WHO chief concedes 'slow' response to Congo sex abuse claims
The head of the World Health Organization acknowledged the U.N. health agency's response to sexual abuse allegations involving employees who worked in Congo during an Ebola outbreak was “slow,” following an Associated Press investigation that found senior WHO management knew of multiple cases of misconduct.
As the WHO’s highest decision-making body meets this week,
countries were tackling subjects like how to reform the U.N. health agency's
emergencies program after its missteps in responding to the coronavirus
pandemic. At its week-long meeting of countries, the WHO held a roundtable talk
on preventing sexual abuse on Friday.
“In many ways, we're all to blame for what happens in these
situations,” said Dr. Michael Ryan, the WHO's emergencies chief.
Diplomats have already pressed WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus on the issue behind closed-doors. At least six countries raised
concerns last week about how the agency was handling sexual abuse and
exploitation, citing recent press reports. Tedros tried to allay their worries.
“I can understand the frustration,” he told a committee
meeting of the WHO’s Executive Board on May 19. According to a recording of the
meeting obtained by the AP, the director-general said it took time to deal with
security problems in Congo, to install a commission to investigate sex abuse
claims and to get the group up and running.
“The way this thing was run until now, although it was slow
... I hope it will satisfy,” Tedros said.
The WHO's press office declined to comment on Tedros’
description of a slow response but said the commission was "committed to
conducting a comprehensive investigation into all recent allegations, including
those relating to management actions.” The group's co-chairs were asked to sign
a confidentiality agreement with the WHO.
The panel commissioned by the WHO does not include any law
enforcement agencies to investigate if any of the reported sexual exploitation
was criminal and its reports will be submitted only to the WHO.
Tedros created the panel in October, after news reports
surfaced about sex abuse during the WHO’s efforts to contain the Ebola epidemic
in Congo from 2018 to 2020. At the time, Tedros said he was “outraged” and
would move quickly to punish those responsible.
But more than seven months later, the panel has yet to
publicly release any details about its work or findings. The commission began
its work in Congo on May 3 and expects to publish a report at the end of
August, the group said.
Many countries said they expected more action, alluding to
the AP’s recent story. Nearly 50 countries issued a joint statement Friday
expressing their “deep concerns” about the WHO's handling of sexual abuse.
“We expressed alarm at the suggestions in the media that WHO
management knew of reported cases of sexual exploitation and abuse, and sexual
harassment and had failed to report them, as required by U.N. and WHO protocol,
as well as at allegations that WHO staff acted to suppress the cases,” the U.S.
mission in Geneva said in a statement.
The U.S. urged other countries to hold the WHO accountable
for its management of sex abuse claims; Canada, Australia, Britain, New Zealand
and Mexico were among the countries that signed the statement.
Simon Manley, Britain's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva,
called for the WHO to reconsider issues including whether the U.N.'s internal
oversight office should be involved in probing sex abuse claims and to clearly
explain what the process would be for sharing its investigation results with
member countries. Manley said earlier reports “lacked detail” and should have
been shared earlier.
“We must from now on see much more transparency from the
WHO,” he said.
An AP investigation published earlier this month found
members of the WHO's senior management were told of sexual abuse concerns in
2019 involving at least two doctors employed by the agency during the Ebola
epidemic in Congo.
The AP obtained a notarized contract showing two WHO staff
members signed off on an agreement by Dr. Jean-Paul Ngandu to pay off a young
woman he reportedly impregnated. Another doctor, Boubacar Diallo, bragged of
his relationship with WHO chief Tedros and offered women jobs in exchange for
sex, three women told the AP.
Even some WHO staffers appear unsatisfied at how the agency
has handled the claims.
“We cannot afford to ignore signs of repeated, systemic
failure of our Organization to prevent such alleged behaviors and to address
them in a just and timely manner,” the WHO staff committee wrote in an email to
staff and senior management last week. The committee urged WHO directors to
take immediate action over the allegations, including reports that “senior
management may have suppressed concerns.”
Some countries told the WHO’s top leadership during last
week’s closed meetings they expected more details quickly.
“Now that WHO is considered a beacon to help us find our way
out of this pandemic, it is so disheartening to learn about allegations of
structural mishandling of cases of misconduct,” a representative of the Dutch
government said, according to a meeting recording. “Reading the (press)
articles made us doubt whether the many statements and discussions we have had
(at the WHO about sex abuse) have been truly heard.”
The representative from the Netherlands called for more
transparency to address “the gap in trust that is starting to emerge in this
area.”
Dr. Catherine Boehme, Tedros’ Cabinet chief, responded that
“some issues are still a work in progress.” She said WHO officials would soon
meet with the commission investigating the Congo sex abuse allegations to
discuss “the investigation around failure to report or active suppression,
including the allegation of a cover-up.”
“We know there are weaknesses in the system, whether it’s
the WHO or the U.N. system,” added Dr. Ibrahima Soce Fall, the WHO's assistant
director-general for emergency response.
Some experts said the WHO’s failure to quickly punish those
involved in sexual misconduct was disappointing, but not surprising.
“Aid organizations are operating in an accountability
vacuum, in contexts where law and order has broken down and where there are no
external systems able to hold them to account,” said Asmita Naik, an
international human rights consultant who co-authored a report on sexual
exploitation involving U.N. personnel.
“Things will not change until those who perpetrate abuse or
turn a blind eye are disciplined and conversely, those who speak up are
rewarded,” Naik said.
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