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Investigation Reveals W.H.O. Workers Sexually Abused Women During Ebola Mission In Congo

Investigation Reveals W.H.O. Workers Sexually Abused Women During Ebola Mission In Congo

An inquiry into the actions of World Health Organization workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo found that some doctors and staff members truly sexually abused or exploited women.

The commission appointed by the health agency found that Doctors and other staff members working for the World Health Organization to provide aid during the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo promised women and girls jobs in exchange for relationships or were sexually abused to keep jobs.

The agency’s director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, apologized directly to the victims – dozens reported in number – and promised “wholesale reform of policies and procedures” to address exploitation and abuse at the organization. He said the agency was terminating the contracts of four people identified as perpetrators who were still employed with the agency and would refer rape allegations to authorities in the Congo and home countries of those accused of abuse.

The Ebola response from 2018 to 2020 was “a large and complex operation in a highly vulnerable area that required massive recruitment of local and international personnel,” Dr. Tedros said. “But none of this is an excuse for sexual abuse and abuse. We acknowledge that we should have taken stronger measures to screen our candidates and ensure more effective human resources processes.

The report said investigators from the commission were able to identify 83 people who are believed to have been involved in the abuse, including both Congolese citizens and foreigners. In 21 cases, investigators were able to conclusively establish that the people suspected of abuse were WHO employees.

The 35-page report cited “obvious structural failures” in how the agency responded to allegations of misconduct. It painted the picture of an organization riddled with bureaucracy and considered the technicalities of allegations of abuse such as who would qualify for legal protection against exploitation and whether the allegation should be investigated if a written complaint is not filed.

The commission found that women were promised jobs in return for relationships or were sexually exploited to keep jobs. The report cited the stories of women like Nadira, who worked as an archivist in Beni.

“To get ahead in the job, you have to have sex,” she told investigators. “Everybody used to have sex in exchange for something. It was very common. I was even offered sex if I wanted to get a basin of water to wash while I was at base camp.

The report underscored the power gap between employees of international organizations such as the WHO and the people serving them. It added that “the majority of the alleged victims were in a very precarious economic or social situation during the response.”

Very few of them were able to complete their secondary education, and some had never set foot in school, it said.

The investigation began after Humanitarian, a Geneva-based non-profit news organization and the Thomson Reuters Foundation, published in September 2020.

Conclusion of one-year investigation In which 30 out of 51 women reported abuse by men working for the WHO on the Ebola outbreak that began in 2018.

The Report of Exploitation and Abuse re-examined UN conflicts with the decades-old problem of sexual abuse by peacekeepers, in conflicts in Bosnia in the 1990s and more recent emergencies in places such as the Central African Republic and Haiti. The 51 women who were interviewed told investigative journalists that they had been pressured into providing sex to WHO staff and other international aid organizations, as well as employees of the Congolese health ministry. Women said they faced pressure when they were looking for jobs and sometimes men terminated the contracts of those who refused, the women said.

Eight women said they were exploited by health ministry staff. Others reported encounters with men from charity groups including World Vision, UNICEF, and the medical organization Alima.

The report said that Dr. Tedros was made aware of the allegations only when they surfaced in the media. At a news conference on Tuesday to release the report, he was asked whether he would consider resigning because of the seriousness of the allegations and because he was overseeing the response to the outbreak and was on-site several times.

He said, ‘This issue was not raised with me. “Maybe I should have asked questions. And the next step, what we are doing, is, we have to ask questions.”

Dr. Tedros said the agency is “taking immediate steps” to determine why the organization did not detect it and stop the abuse in Congo.

One factor that the commission cited as creating conditions for exploitation and abuse was the lack of transparency in the recruitment process for new employees to counter the Ebola surge.

Like the response to the coronavirus in the United States and globally, the response to the virus created the need for new workers in large numbers. The report said that this was a boon for many youths seeking employment. But the recruitment process was not competitive.

“Local workers – who made up more than half of WHO personnel serving in North Kivu province in congo were recruited without competitive bidding,” the report said, “thus opening the door to potential abuses, including incidents of exploitation and sexual abuse.” are opened. Unfortunately seen.”

The report also cited “late and inadequate” training to prevent sexual abuse and abuse in response to the Ebola crisis. The first such training session took place in November 2019, five months after the outbreak was declared an international public health emergency. The report also found that a small number of the organization’s staff members – 371 of the more than 2,800 deployed during the outbreak – had attended training sessions.

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