A policy adviser fired by the UN agency fighting AIDS is appealing her dismissal for misconduct, saying she was sacked for reporting that she had been sexually assaulted by a senior colleague, her appeal documents show.
Martina Brostrom, from Sweden, was fired for sexual and financial misconduct in December. Her appeal, which she said was sent in April to the Global Board of Appeal of the WHO, which oversees UNAIDS, has not been made public, but Reuters has reviewed it.
“It becomes absurd to the point of being ironic that the one person who filed a sexual assault complaint is the one who is found guilty of sexual misconduct,” she said in an interview.
The WHO declined to comment.
Then-UNAIDS deputy executive director Luiz Loures denies her accusation that he groped her in a hotel elevator in Thailand in 2015 and tried to drag her toward his room.
Brostrom went public with her complaint in 2018.
Brostrom told Reuters an initial internal UN investigation did not substantiate her allegations, but that the matter is still being investigated as part of a subsequent, wider case.
According to a UNAIDS letter to Brostrom dated April 27, 2018, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres initiated the second investigation after other sexual harassment allegations were made against Loures, which he also denies.
Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric declined to give any details of the investigation, citing confidentiality. Reuters was unable to confirm whether it was still ongoing.
Brostrom’s appeal says her dismissal emerged from an investigation based on allegations contained in anonymous e-mails and initiated by Loures, then the agency’s No. 2.
The transcript of a July 2017 internal UN interview seen by Reuters cites him as saying: “I trigger the investigation.”
Asked to comment, Loures said Brostrom was trying to distract attention from her dismissal.
“I was not involved in the decision to dismiss and indeed had left UNAIDS before the independent investigation was started,” he said.
UNAIDS spokeswoman Sophie Barton-Knott declined to comment on the specifics of the case, citing confidentiality.
“Comprehensive policies are in place and strictly adhered to at UNAIDS to protect whistleblowers who report suspected wrongdoing from retaliation,” she said. “UNAIDS does not engage in or tolerate any form of retaliation.”
Since the 1990s, the UN’s reputation has been damaged by a series of high-profile allegations of sexual misconduct, notably by UN peacekeepers.
UN personnel have immunity, which must be waived before any judicial proceedings.
Guterres has called for “zero tolerance” on sexual harassment and sought to bring in greater protection for those who report it since taking office in 2017.
In November 2018, about 10,000 staff and contractors across the UN said they had experienced sexual harassment in the past two years.
Only 17 percent of those eligible responded, something Guterres said might indicate an ongoing sense of mistrust.
UN data showed that 446 formal reports of sexual harassment were made from 2016 to 2018. Forty five led to disciplinary proceedings.
UNAIDS declined to give details of the alleged wrongdoing by Brostrom which led to her dismissal, citing confidentiality.
She says the charge of sexual misconduct refers to a consensual relationship with her now-husband which was disclosed to the agency. She denies the charge of financial misconduct and says it relates to a hotel bill at an official workshop.
Her appeal says she suffered “severe and irreparable harm” to her personal and professional life from a “campaign of retaliation and harassment” against her.
She is seeking 2 million Swiss francs (US$2.18 million) in damages from the agency.
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