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By Matthew Russell Lee & UNESCO sources

UN GATE, Oct 1 – Inner City Press has been reporting regularly on the messy situation of UNESCO, even while banned from the UN by corrupt Antonio Guterres, now 821 days. Now this, from JA, on Moez Chakchouk regarding whom Inner City Press repeatedly and exclusively reported during his shameful tenure at shameless UNESCO.

 For example, UNcredited, Inner City Press previously reported - back in August - that "serious misconduct was proven in the case of the Tunisian Assistant Director general for communication and information Moez Chakchouk. The confidential report by IOS detailing the wrongdoing was submitted earlier this year to the DG of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay according to the rules.

In an effort to cover up this case with one of the most senior members of her team, DG Azoulay preferred to close her eyes to the seriousness of the proven by the investigation misbehavior and made a decision to keep Moez Chakchouk in his position.

 However, after noticing the criticism against him at the last session of the executive board and the complaints by member states about the mismanagement of the programs and activities under the responsibility of Moez Chakchouk, DG Azoulay realized that he is slowly but surely becoming a liability in the campaign for her reelection in 2021. The granted full protectiveness to Chakchouk, because of her family ties with Tunisia, got severely shaken and the investigative report by IOS discomposed Azoulay’s plans to have a spotless senior team with which to fly over towards her reelection. 

Chakchouk took office in a difficult context, since his predecessor, the Guatemalan Frank La Rue, had just been sacked in February 2018 for serious misconduct after being found guilty, internally, of sexual harassment against a close collaborator. The sanction, publicized at the time, was rare enough within United Nations bodies to be a warning to a whole category of staff accustomed to the law of silence. However, according to the confidential report consulted by Jeune Afrique, Moez Chakchouk - accused by the same victim who remained at his post - was in turn found guilty of other facts.  Moez Chakchouk would have been the subject, internally, of a written sanction, a reprimand accompanied by an obligation of training in ethics. 

Moez Chakchouk would have been the subject, internally, of a written sanction, a reprimand accompanied by an obligation of training in ethics.

Moral harassment and reprisals Made suspicious by this precedent implicating Frank La Rue, and despite the special protection to which the victim was supposed to be the subject, Moez Chakchouk would have sought unilaterally to transfer his collaborator. His mistrust is, moreover, described as disproportionate in this report. Their relationship would, in fact, quickly deteriorate. The internal investigation in fact reports the professional isolation of the complainant after two months of collaboration and a form of humiliation and abuse of authority towards her which would have lasted five months in total.  The methods outlined in this report are all about placarding techniques  Moez Chakchouk would thus have decided on his own initiative not to work with her anymore. The methods pointed out in this report have all the techniques of placarding ("desire to harm the employee by isolating him from the work community"): he would have closed access to his diary as well as to his office and would have contented for only conversations with her of simple "hello" and "goodbye". Facts judged to be particularly serious given the hierarchical hold of the deputy director over his colleague. These elements are even recognized as constituting moral harassment by the evaluation and audit service of Unesco. 

 The employee would however have complained about this situation in emails and would have requested mediation. In vain, since a second chance would not have been given to him in the end. However, the fact that these exchanges also relate to the liabilities of sexual harassment of which this person had been recognized victim justifies, for the investigators, the classification of act of retaliation. 

Moez Chakchouk would have been the subject, internally, of a written sanction, a reprimand accompanied by an obligation of training in ethics.   Contacted, Moez Chakchouk did not wish to speak on this subject and referred to the press service of the UN institution. Which reacted thus: “Unesco's practice is never to communicate externally the cases of complaints and possible disciplinary procedures carried out internally, for reasons of confidentiality. We have an active anti-harassment policy, which includes the strict protection of witnesses and whistleblowers. We are therefore not able to confirm the information you provide. " That's UNESCO - but there are no answers at all to Inner City Press from Guterres' UN of Melissa Fleming and Stephane Dujarric - call it Old Afrique, or FrancAfrique or Francophony.

  And who on Guterres' 38th floor was rewarded for harassment? #UN75.

In less than 2 years of his leadership of the communication sector of UNESCO, Moez Chakchouk dismantled its functional structures despite the resolution of the General conference of UNESCO explicitly commanding the secretariat not to do so, and cut or shrank most of the programs but those dealing with freedom of expression and protection of journalists. Still, when Inner City Press asked UNESCO's Guy Berger, the grandly titled Director of Freedom of Expression and Media Development about his activities and those related to no content-neutral UN access rules (see here) there was no relevant answer of any kind. More UNcredited here.

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