UNAIDS chief says behavior of ex-staffer was 'unacceptable'

LONDON (AP) — The U.N. AIDS agency acknowledged in an internal email last week that the behavior of a former top official toward women was “unacceptable” and was permitted by a culture which allowed misconduct.

It was the latest development of a sexual harassment scandal that led the agency’s previous leader to bow out early and resulted in the firing of two staffers.

The missive appeared to be a thinly veiled reference to Dr. Luiz Loures, a former U.N. assistant secretary-general at UNAIDS, who allegedly forcibly kissed a staffer, Martina Brostrom, before trying to drag her out of a Bangkok hotel elevator.

An earlier inquiry found insufficient evidence to substantiate Brostrom’s claims, but a second report from an independent panel concluded that there was a culture of impunity and “defective leadership” at the Geneva-based U.N. agency.

Brostrom was dismissed by UNAIDS in 2019, following an AP story that revealed she herself was being investigated for financial and sexual misconduct before she leveled the sexual harassment charges against her superior, Loures.

The internal email appears to be the first time UNAIDS has acknowledged wrongdoing by a senior staffer, although it did not identify Loures by name. In a statement on Monday, UNAIDS spokeswoman Sophie Barton-Knott said matters concerning investigations and disciplinary hearings are confidential.

The misconduct accusations rocked UNAIDS’ leadership, prompted Sweden to announce it would suspend funding until a new leader was in place, and was a major distraction for an agency at the center of multibillion-dollar, taxpayer-funded efforts to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

UNAIDS’ Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, who took over in 2019, told staff in a message last week she hoped the announcement of the results...