Townsville Bulletin

UN sex-pest scandal amid equality fight

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As the United Nations fights to end violence against women, it is allegedly failing its own staff – with dozens of current and former employees saying they have suffered sexual harassment.

Workers at UN agencies who reported attacks complained of lengthy and opaque investigat­ions of their accounts, according to New York magazine.

The article’s author May

Jeong said that since 2017 she had met 43 workers who reported sexual harassment while working at the UN, including 18 who said they were sexually assaulted and two who reported being raped more than once.

The alleged perpetrato­rs were said to include UN workers investigat­ing human rights violations in Syria to build war crimes cases at The Hague and others working on the Paris climate agreement. Some women were said to have been fearful of speaking out against a colleague with whom they were working at close quarters in a compound in a foreign country.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres, acknowledg­ed sexual harassment was a problem.

“We know we must constantly strengthen our systems of protection, reporting and training,” said Stephane Dujarric. “Perhaps most important of all, as the Secretary-general has repeatedly said, we need to end the maledomina­ted power dynamics that underlie and enable sexual harassment and abuse.”

He drew attention to reforms implemente­d in 2018, including hotlines to report abuses and a faster procedure for claims to be investigat­ed.

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