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By Matthew Russell Lee & sources, Exclusive

UN GATE, Nov 29 – UNESCO, like the whole UN system under Antonio Guterres is falling apart into abyssal nonsense and corruption. Still over the last two weeks, ambassadors observed a strange diplomatic ballet despite the COVID-19 country-wide lockdown that came as a surprise even for the politically thick-skinned ones.    

UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay and her closest teammates were meeting individually with selected representatives of members states to the executive board in order to secure their public statements during the forthcoming 210th board session in support of her reelection ahead of the consideration by the members of the board of the procedure to be followed for the nomination of the Director-General of the agency.    

UNESCO has seen corruption and abuse of power over the last three years on a number of occasions, but never the lack of respect for the governing bodies and for the Constitution (here) has reached that level before.   

 Regardless of the established procedure for the nomination of the DG of the agency, contained in document 210 EX/24 (available here).  Audrey Azoulay keeps using political pressure, false promises and fat envelopes to bargain her reelection without following the rules and procedures as adopted by member states.    

The agency is obviously losing its solid constitutional foundations with the French DG that appear to be scared to death by the option of a fair competition in the forthcoming reelection process. Indeed, all those support-mobilizing efforts are made in order to dissuade a potential candidacy from another country and thus to persuade against the emergence of another contender.  

  It is a shameful diplomatic configuration and if those exposed below actually speak in her favor next week, this will confirm their publicly announced preference to abolish the constitutional provisions and the rule of law at UNESCO. According to our sources, those who pledged to speak in support of DG Azoulay before even approving the deadline for submission of candidacies and prior to the approval of the procedure for DG election by the governing body are the following states/ambassadors:   

 Albania  Mr Ferit HOXHA     Bangladesh  Mr Kazi Imtiaz HOSSAIN     Brazil  Mr Santiago IRAZABAL MOURÃO     Bulgaria  Mr Anguel TCHOLAKOV     Cuba  Mr Oscar LEÓN GONZÁLEZ     Ethiopia  Mr Henok TEFERRA       France  Ms Véronique ROGER-LACAN     Germany  Mr Peter REUSS     Italy  Mr Massimo RICCARDO     Japan  Mr Atsuyuki OIKE     Jordan  Mr Makram QUEISI     Morocco  Mr Samir ADDAHRE     Portugal  Mr António NÓVOA     Republic of Korea  Mr Dong- Gi KIM     Senegal  Mr Mamadou TALLA     Serbia  Ms Tamara RASTOVAC SIAMASHVILI     Spain  Mr Juan Andrés PERELLÓ RODRÍGUEZ     Togo  Mr Komlavi Francisco SEDDOH     Tunisia  Mr Ghazi GHERAIRI     

  Still, several questions remain pending:  Why would a member state consider supporting a candidate prior to the fixed deadline for submission of candidacies? Are member states becoming totally nuts to go against the Constitution and would they agree to get involved in this scheming machination with another DG heading the Agency?

What Nordic countries have to say about this blatant case of corruption and traffic of influence that kills the rule of law at UNESCO? Why are they – the pretended paragon of uprightness and morality - turning their back on the rules they voted themselves and what is the reason for complacently closing their eyes while the French DG is openly pressuring and bribing the other ambassadors?  The corruptive move by Azoulay creates a dangerous precedent of a parallel decision-making election-related process substituting the one adopted by the general conference leaving thus behind some 135 member states non-members of the board that are expecting the constitutional order be followed. 

A former high ranked UNESCO staff in charge of legal affairs pointed out to Inner City Press: “What Azoulay is doing at that point of her mandate, is simply outrageously illegal. Selection of DG is decided by a secret ballot. Now, she summons member states to support her by speaking out in public. Such an open hijacking of the electoral process has never been observed before in a UN agency”. Another severe breach in the rules is this self-proposed candidacy. “The Constitution and the procedure are very clear in that respect. Only a member state can propose a candidate, not a person him/herself” the former staff added. “This is actually a major anti-constitutional issue, serious enough, to be submitted for consideration to the legal affairs division of the United Nations and subsequently for investigation by the Joint Inspection Unit of the United Nations System”.  Most probably, the French Government and the EU countries will flip-flop on the constitutional principles and try to protect the French DG in her “coup d’etat’ efforts, since they are fully aware that any other candidate would easily wipe out next year the incompetent and purposeless French finger-puppet Azoulay.

Will that short-sighted electoral strategy work? The forthcoming session of the executive board will tell. This is where UNESCO stands today. A UN agency propitious to the flourishing of corruption, anti-constitutional political moves, sexual performances-based promotions, abuse of power and nepotism. We will have more on that.

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