Senior UNAIDS official latest to go after harassment allegation

40 ABUSE CLAIMS WERE MADE IN LAST QUARTER OF 2017 AGAINST UN PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS, AGENCIES AND PARTNERS

GENEVA : The deputy head of the UN agency for HIV/AIDS will not seek to renew his term in office though it is not reasonable to link his departure to a sexual harassment allegation that proved unsubstantiated, a spokesman said on Friday.

Luiz Loures’ exit was the second of a high-level United Nations official in as many days, after Justin Forsyth, deputy director of the UN Children’s Fund, resigned saying he did not want coverage of his past mistakes to damage UNICEF.

A formal complaint of sexual harassment was brought against Loures in November 2016 but an inquiry found no basis for it, and the case was then closed, UNAIDS said earlier this month.

“The independent investigation done by the WHO’s (World Health Organization) internal oversight services division clearly found that the case was unsubstantiated and recommended the case to be closed,” spokesman Mahesh Mahalingam said. Loures, 61, had a distinguished career of four decades working on combating AIDS, including 22 years at UNAIDS, Mahalingam told a news briefing in Geneva. “He clearly feels that this is time for him to move on.”

Mahalingam said UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe had accepted the Brazilian national’s decision not to seek to renew his term.