The WHO has been seriously questioned by a commission of inquiry into the sexual violence committed by its employees against dozens of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which denounces “structural failures” and “individual negligence”.
This sexual abuse was committed by staff, both locally hired and by international members of teams tasked with fighting the Ebola epidemic that raged in the DRC between 2018 and 2020, note the investigators who interviewed dozens of women who have been offered work in exchange for sex or who have been raped.
In the opening remarks, the independent commission of inquiry – launched in October 2020 by the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus – paints a very dark picture of the situation there.
It notes “the scale of incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse during the response to the tenth Ebola outbreak, all of which contributed to increasing the vulnerability of the ‘alleged victims’, who did not benefit from the crisis. ‘necessary help and assistance that such degrading experiences demanded.’
” I am sorry “
“The first thing I want to say to victims and survivors is that I am sorry. I’m sorry, sorry for what was forced on you by people who were employed by WHO to serve and protect you, ”said Dr.r Tedros, promising “severe consequences” to officials, during a press briefing on the findings of the commission.
“It’s a dark day for the WHO,” admitted the director-general, who is running for a second term at the head of the organization, a candidacy for which he had last week the support of the majority of the countries of the European Union, but also Kenya.
When a reporter asked him if he intended to resign, he dodged. “I have been there 14 times and this problem has not been raised. Maybe I should have asked questions, ”he admitted, however.
The commission identified 83 alleged perpetrators, of which 21 were WHO employees.
As soon as the report was published, the organization terminated the contracts of four of them it still employed and the others had short-term contracts, explained Dr Tedros. They will be banned from all future jobs.
In addition, the WHO will forward allegations of rape to national authorities in the DRC for investigation, as well as to the countries of origin of the alleged perpetrators.
Two senior officials were placed on administrative leave “and we are taking measures to ensure that other people likely to be involved are temporarily relieved of any decision-making role” in this case, he detailed.
The head of the WHO also indicated that an external body will be responsible for identifying individual shortcomings within his organization.
Thanks to the press
The case only arose thanks to the investigative work of The New Humanitarian and the Reuters Foundation.
In fact, the commission also notes, after having conducted dozens of interviews, “the perception of impunity of the staff of the institution on the part of the presumed victims” as well as the fact that faced with dozens of victims who are presented, there is “a total absence of case reporting” at the institutional level.
“Interviews with key organizational leaders conducted by the review team demonstrate that the organization, focused primarily on eradicating the Ebola epidemic, was not at all prepared to deal with the challenges. risks and incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse, ”the report highlights.
At the end of May, some fifty member countries of WHO had publicly expressed their frustration at the slowness of investigations and the lack of transparency.
They had expressed concern after media reports suggesting that WHO management was aware of cases of sexual exploitation, assault and sexual harassment and failed to report them as required by the protocol. UN and WHO, as have allegations that staff members tried to cover up the cases.
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