Time to End Sexual Assault by UN/NGO Executives
By Abbe Jolles, General Counsel, American Council Women Peace and Security
The human rights world ignores and covers up its sexual assault problem. Little to no attention is paid when sex assault is alleged by “human rights workers” including those employed in UN executive positions. This is true no matter how violent the alleged behavior.
A case in point, UN executive, Karim Elkorany, employed by the UN from 2005-2018, was found to have perpetrated sexual violence for decades. After discovering his crimes in 2016, the UN kept him employed until 2018. He admitted to drugging 20 and raping 13 women and was jailed in 2022. Between 2016 and 2022 he raped and assaulted freely. There has been no accountability for the UN bureaucracy that sent him around the world for years, even after the first rape was reported. This despite the fact that it is all but certain that he was sexually assaulting women from the beginning.
The UN claims to have received its first Elkorany complaint in 2016. Shockingly from October 2013 to April 2016, Elkorany worked for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Iraq. From July 2016 (the time of the first reported rape) to April 2018, Elkorany worked as a U.N. communications specialist in Iraq.
He “hid behind his work,” posing as a confidant of each victim before the attacks and then shaming them afterward to make them feel it was their fault. Elkorany’s rapes were documented going back to 2011.
Elkorany is not an isolated case. Evidence indicates a pervasive problem. Recently, several sexual assaults were alleged against other powerful male human rights “leaders,” and one whistleblower has been fired.
Abuse and corruption go to the very top of the UN/NGO human rights bureaucracy.
International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Karim Kahn, has been accused of sexual assault by several subordinates over a period of years. His accusers were either fired or forced out. Kahn’s wife repeatedly contacted one of his alleged victims, apparently to suppress their complaints. Worse still, the UN Office of Oversight Services (OIOS), which formerly employed Kahn’s wife, is tasked to “investigate” her husband’s crimes. Add to that Prosecutor Kahn remains as Chief ICC Prosecutor while the “investigation” proceeds.
At a minimum, Kahn must be suspended without pay until the investigation concludes. To do otherwise encourages continued sexual assaults. The UN has a human rights problem. The next U.S. administration must hold UN bureaucrats responsible. Firing perpetrators AND holding them accountable, including through incarceration, complies with the U.N.’s founding purpose[1] and effectively promotes much needed reform.
[1] Primary purposes of the United Nations include safeguarding peace and security, restoring faith in human rights, upholding respect for international law, and promoting social progress and better standards of living. The United Nations: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edn), Jussi M. Hanhimäki.