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Corrupt UN Guterres Protects Sexual Harassment By Hochschild and Sidibe But Brags Here

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

UNITED NATIONS, May 7 – At the UN under Secretary General Antonio Guterres there has been hypocrisy on sexual harassment, with several harassers promoted and/or protected, alongside entirely unaddressed bribery, including offers of weapons for oil by UN non governmental organization China Energy Fund Committee of Ye Jianming which Guterres refuses to even audit - while roughing up and banning the Press which asks him about it. On December 21 after Guterres and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric had not answered a single one of Inner City Press' 35 written questions during the week, still-banned Inner City Press reported and showed that Guterres had essentially killed off the UN's already weak public financial disclosure system. It has gotten worse since - and Michel Sidibe, whose overseeing of a regime of harassment and retaliation was covered up by Guterres has now been rewarded with the post of health minister of Mali. This symbolizes Guterres' faux feminism. So does this, Guterres' May 7 message to staff immediately sent to Inner City Press by a number of staff disgusted with and by Guterres: "Dear Colleagues,  I write to update you on our efforts to achieve gender parity at the United Nations.  Last March we commemorated International Women’s Day, women’s history month and the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Yet that inspiring dynamism belies a stark truth that women around the world already know: progress on gender equality globally is too slow.  Everyone benefits from gender equality. Neither peace nor development is fully possible without equality, without women’s leadership and without women being equally represented. Human rights cannot be achieved if women do not enjoy equal rights.  This is not only true of societies in general. It is also true of the workplace. A diverse, inclusive, gender-balanced workplace is one where the best talent, ideas and energy are brought to bear on our work. We launched the System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity in 2017, not only because it reflects our core values and the values of a modern Organization, but also because it is the way to get the very best out of our talented workforce and to attract the best talent from outside.  We have made enormous strides in some areas. At the time of writing, we have parity among Resident Coordinators. We are close to parity in senior leadership. And we aim to reach parity across the board by 2028.  But we still face significant challenges in reaching this goal, especially in the field, where fewer than one third of our staff are women, where the rate of change is slowest and the challenges greatest. With the downsizing of missions, our parity targets are likely to stagnate or even regress. And yet, it is in the field where we are most visible to the communities we serve, and where diversity is most crucial for our effectiveness and credibility.  This is not an issue of merit, nor of women not being qualified or interested. It is a consequence of historic imbalance, of bias inherent in our policies and procedures, and of mission set-up and practices, which reflect traditional gender roles from decades ago that still linger in our processes now.  We simply must create an environment that allows for all staff – women and men – to flourish, to grow and to balance their careers with their personal life.  To credibly serve the global community, we must represent that community – in all its diversity. That is what we are aiming to achieve and what I am proud to be working on with all of you.  To achieve these goals, we propose to build on the language that Member States included in a resolution more than four decades ago and which is fully in compliance with the United Nations Charter. We must aim not to disadvantage anyone, but instead to open doors for women that have too long been closed, and to create a more enabling work environment, with working conditions that better suit us all.  We must also look at our culture and at our own behaviour as individuals. We must strive for a more civil workplace in which every colleague is respected and treated fairly.  To this end, we cannot and will not be an Organization that tolerates harassment in any form, sexual or otherwise. We cannot and will not tolerate abuse of authority or power.  I ask you to stand with me and take these steps towards historic change, change we have been discussing for decades, but change that has not yet come. Together, we can push our Organization into the future and become a workplace where women and men thrive, where harassment is a thing of the past, and where in any office and in any role, you are just as likely to see a woman as a man.  This is both what I ask of you, and what I promise to you.  Thank you for your commitment and support.  Yours sincerely,  António Guterres." Faux feminist - why doesn't he resign? While using the issue to try to distract from his failed Secretariat, he rewards closed by harasser Fabrizio, and lets Sidibe leave UNAIDS as a hero rather than the criminal he and Guterres are, and get another post. Guterres is disgusting. His recent online disclosure covering 2016 omits for example his listed role through 2018 in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. That the new disclosures should have already been filed in shown for example by the case of Michel Sidibe, on whose promotion of sexual harassment in UNAID Guterres never acted, standing by as donor revolt alone led Sidibe to offer to leave in mid 2019. Sidibe's most recent filing, which goes all the way back to 2016 given Guterres' cover-up culture, lists a mortgage in the US but does not list or disclose any property in the US. Photo here. This makes no sense. There's property in Mali and France. We'll have more on this. Consider also Guterres' Cameroon and Central Africa envoy Francois Lounceny Fall. His last disclosure was signed in November 2017, and included three properties in Guinea, at at least one of which he was just a landlord, banking in Togo with shares in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated. Photo here. Where is the November 2018? Not filed or put online as of December 2018. A fish rots from the head. Inner City Press has repeatedly asked Guterres and his spokesmen Stephane Dujarric and Farhan Haq, "When will the public financial disclosures, in past years already online by this time, be made available?" For four days in a row, December 17 - 20, they did not answer a single written question from Inner City Press including about Cameroon and Togo, despite the promise to UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression David Kaye by Guterres' Global Communicator Alison Smale (who has no online financial disclosure and has yet to follow up on saying she would take under advisement the total ban on Press she is responsible for, video here). We have noted that Guterres' spouse Catarina Marques de Almeida Vaz Pinto has been Executive Coordinator of the Gulbenkian Programme for Creativity and Artistic Creation / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. There is still no answer to Inner City Press' detailed written questions about the business links in Africa and elsewhere of Guterres' son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres. Guterres and these named individuals have taken the UN to a new low of corruption. We will have more on this. Guterres refusal to initiate any audit, as even Ban Ki-moon did after the indictment of Ng Lap Seng for also bribing UN President of the General Assembly John Ashe, has allowed not only CEFC but another Ye Jianming NGO, known by names including the China Academy of Culture and the China Cultural Institute, to remain in the UN. In a 22 August 2017 press release, soon before the arrest and indictment of CEFC's Patrick Ho, this entity bragged: "Recommended by the UN NGO Committee of 19 countries, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) conducted its final review in New York in July 2017 and officially approved the granting of the Chinese Cultural Council to the UN Economic and Social Council in August. status". This is the first non-governmental organization approved by the United Nations to promote the "special consultative status" of Chinese culture. It is a high priority for Chinese culture and an affirmation of the work of the Chinese Cultural Institute created by China Huaxin. This marks the establishment of a formal cooperative relationship between the two sides, providing a new stage for the Chinese Cultural Institute to further carry out international cooperation and exchanges and to tell the Chinese story.
Since its establishment, the Chinese Cultural Institute, under the leadership of Chairman Ye Jianming and under the leadership of all directors, has implemented the "One Body and Two Wings" work principle proposed by President Xu Jialu with the purpose of "promoting the culture of Chinese culture and harmonious world." This is the same Ye Jianming who used UN accredited CEFC to bribe PGA Sam Kutesa, and to offer weapons for oil and a stake in the Chad Cameroon pipeline to Idriss Deby. Guterres refusal to audit, and his and his spokesman's refusal to even answer questions, make clear how corrupt the UN has become and that both should go.
On 1 December 2018, before seven UN bribery guilty verdicts against Patrick Ho of China Energy Fund Committee, Inner City Press reported that Jeffrey Sachs, a long time UN (part time) official, was on a CEFC-UN Advisory Board, and tweeted the photograph, hereOn December 15 Sachs denied it, saying it is absurd. Really? Pressed, Sachs said "I attended an annual luncheon on two occasions (1 per year) hosted by the Chinese Gov for UN Ambassadors, which CEPC apparently catered.  I once went to a HK reception Mr. Ho was present.  That's it." Really? China Energy Fund Committee was more than a caterer. And this denial shows more clearly than ever why an audit of with whom CEFC has dealt with at and through the UN is necessary, and how irresponsible or worse Guterres is being. On December 17 Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric, "December 17-7: On CEFC in the wake of the US v Ho verdicts, this is a request that the SG confirm and act on the other UN officials depicted as advisers to CEFC and its UN program - including Jeffrey Sachs, who has over the weekend online denied any such role, stating he may have attended a lunch “catered” by CEFC. Since this denial shows the absolute need for an audit at least like the previous SG did of Ng Lap Seng's groups, please state why the SG has not even begun such an audit." Five hours later, Dujarric had not answer this or any other question from banned Inner City Press. And those he allowed in "his" briefing room did not ask. Inner City Press has published the CEFC document listing Sachs' role, here on Scribed, here for download on Patreon.

Need for UN Audit Shown By ... by on Scribd

It also lists UN officials including Warren Sach, as well as Mr. José Manuel Viegas (Portugal) Secretary-General of the International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD; Mr. Sun Xiansheng (China) Secretary-General of the International Energy Forum (IEF); Ms. Marie-José Nadeau (Canada) Chair of the World Energy Council; Mr. Thanin Pa-Em (Thailand) Deputy Secretary-General at the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board; Mr. Zhang Guobao (China) Former Director of China’s National Energy Administration; Mr. Christopher Martenson (USA) Economic Researcher, Writer and Trend Forecaster; Dr. Ken Koyama (Japan) Chief Economist and Managing Director at the Institute of Energy Economics in Japan (IEEJ); Dr. Christoph Frei (Switzerland); Dr. Milica Bajiæ-Brkoviæ (Serbia) Former President of ISOCARP, Member of the Executive Committee of International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP); Dr. José Goldemberg (Brazil); Mr. Mark Fulton (UK) Founding Partner of Energy Transition Advisors Pty Ltd; Dr. Nawal Al-Hosany (UAE) Director of Sustainability at Masdar City; Dr. Leena Srivastava (India) Honorary Executive Director at The Energy and Resources Institute; Mr. John Hofmeister (USA) Founder & Chief Executive of Citizens for Affordable Energy, Former President of Shell Oil Company and, yes, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs (USA) Director of The Earth Institute, Special Advisor to UN SG. We'll have more on this - and on the role of  current UN Development Program Executive Director Achim Steiner. See photos here, from a CEFC brochure which they have tried to cover up.

Three years ago Macau based businessman Ng Lap Seng was arrested and charged with bribing UN General Assembly President Josh Ashe and others, though Sun Kian Ip Foundation and other groups still in the UN. Ng was convicted of multiple violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and money laundering. But the issue of faux NGO purchase of the UN hasn't gone away. In fact, a second UN bribery case ended this week in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York with seven guilty verdicts.

In this second case, Patrick Ho was found guilty of seven of eight counts of FCPA and month laundering. (He was only not guilty on money laundering in Chad - where the bribe was not through any US bank but in cash, $2 million in a gift box). The evidence showed that the NGO he ran, China Energy Fund Committee, used its ongoing UN consultative status to pay bribes to Ugandan foreign minister - and Ashe's successor as President of the UN General Assembly -- Sam Kutesa. He was working with precedessor Vuk Jeremic while Jeremic was UN PGA. CEFC even offered weapons, tanks and drones, to Chad's long time president Idriss Deby for oil blocks or a stake in the Chad Cameroon pipeline. (Inner City Press published documents here.)

The night of the verdict I asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres what he will do to clean up the UN, where he has left CEFC without any audit, still in consultative status with the UN. On his way from his Mercedes to a glitzy fundraiser including George and Amal Clooney, Guterres refused to answer. The next day when asked by another journalist why Guterres had refused to answer banned Inner City Press' question, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric claimed that the UN has “cooperated” with the prosecution. But the bribery group remains in the UN, unaudited.

Why has the case of US versus Ho, and now the guilty verdicts, garnered relatively so little interest, with the corruption of the UN exposed by it scarcely mentioned all? SG Guterres is hoping it goes away. In terms of corruption, he did not disclose and refuses to answer on the African business links of his son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres. He refuses to answer how much he spends in public funds flying to his home in Lisbon at least sixteen times sofar as SG.

   So CEFC remains an accredited non governmental organization with the UN's Economic and Social Council, while investigative Inner City Press for which I have been covering the case has been dis-accredited by and ousted from the UN, put on a list of those permanently banned without notice, due process or appeal. On December 7 I was informed I am banned from a “UN Human Rights” event on December 10 to be addressed by Guterres and his human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet. But this reporting will not stop - Guterres' corruption of the UN must be addressed, through oversight or as is discussed elsewhere, impeachment. From the lofty goals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to Guterres' censorship for corruption is UNacceptable.

  With UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and her Deputy Andrew Gilmour set to speak in the UN on human rights day on December 10, Inner City Press responded to an invitation and was told, "Thank you for registering to attend the Human Rights Day event at the United Nations on Monday 10 December. On Monday, please come to the UN Visitors’ Gate on First Avenue opposite 45th street starting at 2pm, at which time entry passes will be distributed."

Then, past six p.m. on Friday, December 7 this from Bachelet's and Gilmour's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: "Dear Matthew, We have received notification from UN Security that your name was flagged as "BARRED" on the list we submitted for passes for Monday's event (3pm, ECOSOC Chamber). We will therefore not have a pass for you and are unable to facilitate entry.
Thank you for your interest and best regards,
OHCHR New York Office." Photo of email here.

   Inner City Press immediately wrote back, to the sender and Bachelet and her assistant, to Andrew Gilmour and to the moderator of the event, "Particularly since you are the UN Office of the High Commissioner for *Human Rights,* did you not ask why a journalist who asks the Secretary General and his spokesmen about the killings in Cameroon, Burundi, UN corruption, UN peacekeepers' sexual abuse of civilians, and Sri Lanka, is “BARRED” from attending your human rights event - without any hearing or appeal? I will appreciate your Office's answer to this."  We'll have more on this.

 Bachelet gave a speech on October 15 in the UN's Third Committee, she emphasized a prioritization of social and economic rights and said one of the officials of her office is "on mission in Silicon Valley" in the US. There are questions about this - but Inner City Press which has covered human rights and the UN for more than a decade was for the first time banned from access a High Commissioner's speech. This has been raised repeated to Bachelet since she took office but she has so far done nothing, not even responded. Meanwhile on October 12 Cameroon, from whose Paul Biya Secretary General Antonio Guterres took a golden statue and favors in the Fifth (Budget) Committee and remains silent on the slaughter of Anglophones, was elected to a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. This system is failing - but if Bachelet cannot even answer on Guterres maintaining a secret banned list including not only Inner City Press but also "political activists" - and anti-corruption campaigners - then the UN of Guterres has hit its newest low.

***

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