{"id":41528,"date":"2018-02-24T07:30:05","date_gmt":"2018-02-24T07:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=41528"},"modified":"2018-02-24T07:30:05","modified_gmt":"2018-02-24T07:30:05","slug":"unaids-deputy-chief-accused-of-sex-assault-to-step-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=41528","title":{"rendered":"UNAIDS deputy chief, accused of sex assault, to step down"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"International desk: The deputy head of UNAIDS, accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague but cleared of wrongdoing by an internal United Nations probe, announced his decision to step down on Friday.<\/p>\n

Luiz Loures “has communicated his wish to the UNAIDS executive director not\u00a0to seek the renewal of his position,” the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Loures, a Brazilian national, “will end his term as deputy executive\u00a0director at the end of March 2018,” it added.<\/p>\n

UNAIDS spokesman Mahesh Mahalingam told reporters in Geneva that Loures's\u00a0decision had no connection to the allegations against him, noting the
\nfindings of the internal UN probe. A junior female colleague filed a formal\u00a0complaint alleging that Loures sexually harassed her beginning in 2011 and
\nsexually assaulted her in a lift at a Bangkok hotel in 2015, where UNAIDS was\u00a0hosting a major conference.<\/p>\n

The internal probe conducted by the World Health Organization's Office of\u00a0Internal Oversight Services (IOS) said there was insufficient evidence to\u00a0support the allegations.<\/p>\n

But activists and a legal expert have questioned the credibility of the investigation, insisting that important circumstantial evidence was not taken into account. UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe was faulted by the IOS for trying to settle the dispute quietly even as an official probe was underway.<\/p>\n

Loures's decision to step down comes a day after UNICEF's deputy director\u00a0Justin Forsyth resigned from the UN children's agency following complaints of\u00a0inappropriate behaviour towards female staff in his previous post as head of\u00a0British charity Save The Children.AFP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International desk: The deputy head of UNAIDS, accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague but cleared of wrongdoing by an internal United Nations probe, announced his decision to step down on Friday. Luiz Loures “has communicated his wish to the UNAIDS executive director not\u00a0to seek the renewal of his position,” the agency said in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":41529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n