidate it supports before the close of applications on next March 15. This time, the unexpected announcement took everyone by surprise, including Azoulay.     DG Azoulay's preference, therefore, was for France to maintain ambiguity in order to play on the possible candidacy of her ADG for Culture, Ernesto Ottone.  This plan also failed, demonstrating that she no longer has any influence or support for her schemes at the Quai d'Orsay. So, since the start of 2024, nothing has happened as Azoulay had hoped. The election of President Trump brings a new headache to the Frenchwoman who boasted of the quality of the relationship established with the Biden administration as one of her major political successes. In all likelihood, she won't have any.     This is where UNESCO stands today, a UN Agency propitious to the flourishing of corruption, embezzlement, abuse of power and nepotism. We will have more on that. Watch this site.

***

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

Past (and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 130222 NY NY 10013

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

Search innercitypress.com  Search WWW (censored?)

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

 Copyright 2006-2024 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com for