Those Who Abuse - The Problem Has Lingered Too Long

"This problem has lingered for too long." wrote Executive Director, Henrietta Fore in a letter to staff on February 28th summing up actions she plans to take following several weeks of internal discussions among staff on ending sexual exploitation and abuse. 

 

A parallel discussion among XUNICEF members, began with concerns aired in our group in early February when the UNICEF Netherlands admitted shortcomings in the role UNICEF has played in caring for children abused by UN Peacekeeping troops in the Central African Republic (CAR).


Shortly after the CAR story came a major news story and subsequent political outcry over sexual abuse by some Oxfam aid workers in Haiti. Several former UNICEF staff worried about the impact the political storm might unfairly have on Oxfam's work and by extension on other charities. Two went on to publish articles on the consequences for the world of a disproportionate attack on Oxfam and by extension on the entire aid community. https://newint.org/blog/2018/02/15/trashing-of-oxfam and http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/02/demonizing-oxfam-fair-foul/


The next news to hit was the resignation of UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Justin Forsyth on February 22nd over accusations concerning his previous post as Chief Executive of UK Save the Children. Forsyth was accused both of mishandling charges of abuse by a subordinate and his own behaviour in sending inappropriate texts and commenting on what young female staff were wearing. He said he was resigning not because of mistakes made, but to protect both UNICEF an SCF.


The following day, February 23rd, Henrietta Fore released a video message to all staff.

https://weshare.unicef.org/Folder/2AMZIF2AAJJY

Someone, perhaps a current staff member, launched an online petition on Change.org calling for more bold steps:

https://www.change.org/p/petition-demanding-unicef-action-on-sexual-harassment-and-abuse-of-authority

At this point it is not clear what will come next. We can be sure though that the story is far from over. The aid community in general along with UNICEF will be under pressure to introduce better monitoring and response mechanisms. Former UNICEF staff along with other current and former aid workers will need to press their respective organizations for improvements in recruitment, mentoring and supervision.

Member comments included:

"So for sure - something has to change in this system for such cases not to reoccur. I believe it might be fair to say that all of us who stayed in the organization for many years ...have stories to tell. "​

"The change has to come from each of us. In our era while we fought silently and vocally against such behavior whenever we could, the tide was not with us. It is now time with # me too and no more campaigns to actually practice zero tolerance. "

"i do believe that this shift in the winds is necessary, but not sufficient to clean up. I just hope we move in a way that it doesn't take us too far the other way. Recalling how the clean-up after "Nairobigate" (1995 i believe) resulted in most managers taking a "risk averse" position on everything! Balance is the key."


"I hope that the "strong" letter does not only refer to alleged cases ofharassment / abuse of women, but also that of children and men. And, I hope that the "strong" letter is signed by men and women!"

"I know of such cases but had to keep my mouth shut." ​

"I spoke up in the 80's but the perpetrator was moved to a nice post elsewhere. ....One bad egg amonst many wonderful individuals I had the pleasure of working with​."


"Sexual harassment at work place and Abuse of Authoruty are related but Abuse of Authority on its own is a separate (and may be even bigger) issue in Unicef.​"


"Sexual harassment and abuse of authority are related in some ways but are two different issues. For now, of course, prevention and taking actions on sexual harassment is the priority." ​