World
AP Exclusive: UN Rights Staff Fear for Jobs Amid Abuse Case

In this Feb. 13, 2006, file photo, Anders Kompass, the U.N. High Commission for Human Rights representative in Guatemala, speaks with members of the media during a news conference in Guatemala City. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)
CARA ANNA, Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N.’s mishandling of child sexual abuse claims against French soldiers has human rights staffers fearing for their jobs as they struggle with how to respond to highly sensitive allegations in the future, according to a letter to the world body’s human rights chief obtained by The Associated Press.
In a separate letter to the U.N. secretary-general, a woman who worked directly under the U.N. staffer who was suspended for alerting French authorities is protesting her dismissal last week, a day before she says she was to testify in support of him for an internal U.N. investigation.
A year after the U.N. first heard children as young as 9 describe how they were given cookies or water bottles in exchange for sodomy or oral sex by French soldiers protecting their displaced persons camp in conflict-torn Central African Republic, it seems the only person who has been punished is the staffer who told the French. France has not announced any arrests and this week said it was still investigating.
In statements marked “strictly confidential” and first reported by the AP this week, the U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights in March said she had “failed to follow up” on the allegations gathered by her own office, even as French authorities pressed U.N. officials for several months for more information.
The U.N. first heard of the allegations in May 2014 through a human rights staffer with the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic. On Friday, the U.N. peacekeeping chief, Herve Ladsous, said he didn’t hear of the allegations until this spring. When asked why the head of the mission didn’t tell him immediately, Ladsous said, “Some reporting lines maybe didn’t function.”
The two new letters indicate a crisis in an office that says it “represents the world’s commitment to universal ideals of human dignity.”
The letter dated May 8 from U.N. human rights field staffers is an angry response to last month’s suspension of colleague Anders Kompass for telling French authorities, a decision that the U.N. Dispute Tribunal reversed this month. The U.N. says Kompass breached protocol in sharing the report of children’s allegations without redacting the names in it. An internal investigation continues, and he could be fired.
“What could have been a success story showing the world how we act is, once again, a failure for the U.N.,” says the letter to the high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein. It is not clear how many people signed it.
“What should be the role of a human rights officer while confronting serious allegations of human rights abuses?” the letter asks. “Will we be able to do our work without fearing punishment and retaliation?”
A spokesman for the human rights office, Andre-Michel Essoungou, said Thursday that he had not seen the letter. “Ultimately, though, the issue is not whether staff should fear anything when they act but about sharing information without protecting victims/witnesses as we should,” he said in an email.
In a separate May 23 letter to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, Miranda Brown says her dismissal this month “bears all the hallmarks of retaliation.” Her letter says she was the acting director of the human rights office’s Africa branch, working directly under Kompass, shortly after the report with the children’s allegations reached the office’s Geneva headquarters last summer.
Brown’s letter says she was the “key contact” at the time between the office and the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic. The French soldiers were supporting the mission under a U.N. mandate.
Her letter notes the rumor that a second staffer, a woman, had also given the allegations to the French, and Brown says it wasn’t her. A confidential statement by Zeid dated late March, obtained by the AP, mentions “not one but possibly two sources.”
If the U.N. wants a complete investigation into how the child sexual abuse allegations were handled, it will need Brown’s testimony, her letter says.
Brown asserts that under Swiss law she is no longer protected against a possible defamation claim for giving testimony in the U.N. internal investigation, now that she no longer works for the United Nations.
Her letter says she was terminated May 21. The next day, an investigator with the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services was still asking her to testify, a copy of the email request shows. The investigator says he isn’t clear how the immunity issue would affect her. Another email from the office, shortly after Brown was told in mid-May she would be dismissed, invites her to testify between May 19 and 22. A third email calls the matter “rather urgent.”
Brown has criticized the U.N.’s whistleblower protections in the past, and in her latest letter she worries that’s being used against her.
On Thursday, Brown said she has had no response. Spokesmen for Ban had no immediate comment.
The spokesman for the secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, this week told reporters that the current investigation will look into how the entire U.N. system handled the child sexual abuse allegations, but U.N. employees have expressed doubt that it will look beyond what the U.N. human rights chief has called the “leak” to the French.
Kompass has not spoken publicly because the case is under investigation.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Community
Police Slaying of Teenager Outrages French People of Color
Reminiscent of the Black Lives Matter protests over police killings of unarmed citizens in the U.S., France has been in the throes of national unrest in the wake of the police slaying of Nahel Merzouk in a Parisian suburb on June 27.

By Kitty Kelly-Epstein
Reminiscent of the Black Lives Matter protests over police killings of unarmed citizens in the U.S., France has been in the throes of national unrest in the wake of the police slaying of Nahel Merzouk in a Parisian suburb on June 27.
The police killing of Nahel, a 17-year-old French citizen of Algerian and Moroccan descent who lived in Naterre, one of France’s mostly Black and Brown cities, has led to days of protest all over France. Merzouk was shot in the chest at point-blank range at a traffic stop.
Merzouk’s slaying became a rallying cry among minority youth in France in much the same way that George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, had in 2020.
“We don’t forget, we don’t forgive,” crowds in Naanterre chanted as they denounced Merzouk’s slaying.
French President Emanuel Macron said the shooting death was “inexcusable and unforgiveable,” a rare response from authorities.
Two policemen on motorcycles chased Merzouk last Tuesday when they saw him driving a yellow Mercedes through bus lanes and didn’t stop until traffic blocked his progress.
The policeman who shot Merzouk initially reported that he had feared for his and his partner’s life, presenting as if the driver was going to run them over.
But the story changed when video of the incident and witness statements fully contradicted the policeman’s assertions: Merzouk was shot at point-blank range at the driver’s side window and the video recorded a threat to shoot the victim.
“You are going to get a bullet in the head,” a voice is heard saying in the video, National Public Radio reported. And as the car moves forward, a single shot is heard.
On June 29, the officer was taken into custody where prosecutors have announced a preliminary charge of voluntary manslaughter. The officer has also apologized to the youth’s family.
Merzouk was an only child, studying to be an electrician, and in the words of his mother, “My best friend.”
After two days of unrest in the French cities of Amiens, Annecy, Bordeaux, Dijon, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Pau, Roubaix, Saint-Etienne, Toulouse, Tourcoing, Merzouk’s grandmother called for calm but the expression of outrage against police continued.
Some stores were looted, garbage cans and trucks and cars set on fire, with damages countrywide amounting to $1 billion.
More than 3,600 people have been detained in the country, most of them young Black and Brown youth like Nahel, whose funeral was July 1.
The response to the young people’s rebellion by agents of the French government has been the expression of more racism.
Two police unions issued a joint statement calling people in Black and Brown neighborhoods “vermin.” In one suburb, a Right-wing deputy has demanded to change the name of the “Angela Davis School,” because she supported the right of Muslim women to wear the hijab or veil.
A fundraising page for the officer showed that 85,000 people donated a total of $1.7 million, while 21,000 made $450,000 for Merzouk.
And French protesters are already being sentenced in an “expedited process.” One 58-year-old man was sentenced to a year in prison for picking up items off the pavement three hours after a store was looted. By comparison, during the same month a white man who sexually abused his granddaughters received a suspended sentence and no jail time.
Many in France’s Black and Brown communities are descendants of people from the French colonies who were encouraged to move to France to rebuild the country after World War II.
Like Black and Brown communities in the U.S. they are exploited for their labor and rejected when it comes to France’s famed “egalite” and “fraternite.”
France’s progressive parties support the issues of the protesters.
Danielle Obono is one representative of that coalition, NUPES. (https://www.facebook.com/DeputeeObono.) Another source of information are Dr. Crystal Fleming’s tweets in French and English on these topics https://twitter.com/alwaystheself.
When George Floyd was murdered by U.S. police thousands of French people also protested.
Activism
Louis Brody, the “Exotic” German
Born M’bebe Mpessa in the German colony of Cameroon, Louis Brody (1892–1951) won over audiences during the early twentieth century as a prominent actor and musician. He appeared in over 30 films and eventually became the highest-paid Black actor within the German filmmaking industry.

Born M’bebe Mpessa in the German colony of Cameroon, Louis Brody (1892–1951) won over audiences during the early twentieth century as a prominent actor and musician. He appeared in over 30 films and eventually became the highest-paid Black actor within the German filmmaking industry.
Brody’s ability to survive during the Nazi era was considered “astonishing.” He was able to escape treatment common to non-Germans at that time: deportation, sterilization, mob lynching, and concentration camps. When the Nazi government denationalized him through the 1935 Reich Citizenship Law, he avoided persecution by acquiring French citizenship.
Throughout his life, Brody fought to improve the social conditions in Germany. He cofound the African Relief Organization (1918) in Hamburg. As spokesman, he decried racial discrimination and the violence and mistreatment of Blacks.
His expressed views and opinions during the fight for racial equality led him to the German Section of the League for Defense of the Negro Race. Brody also protested the propaganda unleashed against French colonial soldiers stationed in the Rhineland after World War I. Still, he needed to support himself.
Brody played parts in several German propaganda films throughout the war period: African chiefs and stereotypical roles such as servants, porters, and sailors. During World War II, he starred in 14 films including two that, according to Brody’s critics, “advanced Nazi propaganda and were inherently anti-Semitic.” Yet Brody was a skilled and versatile actor.
In several films, he impersonated Arabs, Malays, Indians, Moroccans, and Chinese. In fact, his calling card read: “Performer of all exotic roles on the stage and in film.”
While performing as a musician and wrestler, photos of Brody “exuded the energy of exoticism and racism seen in his film career.” According to German publications, Brody “couldn’t simply be an actor, musician, or wrestler; he had to be a Black actor, musician, and wrestler.” His career as an actor therefore faced significant obstacles, specifically with the subsequent rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime.
Little has been recorded about his early life in Cameroon (then Kamerun). He attended the German colonial school in Douala, where he learned to speak German. It is believed that he arrived in Berlin sometime between 1907 and 1914. He reportedly worked at several odd and low-paying jobs before landing an acting role. What motivated him to relocate there remains unknown.
As the German film industry expanded post-war, Brody took on supporting roles, most notably in the 1921 film “The Weary Death.” He also played the villainous Moor in the 1926 colonial film “I Had a Comrade.” By 1930, he had become the most visible Black actor working in German cinema. But the rise of Nazism would curtail his career.
Brody’s career slowed post war. Still, his life of advocacy for Black Germans and fame in cinema paved the way for other Blacks to gather acclaim within German culture.
Read more about Black Germans during the Third Reich in “Other Germans: Black Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender, and Memory in the Third Reich,” by Tina M. Campt.
Government
VP Harris Unveils $1 Billion African Investment During Historic Continent Visit
Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic trip to Africa continued with the launch of global initiatives on the economic empowerment of women, totaling more than $1 Billion. America’s first Black and female vice president spoke fervently during the trip about how “immensely powerful and moving,” the visit to the Motherland was. She further was moved while visiting Ghana’s Cape Coast Castle, where the vice president reflected on the painful horrors of where heartless slave owners captured their prey.

By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic trip to Africa continued with the launch of global initiatives on the economic empowerment of women, totaling more than $1 Billion.
America’s first Black and female vice president spoke fervently during the trip about how “immensely powerful and moving,” the visit to the Motherland was.
She further was moved while visiting Ghana’s Cape Coast Castle, where the vice president reflected on the painful horrors of where heartless slave owners captured their prey.
“The horror of what happened here must always be remembered,” Harris stated. “It cannot be denied. It must be taught. History must be learned.”
Harris and President Joe Biden have made outreach to Africa an important initiative of the administration.
In addition to Ghana, the vice president visited Tanzania and Zambia.
In each country, Harris touted investments that would bring economic and gender equity to Africa.
The vice president convened a roundtable with several African women business owners where the discussion centered on how America and private-sector businesses could form a partnership with African nations that would advance gender equality.
“Promoting gender equity and equality is a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy in Africa and around the world,” administration officials said in a Fact Sheet.
“Advancing the economic status of women and girls is not only a matter of human rights, justice, and fairness—it is also a strategic imperative that reduces poverty and promotes sustainable economic growth, increases access to education, improves health outcomes, advances political stability, and fosters democracy.”
The digital gender gap undermines women’s full participation in the 21st century economy, officials asserted.
Globally, approximately 260 million more men than women were using the internet in 2022—and this gap has increased by 20 million in the last three years.
The gap is especially acute across Africa, where International Telecommunication Union data show that sixty-six percent of women do not use the internet.
To address this disparity, Harris pledged that the administration would continue to work with other governments, private sector, foundations, and multilateral organizations to help close the digital divide, improve meaningful access to equitable digital finance and other online services, and address social norms that prevent women from participating fully in the digital economy.
More broadly, the Biden-Harris administration would continue to promote the economic empowerment of women, the vice president stated.
In support of those goals, Harris announced a series of investments and initiatives that total $1 billion.
She also made a series of announcements to foster women’s political, economic, and social inclusion in Africa, building upon initiatives launched at the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit in December 2022, including the Digital Transformation with Africa (DTA) Initiative.
Harris made clear that education remains key.
She hammered home that point as a message to Republican governors who continue to ban history in school curriculums.
“All these stories must be told in a way that we take from this place — the pain we all feel, the anguish that reeks from this place,” Harris reflected as she traversed Cape Coast Castle.
“And we then carry the knowledge that we have may gained here toward the work that we do in lifting up all people, in recognizing the struggles of all people, of fighting for, as the walls of this place talk about, justice and freedom for all people, human rights for all people.”
She continued:
“So, that’s what I take from being here.
“The descendants of the people who walked through that door were strong people, proud people, people of deep faith; people who loved their families, their traditions, their culture, and carried that innate being with them through all of these periods; went on to fight for civil rights, fight for justice in the United States of America and around the world.
“And all of us, regardless of your background, have benefited from their struggle and their fight for freedom and for justice.”
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