Amnesty International failed to support Gaëtan Mootoo, a researcher from West Africa, who committed suicide in his Paris office after feeling “abandoned and neglected” by the organisation, according to an independent inquiry commissioned by Amnesty.
An investigation into his death concluded that multiple failings to support the employee of three decades amounted to “a serious failure of management”.
Unite represents hundreds of Amnesty staff in offices around the world. It revealed that one in three employees recently surveyed by the union felt “badly treated or bullied at work since 2017”. The internal survey was at the international secretariat, which has more than 600 employees.
James Laddie, QC, found Mootoo, 65, had made a “long and valuable” contribution to Amnesty. Mootoo, a researcher for west Africa, was employed by the international secretariat. Laddie said of the researcher: “It is obvious that he touched people’s lives in a way that most can only aspire to.” But he found that Mootoo was “disregarded” as an “old-timer” who would soon retire.
Mootoo took his life at Amnesty’s Paris office on 26 May. He left a note in which he complained of work pressure and a lack of management support.
