UN GATE, July 27 -- UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says he has a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment, and for retaliation.
But when Inner City Press asked Guterres' deputy spokesman and now cover-up man Farhan Haq about recent child rapes by peacekeepers, Haq immediately leaves the WhatsApp space and refuses to answer.
Now on July 27 Haq is in charge and fully responsible for two weeks, as his corrupt boss and mentor Stephane Dujarric takes an undeserved two week vacation.
It did not begin auspiciously - on July 27 when Inner City Press signed in to a UN briefing on COVID-19 and cities, another Guterres self promotion, in order to ask about Guterres' personal guards violating New York City prohibitions on gyms being open, it was "removed by the host." Photo here; video here. This is on Haq - and Achim Steiner.
Haq is refusing to provide basic, historically disclosed information about UN sexual exploitation and abuse cases - this despite Haq's road to his gatekeeper position running either through the defunct newspaper the City Sun, or being the son of UNDP economist Mahbub ul Haq. In either case, this is a new low, withholding information about a UN "international" engaging in sexual exploitation in so often mistreated South Sudan - all the more so give Haq's online connections to women's studies in the Garden State. We'll have more on this.
Here's how low: on January 22, Haq promoted for-profit Amazon Prime, video here: "just to flag that tonight the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Amazon Studios will be hosting a film screening of Beautiful Boy. That will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 23 January, in other words, tomorrow night, in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. Actor Timothée Chalamet, author David Sheff, and producers Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner will take part in a Q&A following the screening of the film. Beautiful Boy is based on the best‑selling memoirs from David and Nic Sheff and chronicles the experience of survival, relapse and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years. The film is available on Amazon Prime Video."
That was inappropriate promotion of a for profit service. But it's worse: when Inner City Press which was invited by Amazon went, it was barred and its camera grabbed, here. Haq is a hack.
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