Sexual assaults ignored at the WHO?
53 member countries of the World Health Organization expressed on Friday their "concern" over information suggesting that the leaders of the UN agency failed to report cases of sexual assault committed by members of the organization.
“We expressed our concern after media reports suggesting that WHO management was aware of cases of sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment and failed to report them as required by the protocol. 'UN and WHO, just like the allegations that members of staff tried to cover up these cases, ”underlines the text, presented by Canada during the World Health Assembly and signed in particular by the EU and the United States. "Since January 2018, we have expressed our deep concern over allegations of sexual exploitation, assault and sexual harassment as well as abuse of authority, in relation to the activities of the WHO", further underline the authors of this joint statement.
Member countries and the WHO secretariat - including Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus - “discussed this topic vigorously and transparently” last week.
This diplomatic vocabulary generally reflects lively exchanges.
Facts from 2018 to 2020
In mid-May new charges of sexual assault had been brought against aid workers, including the World Health Organization.
The alleged acts allegedly took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, between 2018 and 2020, during the intervention of WHO members against an Ebola epidemic.
Twenty women were allegedly victims of sexual assault or rape, reports The New Humaritarian, being offered "jobs in exchange for sex". Fourteen of them "declared that the men had identified themselves as being workers of the WHO", underlined the investigators. According to the Associated Press, which had access to internal emails, the organization was aware of the accusations against some of its members, since some victims had communicated them to supervisors, who had themselves asked senior leaders how to handle the case.
Directly questioned during a press briefing on May 17, neither the Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, nor Mike Ryan, the head of the WHO emergency response program, themselves answered the question of find out if they knew about it. This Friday, Doctor Tedros spoke before the publication of the text and recalled that he had set up an independent commission which must report at the end of August on these allegations.
"Investigators have the power to follow the evidence wherever it leads," promised the director general, acknowledging that many member countries are "frustrated" by the slowness of procedures and the lack of transparency. “I know I speak for all of my colleagues and the organization when I say that we take these accusations very seriously. Responding to them and correcting them are the very essence of who we are, ”he added. Last year, a similar investigation reported 51 cases in the city of Beni, also in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
