WHO pressed to do more to prevent sexual abuse

 

The World Health Organization’s main donor countries demanded Friday that it speeds up and broadens reforms aimed at preventing sexual abuse by staff in the field.

The UN health agency has been under intense pressure to make far-reaching changes following revelations in 2020 of widespread sexual abuse by humanitarian workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Speaking before the WHO executive board Friday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that he and the organization he leads are “committed to zero tolerance for sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment, and for inaction against it.”

He insisted the agency had dramatically scaled up its efforts to root out the problem since the allegations surfaced of rape and other sexual abuse by humanitarian workers, including WHO employees, in DR Congo.

An independent commission released a devastating report last September which found that 21 WHO employees participating in the response to a 2018-20 Ebola outbreak in the DRC had committed abuses against dozens of people.

Tedros, who at the time described the commission’s findings as “horrifying”, stressed to WHO member states Friday that preventing sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment was a top priority.

The WHO, he said, is working to make it easier to report abuse, and to ensure accountability for perpetrators and compensation for victims.