Women’s rights activists, mainly from South Africa, have demonstrated during the opening of the 22nd International Aids Conference in Amsterdam in the Netherlands accusing UNAids director Michel Sidibe of disrespecting human rights.
They say he failed to act against his subordinate who was accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague at the UN agency.
These women say they are in solidarity with the Me Too global movement which has highlighted the plight of women who’ve been victims of sexual harassment.
They disrupted Sidibe’s opening remarks at the conference Monday night.
“We must break barriers. Amandla Awethu. A political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it below it and within it is not a struggle at all. That individuals like Michel Sidibe, who has been an enabler of and a protector of sexual harassment, continues to be invited into these spaces, particularly spaces that women occupy, these are spaces that we fought for, we fought hard for these spaces.”
