By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive CJR Video
UN GATE, Jan 27 – How corrupt and hypocritical is the United Nations of Secretary General Antonio Guterres? He covered up for two years on seuxal harassment by his friend Fabrizio Hochschild, as banned Inner City Press asked him about it in writing. Then on January 28 Guterres lied and said he'd only found out days before. Video here.
This lie came in a Press-less press conference. State media of Turkey, Qatar, as well as Reuters and the NYT, helped Guterres by not asking about the belated suspension of Hochschild.
Leaked audio published by Inner City Press showed that Guterres himself was informed, and told the Office of Internal Oversight Services, Back off. Shared audio here
Now after Inner City Press showed the scam of the investigation, Hochschild is said separated - but still receiving public money? - and UN staff current and former have come out in support of his abuse, as the UN did for Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, even after conviction.
Inner City Press is exclusively publishing this shameful letter: "26 January 2022 In defense of Fabrizio Hochschild The signatories to this letter, all current or former colleagues of UN Under-Secretary-General Fabrizio Hochschild, have learned with great concern and dismay the decision taken by the Secretary-General to separate Fabrizio from service at the United Nations. Fabrizio is a highly respected and committed colleague who has served the United Nations with dedication and distinction for over 30 years, often discharging dangerous and difficult assignments in the most challenging locations. The signatories to this letter respect and admire him for his professional competence, his high ethical and work standards and his personal dedication to the objectives of the United Nations. The decision to separate Fabrizio comes after complaints regarding him were improperly leaked to the media a year ago, which provoked a decision by the Secretary-General to suspend him from service. Since then, an internal investigation was carried out leading to the shocking decision taken to separate Fabrizio. The process seems to have unacceptably set aside the presumption of innocence and due process and encouraged malicious reporting and speaking to the media in violation of UN rules. It is very important to us, his colleagues and friends, to highlight that the complaints of sexual harassment have been found unsubstantiated, nor was he ever accused of any financial impropriety, as has been misleadingly published in media articles since last year. Sadly, it appears to us that the internal investigation process, which we trusted would be fair, has been heavily influenced by other factors, including a parallel media campaign filled with untrue allegations against Fabrizio. Even when this campaign included patent and easily verifiable falsehoods, the organization chose not to dispel them, creating an environment in which the false complaints were sustained in the public domain and may have biased the entire process. The outcome of the process seemed unfortunately a foregone conclusion from the beginning. The sanction applied to Fabrizio is unprecedented in its harshness and disproportionate to the facts and conduct concerned, which related to the management of human resources in his office, the characterization of which he and the witnesses among us dispute. As colleagues of Fabrizio, but also for some of us as current managers at the United Nations, we are very concerned by the dangerous precedent that has been set by the Administration: a combination of an initial decision to suspend Fabrizio provoked by undue and false leaks to the media, proceedings that have not followed due process carried under the shadow of a media campaign launched against Fabrizio which the UN has done nothing to correct, and finally a sanction which is incommensurate and unjustified. While we realize that this statement would be unlikely to influence a reversal of the decision taken against Fabrizio, we trust it will serve to defend his name and actions. Fabrizio Hochschild is an exceptional colleague and senior leader at the United Nations, who has devoted his professional life to promoting the noble and necessary ideals of an Organization that should stand for integrity, independence and courage. The decision to separate him from the United Nations, which we find in violation of the basic principles of justice and which he has the right to dispute, does not change his reputation and good standing with us. 2 / 2 Signatories: For time reasons, the letter is published while more colleagues are joining. An updated signatory list will be shared in due time. Aderemi Aibinu Teresa Albero Marlène Alejos Oluseyi Bajulaiye Max Bonnel Juan Pablo Caicedo Jean-Louis Dominguez Anthony Duncker Ahmad Fawzi Julian Fleet Louis Gentile Andrew Gilmour Patrick Hennessy Una Jones Caroline Lensing-Hebben Hillel Loew Austin McGill Mary Jane Meierdiercks-Popovic Michael Møller Jason Munyan Denise Opperman Naresh Perinpanayagam Agnès Picod Julia Raue Carole Ray Chloe Saimpert Monica Sarmiento Sisi Shahidzadeh Sandra Shibata Kylia Van Wyk Michaela Winter Fan Zhang Diego Zorrilla
Full letter here
On November 11, after Inner City Press reported that Hochschild is negotiating a golden parachute, Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this in response to friendly question: "there's a process that is taking its course. We need to respect that process for the benefit of everyone involved... there is a process outlined in various administrative guidance which... in which people have rights. People who have filed complaints have rights. People who have had complaints against them also have rights, and we need to let that process play out." UN and due process? None for the Press. Nor whistleblowers like Emma Reilly.
Inner City Press exclusively reported this new low: word from its sources inside the UN Guterres has banned it from that his Hochschild is currently "negotiating an agreed settlement" and that the Staff Union is assisting him with it. Other, non-crony staff members found to have engaged in sexual harassment do not get to "agree" their way out of it; the axe falls on their career and they go out the door with no termination indemnity AND their names go on the sexual offenders blacklist. If Hochschild gets anything more lenient, it will be yet another major indictment on the corruption on Guterres 38th floor, and, if shown, his Staff Union. Watch this site.
While Guterres claims zero tolerance and to be a feminist, he twice rewarded and covered up sexual misconduct in his own office. Inner City Press before May 2019 reported the #MeToo abuses of Fabrizio Hochschild, and asked Guterres in writing about them, with no answer. It published audio leaked to it; its exclusive was picked up here for example.
In a musical chairs personnel move on April 18, 2019, a day after he continued his now 935 day censorship of the Press, Guterres named as his new Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Coordination one Volker Türk, who when Inner City Press asked him about refugees chased by Paul Biya's Cameroon army into Nigeria seemed not to know about it. Guterres, as we have reported, not only took a golden statue from Biya, but went silent on the killings since Cameroon was chair of the UN Budget Committee.
But it's worse: Turk took the position from Fabrizio Hochschild Drummond of Chile "who was appointed as Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Preparations for the Commemoration of the United Nations’ 75th Anniversary." This promotion was, ghoulishly, Guterres rewarding what multiple staff say was Hochschild's relationship with another junior staff member.
On January 22 with the failed 75th anniversary complete with the censorship of critical views, Guterres recycled this abuser as his chief of technology, while still refusing all questions from Inner City Press - which was answered on Jan 22 by Andrew Yang, and by the IMF and others.
And on January 23, from UN staff who know, this came to Inner City Press: "What is actually most astonishing about this appointment is that a Secretary-General who claims that the UN under his leadership is making the impact of technology on human rights a priority has chosen as his "Tech Envoy" someone who profoundly ignorant of technology. Without his talking points prepared by others, he is instantly lost on any technical topic. He has no clue what a blockchain is, what machine learning is, etc. How can you be an "envoy" to a community that you neither understand nor respect?"
Guterres and those around him are corrupt.
One of the staff members tells Inner City Press it in these words: Hochschild's "promotion to USG was because the SG wanted him out of his office after he was caught having an affair with a junior staff member. In terms of power play this is a reward for sexual harassment." Talk about MeToo - the faux feminist Guterres covers up and rewards such behavior. And later on April 18 Ms. Nahla Valji, Senior Gender Adviser, Executive Office of the Secretary-General, was bragging about Guterres and feminism. What hypocrisy. We'll have more on this - while Guterres and his spokespeople refuse to answer any of Inner City Press' written questions, we still have sources, many sources.
***
Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
