The United Nations is reeling after a video of what appears to be a sex act in an official U.N. car in Israel has gone viral — a video that has left the head of the U.N. “shocked and deeply disturbed.”
The video, released by Inner City Press on Tuesday, shows a woman in a red dress straddling a man in the back seat of a vehicle with U.N. marking as it drives away.
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Inner City Press, an outlet that has reported and shined a light on corruption at the world body for years and was banned from reporting on U.N. grounds in New York in 2018, reports that the vehicle was part of a U.N. Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) mission in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The UNTSO was set up in 1948 to monitor ceasefires in the region. According to its website, observers “remain in the Middle East to monitor ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated incidents from escalating and assist other United Nations peacekeeping operations in the region.”
A spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Friday that Guterres was “shocked and deeply disturbed by what is seen in the video” and “goes against everything that we stand for and have been working to achieve in terms of fighting misconduct by U.N. Staff.”
Stephane Dujarric, his spokesman, said that an investigation has been activated and is moving “very quickly.” He said that they know the location of the incident, that it was a UNTSO vehicle and that it is likely that the people in the video are UNTSO staff members.
“We expect the process to be concluded very quickly and intend to take prompt appropriate action,” he said
Police in Tel Aviv says that so far a complaint has not been filed on the matter.
UNTSO, in its own statement, made similar remarks and said that it stands by the U.N.’s “zero-tolerance policy against any kind of misconduct, including sexual exploitation and abuse, and reminds its personnel of their obligations to the UN Code of Conduct.”
According to the BBC, there were 175 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation in 2019, 16 of which were substantiated, 15 unsubstantiated and the rest being investigated.
