After ICP Asked UN
of La Rue's Alleged Harassment,
UN Says Relieved of Post, #MeToo
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Periscope here
UNITED NATIONS,
January 17 – UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres has
he has a "zero tolerance"
policy for sexual harassment.
On January 12 his spokesman
Stephane Dujarric had no
comment at all when Inner City
Press asked about the widely
reported sexual harassment
allegations against the deputy
chief of UNESCO, Frank La Rue.
Inner City Press asked, if
UNESCO's investigation finds
the allegations, including
that the victim had a mental
breakdown, are well founded,
should La Rue remain a UN
official? Periscope
video here.
Dujarric
had no comment. Here's
video of La Rue answering
Inner City Press' questions in
October 2016, saying he wants
"transparency in UN bodies."
Having heard nothing back from
Dujarric, despite sending him
a link about the La Rue case,
on January 17 Inner City Press
again asked Dujarric about it,
UN transcript here:
Inner
City Press: I'd
asked you, it was last week
about this Frank La Rue
complaint or case at UNESCO,
and so what is the position, I
understand that he's entitled
to due process…
Spokesman: "No, I think
you may… you may have seen
that UNESCO announced that he
was relieved of his… of his
post. Whether it's
administrative leave, I don't
know what the exact term is,
but he's no longer in that… in
that function. UNESCO
has its own investigative
mechanisms, which are fully…
fully under way. And
whether it's UNESCO or the
Secretariat, there's obviously
zero tolerance for… for sexual
harassment, and the case will
be… will be investigated."
We'll have more on that - and
this: throughout 2016 New
Zealand documentary maker
Gaylene Preston and her crew
staked out the UN Security
Council along with Inner City
Press, awaiting the results of
the straw polls to elected Ban
Ki-moon's sucessor as UN
Secretary General. Preston's
focus was Helen Clark, the
former New Zealand prime
minister then in her second
term as Administrator of the
UN Development Program.
Preston would ask Inner City
Press after each poll, What
about Helen Clark's chances?
Suffice it to say Clark never
caught fire as a candidate.
Inner City Press told Preston,
as did many other interviewees
in her documentary “My Year
with Helen,” that it might be
sexism. But it might be power
too - including Samantha
Power, the US Ambassador who
spoke publicly about gender
equality and then in secret
cast a ballot Discouraging
Helen Clark, and praised
Antonio Guterres for his
energy (yet to be seen).
Samantha Power's hypocrisy is
called out in Preston's film,
in which New Zealand's
Ambassador complains that
fully four members of the
Council claimed to be the
single “No Opinion” vote that
Clark received. There was a
private screening of My Year
With Helen on December 4 at
NYU's King Juan Carlos Center,
attended by a range of UN
staff, a New Zealand designer
of a website for the country's
proposal new flag, and Ban
Ki-moon's archivist, among
others. After the screening
there was a short Q&A
session. Inner City Press used
that to point out that
Guterres has yet to criticize
any of the Permanent Five
members of the Council who did
not block him as the US,
France and China blocked
Clark, with Russia casting a
“No Opinion.” And that
Guterres picked a male from
among France's three
candidates to head UN
Peacekeeping which they own,
and accepted males from the UK
and Russia for “their” top
positions. Then over New
Zealand wine the talk turned
to the new corruption at the
UN, which is extensive, and
the upcoming dubious Wall
Street fundraiser of the UN
Correspondents Association,
for which some in attendance
had been shaken down, as one
put it, for $1200. The
UN needed and needs to be
shaken up, and hasn't been.
But the film is good, and
should be screened not in the
UN Censorship Alliance but
directly in the UN Security
Council, on the roll-down
movie screen on which failed
envoys like Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed are projected. “My Year
With Helen” is well worth
seeing.
***
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