US-American Forbes new President of the Red Cross Federation
Published: Monday, Dec 11th 2023, 21:50
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The members of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) elected Kate Forbes from the USA as its President on Monday in Geneva. She replaces Franceso Rocca, who stepped down.
After some heated discussions, Forbes received 88 votes in the second round of voting for a four-year term of office, with 75 votes going to the Kenyan Abbas Gullet. Prior to this, there had been a confrontation between the Executive Council and the 191 National Societies.
"My first priority will be to bring us all back together. We are one movement," said the new president. Her predecessor Rocca announced that allegations of sexual harassment had been made against Gullet from 2016 to 2018.
Rocca himself had resigned from office following a conflict of interest: As president of the Italian region of Lazio, he had withdrawn his support for Pride in Rome.
The IFRC Executive Board had decided to postpone the election until October at the latest. However, the Extraordinary General Assembly demanded a vote amid booing.
If Gullet had been elected, the Kenyan would have had to wait for the conclusion of the required external investigation before he could have taken office. The most likely scenario would then have been a provisional presidency for the former head of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit, Manuel Bessler. This is who the Executive Board proposed when it decided to postpone the election.
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