UN GATE / SDNY, August 7 – UN official
Christian Saunders, who oversaw the ouster of Inner City
Press from the UN building (video here) which has
yet to be reversed or even allowed to be appealed, is now
himself the subject of a formal complaint by UN
whistleblowers, which Inner City Press exclusively
publishes here:
1. I submit
complaint under ST/AI/2017/1 regarding Mr. Christian
Saunders’ deliberate and bad-faith hijacking of official
United Nations global communication infrastructure,
specifically the iSeek intranet broadcast system reaching
over 30,000 Secretariat personnel, to funnel official
staff traffic directly to his personal LinkedIn
profile.
2. On 5 August
2026, an article titled "Raising sexual exploitation and
abuse awareness on UN flights" was broadcast globally
across the Secretariat via iSeek under the institutional
byline of OSCSEA
3. Rather than
serving the official information needs of the Secretariat,
the publication was weaponized as a traffic driver for Mr.
Saunders' personal social media
account:
i.
In the very first sentence, the action verb “launched†is
embedded with a direct hyperlink that intentionally routes
staff members off the official UN domain (.un.org) and
directly onto Mr. Saunders’ private LinkedIn
profile.
ii.
Under the concluding "Learn more" section, the official
publication explicitly directs thousands of UN personnel
away from institutional platforms by instructing that "The
launch video can be viewed on LinkedIn", pointing staff
directly back to his personal profile.
4. The "PSEA on
Board" initiative is an inter-agency collaborative program
involving the World Food Programme (WFP), UNHAS, and the
Department of Operational Support (DOS). Yet, Mr. Saunders
engineered this global institutional announcement to
funnel the collective work product of partner agencies
directly into his personal linkedin account.
5. This is not an
innocent editorial error; it reflects a calculated and
repeated pattern of such behavior wherein Mr. Saunders
routinely has misused his official position, UN
communications staff, and global broadcasts to direct UN
related traffic to his own social media to get likes and
followers. 6. It is
profoundly disgraceful that an official responsible for
the Organization's response to exploitation and abuse has
chosen to exploit official UN communication channels,
captive staff audiences, and institutional resources for
personal self-aggrandizement, follower acquisition, and
private profile vanity. This conduct represents an
egregious abuse of authority, a flagrant breach of UN ICT
regulations, and a direct violation of the prohibition
against deploying official status for private gain.
7. User engagement,
staff web traffic, and digital referrals generated on
iSeek are the exclusive work product and property of the
United Nations. By redirecting this traffic to build his
own personal profile metrics, Mr. Saunders routinely
violates Sections 5.1(c) and 6.1(a) of
ST/SGB/2004/15. 8. Section
1.1(a) of ST/SGB/2019/5 states that "The personal social
media accounts of staff members are not institutional
social media accountsâ€. Section 2.1 mandates that
institutional communication must take place strictly
through authorized institutional channels through which
"the Organization performs its mandate and implements and
communicates its policies and goals". Mr. Saunders
flagrantly violated ST/SGB/2019/5 by illegitimately
substituting his personal, privately-owned social media
profile for official UN landing pages, erasing the
mandatory boundary between institutional advocacy and
personal self-promotion.
9. Staff Regulation
1.2(f) explicitly strictly forbids staff members from
deploying their official office or authority for personal
gain, financial or otherwise. Personal social media
accounts remain the private property of the account holder
post-separation; accumulating internal followers via
global broadcasts represents a permanent personal asset
acquired through the improper use of official power.
10. Mr. Saunders’ conduct inflicts
severe reputational and institutional harm on the
Secretariat
i.
Every staff member tricked into following Mr. Saunders'
personal profile represents audience capital stolen from
the Organization. When Mr. Saunders eventually vacates his
post, those followers remain his private asset, leaving
the institutional OSCSEA office completely starved of the
digital reach created at UN
expense.
ii.
It sets a toxic operational precedent when a senior level
official acts with complete impunity, treating official
anti-exploitation mandates as personal branding
instruments.
iii.
Utilizing a campaign designed to enforce standards of zero
tolerance and prevent abuse of authority as a vehicle for
personal gain utterly destroys staff trust in the
leadership of the PSEA mandate.
11. The hypocrisy of Mr. Saunders’ conduct is
palpably nauseating. Mr. Saunders was entrusted with
the global leadership of the Secretariat’s response to
sexual exploitation and abuse, a mandate founded entirely
on eliminating the illegal exploitation of power
asymmetries. Yet, he has commoditised that very mandate,
deploying official UN broadcasts, institutional
inter-agency labor, and captive staff audiences to boost
his personal digital clout, followers, and private profile
vanity.
12. This is not an issue of poor
administrative oversight; it is an issue of systemic
institutional integrity and basic fairness. Across duty
stations worldwide, junior staff members are routinely
investigated, subjected to formal disciplinary measures,
and separated from service under ST/AI/2017/1 for far
minor misuses of United Nations property and ICT assets.
To allow Mr. Saunders to intentionally flout the rules and
regulations with complete impunity sends a corrosive
message throughout the Secretariat: that rules of
integrity exist only for the rank-and-file, while senior
executive may treat the Organization's assets as personal
branding instruments. , which shatters staff trust in the
zero-tolerance framework. The Organization cannot credibly
demand zero tolerance from its personnel while turning a
blind eye to zero accountability at the senior
level.
13. As always, I submit this
anonymously because I am fearful of retaliation.
Inner City Press has previously
noted Saunders playing with his social media account, here.
Inner City Press will continue to report on this, even as
it awaits response to, and action on, its letters to the
UN / MALU here,
and to USUN Mike Waltz here.
