In the wake of “concerns over the U.N. agency’s handling” of a sexual abuse scandal in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the European Commission took the bold and decisive move to suspend “funding to the World Health Organization’s programs.” How can they be trusted to play with Ebola when they can’t keep their minds on their work?
WHO sex abuse scandal
Reuters broke news of the scandal on Thursday, October 28 but it started back on October 7, with a “letter from the Commission marked ‘SENSITIVE,'” which the outlet’s reporters got a good look at.
The memo notified WHO “of the immediate suspension of financing for five WHO programs, including its Ebola and COVID-19 operations.” That puts a freeze on $24.02 million.
After the public learned about the scandal, the commission emailed a statement confirming the fund freeze. The European Commission expects partners to have “robust safeguards to prevent such unacceptable incidents as well as to act decisively in such situations.”
That’s why they decided to “temporarily suspended the payments and will refrain from awarding new funding related to the humanitarian activities undertaken by WHO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
They’re clear that they aren’t punishing all programs for one sex abuse scandal. “This measure does not affect EU funding for WHO operations elsewhere.” The controversy swirls around “83 aid workers, a quarter of them employed by the WHO.”
They were all “involved in sexual coercion and abuse during Congo’s 10th Ebola epidemic.” With corpses piling up around them, they couldn’t help raping the survivors. “The report cited nine allegations of rape.”
Extreme concern over ‘magnitude’
The commission hauled both the WHO and the UN Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus over hot coals, accusing them of ” management negligence.” The letter, addressed directly to Tedros himself, voices “extreme concern” over the “magnitude of the findings.” They haven’t seen a scandal like this in a long time.
Tedros isn’t going to get his funding back until he assures them “that victims have been protected and compensated.” he also has to prove they’re doing background checks.
The commission is also warning that there better not be any sneaky rehiring of the “alleged perpetrators” involved in the scandal by “the UN or aid groups.”
They also have to throw everyone involved at the management level under the bus, disclosing “individual responsibilities within WHO for the negligence in the treatment of allegations and evidence.”
According to Paula Donovan, the biggest part of the scandal was the way the World Health Organization almost got away with it. The activist insider came unglued when she learned that WHO was sweeping things under the rug.
“The WHO is treating dozens of violent crimes alleged against its own personnel and top officials as simple breaches of UN rules.” If governments allow the UN to get away with this, it will be a solid victory for UN impunity. The whole sordid mess “reinforces the bogus notion that UN personnel and senior officials are above the law.”