Le bare dei morti di COVID-19 di Bergamo portate sui camion dell’esercito (Foto di Corriere.it)
A seguito della richiesta della Procura di Bergamo finalizzata a
sentire alcuni ricercatori dell’Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità
(OMS), quest’ultima ha inviato dalla sede europea di Copenhagen una nota
con cui afferma che il suo personale gode di immunità diplomatica e per
tale motivo non è tenuto a rispondere alle domande dei magistrati.
Non essendo ben definito lo status dei ricercatori la Procura ha
ritenuto di investire nel merito il Ministero degli Esteri il quale
dovrà precisare se effettivamente esiste un’immunità dalla giurisdizione
come quella invocata dall’OMS, addirittura estesa al divieto di rendere
una mera testimonianza nel contesto dell’indagine sulla mancata
istituzione della zona rossa in Val Seriana e la conseguente ipotesi
di reato di epidemia colposa.
La questione va ricondotta alla ‘Convenzione sui privilegi e le
immunità delle istituzioni specializzate delle nazioni Unite’ ratificata
e resa esecutiva dall’Italia e non all’immunità diplomatica
tradizionale ai sensi della Convenzione di Vienna sulle relazioni
diplomatiche, ove le immunità personali e funzionali sono ben chiarite.
Il motivo per cui le organizzazioni internazionali godono di immunità
è garantire lo svolgimento delle loro funzioni in maniera indipendente
da qualsiasi ingerenza in quanto uno Stato potrebbe indirizzarne le
scelte e limitarne la libertà d’azione.
Diverse però sono le attività che ricadono nell’esercizio delle
attività funzionali dell’organizzazione da quelle compiute da persone
legate ad essa in qualità di soggetto privato caso, questo, per cui non
può essere invocata l’immunità. Per attività funzionali si fa
riferimento agli atti posti in essere dall’organizzazione per il
raggiungimento dei suoi scopi. In merito esiste in Italia specifica
giurisprudenza che può venire in soccorso. La Corte di Cassazione, ad
esempio, ha affermato nel caso Branno, dipendente a contratto della
NATO, contro il Ministero della Difesa che seppure vi fosse un accordo
NATO (NATO SOFA) che prevedeva un’immunità, questa non si applicava
alla controversia in questione perché l’organizzazione aveva agito “more
privatorum, ponendo in essere con dei cittadini italiani dei veri e
propri rapporti contrattuali, dai quali è esclusa ogni idea di
sovranità”. Sembra proprio il caso dei ricercatori che pare abbiano con
l’OMS un contratto di tipo privatistico. Questa sentenza ha posto dei
limiti all’immunità dell’organizzazione e altre sentenze più recenti,
non solo a livello nazionale, continuano a fare distinzione tra attività
pubblicistiche e attività privatistiche dell’ente internazionale. .
Il nostro Ministero Affari Esteri dispone di un ufficio del
Contenzioso di altissimo livello per cui non tarderà a dare una risposta
esaustiva.
Nelle sue valutazioni tale Ufficio dovrà tener conto che la parte
della Convenzione riguardante l’abuso di privilegi prevede che se uno
Stato ritiene che sia stato commesso un abuso di un privilegio o di
un’immunità prevista dalla Convenzione, devono essere avviate
consultazioni tra tale Stato e l’Istituzione interessata al fine di
accertare se sia stato effettivamente commesso l’abuso e, nel caso
affermativo, di prevenirne la continuazione o la reiterazione. Se tali
consultazioni non dovessero produrre un risultato soddisfacente la
questione dell’accertamento dell’abuso è portata dinanzi alla Corte
Internazionale di Giustizia che se dovesse constatare che si è
verificato simile abuso può conferire allo Stato leso il diritto di
revocare all’Istituzione il beneficio oggetto del contenzioso.
A prescindere dalla natura del rapporto intercorrente tra i
ricercatori e l’OMS corre l’obbligo considerare che, comunque, gli atti e
gli archivi dell’organismo internazionale ai sensi della Convenzione
sono coperti da immunità e di questo, in sede di escussione testimoniale
dovrà essere tenuto conto.
In ogni caso, di fronte all’esigenza di comprendere le cause di una
tragedia come quella vissuta in particolare nelle valli di Bergamo ci si
deve chiedere perché un Organismo del livello dell’OMS anziché fornire
ogni elemento per contribuire a far luce sui fatti si arrocchi dietro
quelle ragioni di immunità che contribuiscono solo ad alimentare dubbi
sul suo operato.
Il Ministero degli Esteri non risponde ai pm di Bergamo sull'Oms
I magistrati vogliono sapere se esista
un divieto di testimoniare per i funzionari dell'agenzia Onu che
godono dell’immunità diplomatica coinvolti nella vicenda del piano
pandemico. E' atteso in particolare il 'via libera' per Francesco
Zambon, l'uomo a cui Ranieri Guerra avrebbe chiesto di 'taroccare' la
data del piano pandemico
Bergamo, l’Oms invoca l’immunità diplomatica per i ricercatori convocati dai pm come persone informate sui fatti
"Il nostro interesse è accertare
l'esistenza o meno di un piano pandemico e quando sarebbe stato redatto.
Questo è importante per le valutazioni che la procura sta facendo
nell’ambito dell’indagine sull'ospedale di Alzano e sulla gestione
dell’epidemia nella Bergamasca", spiega il pm Antonio Chiappani. Dopo
aver ricevuto la lettera dell'Organizzazione mondiale della sanità,
l'ufficio inquirente ha scritto al ministero degli Esteri per capire se
sussiste l'immunità
Coronavirus: Tedros Ghebreyesus of WHO faces firestorm of criticism
By Jules Crétois, Olivier Marbot
Posted on Wednesday, 10 June 2020 19:30, updated on Sunday, 14 June 2020 10:00
Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization
(WHO), addresses a press conference about the update on COVID-19 at the
World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday,
Feb. 24, 2020. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Attacked from all sides, have the WHO and its leader, the Ethiopian
national Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, failed in their mission or, on the
contrary, prevented the worst? An upcoming inquiry should provide some
answers.
When he took to the podium to make closing remarks at the
seventy-third World Health Assembly, held in Geneva on 18 and 19 May,
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, 55, bore a wide grin.
The Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) also wore
a blue, tropical print shirt, setting aside his conservative grey suit.
A gesture meant as a tribute to nurses from the Polynesian state of Tonga
who had planned to attend the meeting but were unable to due to the
coronavirus pandemic, he explained, before thanking member countries for
their “support” and reminding the audience (mostly in attendance
virtually) that while “the COVID-19 pandemic has tested, strengthened
and strained the bonds of fellowship between nations […] it has not broken them”.
The speech was a perfect show of unanimity and optimism. At least on the surface of it.
Behind the scenes, the virtual assembly was a fierce battlefield and ended on an unprecedented note with the adoption of a resolution, drafted largely by European representatives,
calling for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of
WHO’s coordination of the “international health response” to the worst
crisis in its history: COVID-19.
In China’s grip?
The resolution is an attempt to respond to the mounting criticism – often American – directed at the organisation in recent weeks. In mid-April, the United States suspended their financial contributions to WHO.
More recently, the country has even contemplated the idea of leaving
the organisation altogether on the grounds that it failed in its task
and, probably an even greater crime in the Americans’ eyes, is fully in
thrall to the Chinese authorities.
Made out to be the embodiment of the organisation’s every supposed shortcoming and shady action, “Dr Tedros” is naturally at the centre of the controversy.
Some people maintain that he was only elected because he is African, as he is the first non-medical doctor director-general (although he has public health qualifications).
Others claim he has been under the thumb of China
(which backed his candidacy) for a long time and they back up their
theory by noting that the party of which he was a member in Ethiopia,
the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, is a communist movement. Others
still say that he is timid. Or totally in the pay of “Big Pharma”.
The first African elected to head WHO has been spared no criticism, and malicious rumours about his private life have even begun spreading among the Ethiopian diaspora.
A lot of these attacks are unfounded, but some of
them should be explored further – beginning with the WHO’s attitude
towards China. As early as January, while the number of coronavirus
cases was exploding in Hubei province, WHO was working with Beijing,
which made sense.
On 20 January, the organisation sent a team to Wuhan and, on 22
January, a meeting to determine if the novel coronavirus outbreak
constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) ended on an inconclusive note.
On 28 January, Ghebreyesus met with the President of China, Xi Jinping, in Beijing, setting the stage for an unfortunate grovelling posture that has been interpreted ever since as a sign of the director-general’s submission.
On 30 January, WHO finally declared a PHEIC. On 30 March, the
International Olympic Committee announced that the Olympic Games,
originally scheduled to take place in Tokyo in summer 2020, would be
postponed until 2021. Very upset about the decision, the Japanese vice prime minister called WHO the “Chinese Health Organisation”.
Too cautious?
Other critics, not necessarily the same ones, rebuke the UN-backed institution for being overly cautious.
It was out of caution that the WHO waited to declare a PHEIC and then
to upgrade its status from an epidemic to a pandemic. It was also out of caution that it refused to approve the use of potentially effective treatments against COVID-19 or some of its symptoms, with chloroquine, artemisia and Madagascar’s Covid-Organics leading the pack.
Michel Yao, an Ivorian born doctor currently practicing medicine in
Canada and responsible for coordinating the WHO operations in Africa,
rejects this criticism: “Our role is to organise clinical trials in line
with methodological approaches in order to verify treatment
effectiveness and safety. But doctors have always had the option of using treatments that haven’t been approved if it was recognised that they could provide relief to patients. This is known as ‘compassionate use’, and WHO has never been against it.”
In Africa, some had nevertheless hoped that the election of
Ghebreyesus in May 2017 would lead the WHO to take a greater interest in
medicinal plants and traditional techniques. They claim that their
calls have gone unheeded thus far.
Is this indifference a sign that pharmaceutical industry
multinationals are trying to protect their profits? Whatever some people
may claim, WHO has not necessarily made a habit of siding with “Big Pharma”, as the Geneva-based organisation points out.
In 2013, for example, the Chinese national Margaret Chan, the
director-general of the organisation at the time, called out the
behaviour of researchers who ran the risk of delaying the development of
detection tests for certain strains of coronavirus because they wanted
to register a patent.
Also, in 1985, the United States temporarily suspended its contribution to the organisation on the grounds that WHO was encouraging developing countries to create their own pharmaceutical industries.
Lastly, many believe that the WHO should have declared a PHEIC and the pandemic more rapidly, which would likely have encouraged some countries to order lockdowns and, in so doing, save lives.
Counteroffensive
Leaders at the WHO challenge this idea of a delayed response,
often attributed to supposed pressure from China. For instance, Yao
recalls that “even before the first cases in Africa were detected in
Egypt and Algeria, our teams were providing African authorities with
tools to analyse their level of preparedness”.
Senegal-born Ibrahima Socé Fall, Assistant Director-General of the
institution, stresses that “we declared a PHEIC on 30 January, and a lot of countries – especially the most developed ones – were slow to react, despite the fact that we warned everyone in very clear terms and were holding meetings every day”.
Other WHO officials comment somewhat bitterly that the bulk of the criticism comes from countries – the United States, the UK, France, etc. – which stand out for their chaotic management of the first few weeks of the pandemic.
What’s more, it took two months to gather the $675m needed to fund the
coronavirus preparedness and response plan after WHO called on countries
to contribute to it on 5 February.
Despite these problems, material assistance has already been provided
to 135 low- and middle-income countries, and, in Africa, Yao says that
“most health development plans are based in part on WHO protocols,
research and recommendations”. According to Matshidiso Moeti, WHO
Regional Director for Africa, “Namibia and the Seychelles, which closely followed our precautionary advice, have reported no new cases over the past month.”
Defenders of the organisation are not solely made up of Ghebreyesus’s subordinates:
while Donald Trump was ranting and raving against WHO on the small
screen, Bill Gates, whose foundation is the second largest financial
contributor to WHO after the United States, sided with the organisation
and its leader on Twitter.
In an editorial published at the end of April, several NGO executives
and public health leaders reiterated that now, more than ever, was the
time to come together and to take multilateral action, and that the WHO was struggling first and foremost due to a lack of resources
and that it was merely implementing the procedures defined by its
member states, summarised in the International Health Regulations (IHR).
To confront the wave of “Tedros bashing”, Tedros’s
supporters launched a counteroffensive. It began in his home country,
Ethiopia, where several voices, including that of the Minister of Health
Amir Aman, spoke out to remind people that when Ghebreyesus was leading
the country’s health ministry, he built a solid community health
programme suited to the context and whose positive effects have been
observed.
For some of his supporters, the attacks targeting the WHO director-general are also likely, if not especially, due to plain old racism.
An underfunded organisation
Should we reach the conclusion that the WHO’s management of the
crisis is – and was – beyond reproach? Of course not. However, the
countries attacking the Geneva-based institution would do well not to
forget that it only has the means and powers that they wish to grant it.
With 194 member states, 7,000 employees and 150 regional offices worldwide, the organisation seems at times too modest in size and, above all, underfunded.
Its annual budget ($5.6bn) is even smaller than that of the Paris
hospital system. In addition, mandatory contributions account for barely
20% of the budget, while the rest comes from payments made by countries
at their discretion.
As Professor Marc Gentilini, an infectious disease expert and former
president of the French Red Cross, underscores, budget cuts are not rare
and “the work impacted by these cuts in the 2010s includes that of
researchers studying coronavirus-type pandemics”.
Forced to be more cautious, Ghebreyesus told reporters in 2017,
shortly after his election, that following the Ebola epidemics in
Africa, the idea of establishing “simulation exercises at the regional level” was on the table. But, he added, “such programmes are very costly, so we need to obtain special funding”.
Power struggles
Aside from these financial aspects, it’s also important to note that
ever since its creation in 1948, the WHO has been the site of never-ending power struggles between superpowers.
In 1949, the Soviet Union and several of its satellite nations withdrew
from the organisation, criticising it for refusing to make the
connection between health and socio-economic conditions, and for being
dominated by the United States.
In 1978, liberal countries protested against the Declaration of Alma-Ata,
which highlighted the inacceptable health inequalities between the
world’s regions. Some denounced the declaration as a “communist vision
of health”.
In 2005, the United States prevented the WHO’s then director-general,
the South Korean national Lee Jong-wook, from making a speech about the
public health consequences of Hurricane Katrina. Today, Beijing is
suspected of controlling the organisation. Essentially, no matter what
it does, the WHO is always accused of being either lax or alarmist.
So, should the WHO be scrapped and Tedros along with it?
Let’s remember that up until the beginning of 2020, the former
Ethiopian health minister had unanimous support, especially compared to
Chan, his predecessor, who was rebuked for unnecessarily stoking global
panic when the H1N1 flu struck in 2009.
The upcoming “impartial and independent inquiry”
will likely reveal more information about any failures or errors of
assessment on the part of the organisation. Its conclusions will weigh
heavily on Ghebreyesus’s possible desire to seek a new five-year term in
2022.
Pending the results of the inquiry, it would probably be worthwhile to consider reforms that could give WHO the resources and powers it needs
to accomplish its difficult mission. Some experts suggest creating a
permanent steering committee which would be transparently run with
guaranteed independence, while others recommend extending the term of
office of the director-general and changing the organisation’s funding
model.
The problem is that once the pandemic is under control, no one – or almost no one – will want to hear about these topics anymore. Until the next crisis comes.
WHO
director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told its annual ministerial
assembly that the UN agency faced a "serious challenge" to maintain its
COVID-19 response at the current level
The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) called on Monday
for launching negotiations this year on an international treaty to boost
pandemic preparedness, as part of sweeping reforms envisioned by member
states.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told its annual
ministerial assembly that the UN agency faced a “serious challenge” to
maintain its COVID-19 response at the current level and required
sustainable and flexible funding.
Earlier in the day, the last of the week-long assembly, health
ministers agreed to study recommendations for ambitious reforms made by
independent experts to strengthen the capacity of both the WHO and
countries to contain new viruses.
The ministers from the WHO’s 194 member states are to meet from
November 29 to decide whether to launch negotiations on the pandemic
treaty.
“The one recommendation that I believe will do most to strengthen
both WHO and global health security is the recommendation for a treaty
on pandemic preparedness and response,” Ghebreyesus said. “This is an
idea whose time has come.”
It could be a long road ahead if such a treaty is to be reached. The
WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world’s first public
health treaty, was clinched in 2003 after four years of negotiations.
The WHO, which has been at the heart of the world’s sluggish response
to the COVID-19 pandemic, faces a potential shake-up to prevent future
outbreaks.
Under the resolution submitted by the European Union, and adopted by
consensus, member states are to be firmly in the driver’s seat of the
reforms through a year-long process.
“It’s essential that we strengthen global (disease) surveillance and
provide the World Health Organisation with the authority and the
capacity to do this important job for all the people of the world,”
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the talks.
“If we are to deliver on this ambitious reform agenda, then we must work together and put other issues aside,” he said.
The new virus has infected more than 170 million people and killed
nearly 3.7 million since emerging in China in late 2019, according to a
Reuters tally of official national figures.
“PATHOGENS HAVE THE UPPER HAND”
WHO’s emergency director, Mike Ryan, welcomed the decision, saying:
“Right now the pathogens have the upper hand, they are emerging more
frequently and often silently in a planet that is out of balance.
“We need to turn that very thing that has exposed us in this
pandemic, our interconnectedness, we need to turn that into a strength,”
he said.
Chile’s ambassador Frank Tressler Zamorano said on behalf of 60
countries that a pandemic treaty would help “heed the call by so many
experts to reset the system”.
One panel, headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark
and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a former president of Liberia, said a new
global system should be set up to respond faster to disease outbreaks to
help ensure no future virus causes pandemic as devastating as COVID-19.
The experts, who found crucial failures in the global response in
early 2020, said the WHO should be given the power to send investigators
swiftly to chase down new disease outbreaks and to publish their full
findings without delay.
WASHINGTON - China is lashing out at the chief of
the World Health Organization for suggesting that more study is needed
into the possibility that the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19
pandemic initially escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Global Times, an influential news outlet controlled by
China's ruling Communist Party, pointed this week to comments by Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Ethiopian-born director-general of the WHO, to
the effect "that further investigation is needed on the hypothesis of a
'lab leak' being the origin of COVID-19."
The front-page report quoted a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson urging "the WHO to play a leading role in respecting science."
The criticism is ironic, given that Tedros has been widely accused of
being too close to China, including by former U.S. President Donald
Trump, who described the WHO leader as "China-centric" in cutting off
U.S. funding to the health agency last year.
Beijing's latest broadside appears aimed at remarks by Tedros on
March 30, when the WHO released the findings of an investigative team
that had spent four weeks in China.
FILE - World Health Organization Director-General Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference in Geneva, April 12, 2021.
Speaking in Geneva, Tedros listed various scenarios
to account for the origin of the virus, including that it originated in
bats and then infected another animal, leading to widespread
contamination in the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan.
The WHO director also addressed a theory that the virus could have
escaped from a virology laboratory just kilometers from the Huanan
market, where similar viruses are being studied.
"Although the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least
likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation, potentially with
additional missions involving specialist experts, which I am ready to
deploy," Tedros said.
"The team also visited several laboratories in Wuhan and considered
the possibility that the virus entered the human population as a result
of a laboratory incident," he said. "However, I do not believe that this
assessment was extensive enough. … Further data and studies will be
needed to reach more robust conclusions."
Chinese media this week quoted an unnamed Chinese expert who took
part in the investigation as saying that Tedros' remarks have "already
been used by those with ulterior motives to question the authority and
scientific quality" of the report issued by WHO.
The expert warned that "WHO will have to be held accountable if worldwide effort at [virus] origin tracing enters a deadlock."
“An
American economist [David Steinman] nominated for the Nobel peace prize
[in 2019] has called for the head of the World Health Organisation
[Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (PhD)] to be prosecuted for genocide over
his alleged involvement in directing Ethiopia’s security forces [from
2013 to 2015].”
First off, for appealing to the world to bring
Tedros to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, I would
like to express my deepest appreciation and gratitude to Steinman. I
sincerely thank him for his time and energy.
Regrettably, the
ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor appears that it doesn’t have a mandate to
carry out investigations and prosecution against an Ethiopian such as
Tedros because Ethiopia didn’t ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC.
As
a result of Ethiopia not being party to the Rome Statue of the ICC, I’m
writing this article to plead with the Ethiopian government to support
Steinman’s call to make Tedros face charges of genocide and crimes
against humanity at the ICC.
To illustrate, according to the ICC,
“123 countries are States Parties to the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court. Out of them 33 are African States…” Put
differently, there are 195 Sovereign States in the world, according to
the UN. Out of the 195 countries, 54 are African States. Of which, only
21 African countries, including Ethiopia have not yet ratified the Rome
Statute.
Tedros is the personification of the TPLF’s demons
To
charge Tedros for genocide and crimes against humanity, the ICC’s
Office of the Prosecutor will most certainly find a sea of witnesses and
a mountain of evidence against him.
So, I personally say yes,
Tedros should be brought to justice at the ICC for enabling the TPLF’s
security forces and accomplices to carry out genocide and crimes against
humanity. Because when he was Ethiopia’s health minister from 2005 to
2012, a significant number of Amhara women accused him of perpetrating
genocide against them by “imposing measures intended to prevent births
within the group [the Amhara Women]”. Furthermore, when he was “one of
three officials in control of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s
(Woyane’s) security services from 2013 to 2015”, mass imprisonment,
torture, disappearance and killings were common across Ethiopia. For
example, a DW Documentary
said “in 2015 and 2016 security forces [which were led by Tedors] killed
more than a thousand people and imprisoned tens of thousands more…”
To conclude,
you don’t need me to tell you: Tedros himself didn’t perpetrate the
alleged genocide and crimes against humanity. But he held the office
that bore the greatest responsibility and created conditions that
sustained criminality against Ethiopians, particularly against the
Amhara and the Oromo people, including butchering detainees’ private
parts.
“The certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful
deterrent [of crime] than the punishment.” Definitely, Steinman’s plea
to bring Tedros before the ICC isn’t in vain, as a result of Ethiopia’s
unwillingness to ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC. His appeal is
creating more awareness across the globe among government officials who
use their hired thugs to silence opposition. Likewise, Steinman’s effort
to get Tedros charged, for heinous crimes he enabled, is not hopeless.
It is giving hope to Tedros’ countless victims and those who have been
demanding justice for more than a decade, including this writer.
I
dedicated this article to the genocide and crimes against humanity
victims of the World Health Organization’s chief, Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus (PhD), and by extension, the deposed TPLF’s rulers.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health
Organization, plans to run for a second five-year term as the head of
the agency, according to a person familiar with his thinking, setting up
a referendum on the WHO’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic under his
leadership.
It is unclear at this point whether others will emerge to challenge
the 56-year-old from Ethiopia, who made history in 2017 when he became the first African elected to the global health agency’s top job. WHO director-generals may only serve two five-year terms, and must be elected each time.
Publicly, Tedros, as he is known, has sidestepped questions of
whether he plans to seek a second term. But the source familiar with his
thinking confirmed it is his intention to do so.
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Tedros’ term as director-general has been engulfed in major health
emergencies. A year after he took office, Ebola exploded in what is
effectively a war zone in the northeastern corner of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo; the outbreak, the second largest on record, took
two years to contain. Before it could be fully extinguished, the
Covid-19 pandemic began.
The WHO’s handling of the pandemic was the subject of
fierce criticism by the Trump administration, which believed the agency
was soft on China in the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak. Some
Republicans in Congress joined in that criticism, and Trump served
notice that the United States was withdrawing from the WHO in protest. (President Biden immediately rescinded the notice when he took office.)
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Despite the controversy, some observers believe Tedros should be able to secure a second term.
“He’s not invulnerable by any means, but I think he’s in a pretty
strong position, even with the problems he’s encountered in the first 3
1/2 years,” said Stephen Morrison, director of the global health policy
center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for
National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law, was not a Tedros
supporter in 2017, but has since changed his view.
“It would be exceedingly unwise in my view to change DG in the midst
of a historic pandemic, which will still likely be raging,” Gostin said
in an email. “I also think Tedros has earned another term.”
The process for selecting
the person who will lead the WHO from 2022 to 2027 began last month,
when the WHO sent out a letter informing member states that they could
nominate candidates for the next term. The nomination period ends in
mid-September; candidates will be announced at the end of October. If
there are multiple candidates, the WHO’s executive board — a panel of
members from 34 member countries representing the various WHO regions —
will interview and nominate up to three final candidates.
Member states will elect the director-general from that roster at the
2022 World Health Assembly, the annual meeting of the WHO’s governing
council.
In the race that culminated in Tedros’ selection in 2017, he handily
beat out five other candidates, shored up by support from the African
Union, a bloc of 55 nations.
He was widely praised for his leadership in the Ebola outbreak in
North Kivu and Ituri, traveling to the dangerous region at least 10
times to meet with people working to contain the outbreak.
More recently, Tedros has angered China by insisting on a thorough
investigation into the origins of the Covid pandemic. Though China is
not a major player in the functioning of the WHO, riling the government
could prompt it to campaign against him.
That said, as the world continues to battle a pandemic that emerged
from that country, China might not be in the strongest position to
marshal support.
“China delayed in accurately reporting the outbreak for weeks,
blocked WHO from independently investigating, and thwarted the world’s
ability to discover the origins of the virus,” said Gostin. “I think
China is seriously weakened at WHO and probably couldn’t block Tedros’
path to reelection.”
Morrison praised Tedros for repeatedly challenging wealthy countries
for hoarding pandemic vaccines. “He’s been vocal and that’s what he
should be,” he said. “That’s his role.”
Covering breaking news and tech policy stories at Forbes.
Topline
Dr. Anthony Fauci has called on the Chinese government to release
medical records of nine people, including three researchers who worked
at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and fell ill weeks before the first
reported case of Covid-19, as it might provide vital information on the
origins of the Covid-19 outbreak amid speculation that the coronavirus
may have leaked out from the Wuhan lab.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks ... [+]
Getty Images
Key Facts
In an interview with the Financial Times, Fauci said he would like to see the medical records of three people from the Wuhan lab who got sick in November 2019, according to a U.S. intelligence report.
Fauci has asked Beijing to also release the medical records of six
miners who fell ill in 2012 after entering a bat cave—three of whom
died—as scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology later visited
the cave to collect samples from the bats.
PROMOTED
Fauci noted that he feels it’s overwhelmingly likely that the virus
jumped to humans from animals but added that investigations need to
continue until a possibility is proven.
Fauci also pointed out that even if the Wuhan lab researchers did
have Covid-19, there is a possibility they could have simply contracted
it from the general public, but that could only be clarified through
further investigation.
Crucial Quote
Fauci told the FT: “I have always felt that the overwhelming
likelihood — given the experience we have had with Sars, Mers, Ebola,
HIV, bird flu, the swine flu pandemic of 2009 — was that the virus
jumped species,” he said. “But we need to keep on investigating until a
possibility is proven.”
Tangent
Fauci pushed back against the idea that the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), where he serves as director,
might bear any responsibility for the outbreak because the organization
sent funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He said: “Are you
really saying that we are implicated because we gave a
multibillion-dollar institution $120,000 a year for bat surveillance?”
Key Background
The origin of the Covid-19 outbreak is still unknown, with
scientists, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and politicians pushing
for a new, more thorough investigation into how it emerged.. An
investigation led by the WHO earlier this year zeroed in
on animal markets as a probable source. Several scientists, including
Fauci, believe that the virus probably jumped from bats to humans
through an intermediate animal host. However, the lab leak
theory—initially pushed by fringe groups—has seen a rise in mainstream
interest after President Joe Biden last week ordered
U.S. intelligence agencies to examine the origin of the pandemic. The
White House has noted that two branches of the intelligence services
believe the virus was transmitted naturally, while another branch
believes it came from the Wuhan lab. The virus was first detected in
Wuhan, China in late 2019 and many believe it may have originated from
the city’s live animal markets. The Chinese government, however, has
tried to push its own theory that the virus was imported into the
country through frozen food.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wants 10% jabbed in every country by September
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus concedes 'slow' response to Congo sex abuse claims
Diplomats have already pressed WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the issue behind closed-doors.
Published: 28th May 2021 08:50 PM |
Last Updated: 28th May 2021 08:50 PM
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WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Photo | AP)
By Associated Press
LONDON: 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 joint statement said.
The United States, addressing the assembly Friday, 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.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn settles lawsuit with New York hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo – video Reuters
A hotel maid who claims she was brutally sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn
has settled her civil action against the former IMF chief for an
undisclosed sum, in a move that allows her to "move on with her life",
lawyers said.
In
Bronx supreme court on Monday, a judge announced that an agreement had
been reached just minutes before the session started, adding that the
amount – which is rumoured to be as much as $6m – remained
"confidential".
It brings to an end a lengthy New York
court battle for the man once tipped to become French president, having
earlier seen criminal charges of attempted rape dropped. Nonetheless,
Strauss-Kahn's legal woes are not completely behind him – he is yet to
hear if prosecutors in France will be allowed to pursue charges of
aggravated pimping related to an alleged prostitution ring in France. A
court is due to rule in that case on 19 December.
The
lawsuit settled in New York on Monday relates to claims by Nafissatou
Diallo, a 33-year-old former housekeeper at the upmarket Sofitel hotel
in Manhattan.
She says Strauss-Kahn attacked her on 14 May 2011 as she attempted to clean his room.
Diallo
alleges that Strauss-Kahn ran at her naked, molested her and forced her
to perform oral sex on him. The claims led to a criminal investigation
against the IMF boss last year, and to his house arrest in Manhattan.
But
charges of attempted rape, sex abuse, forcible touching and unlawful
imprisonment were eventually dropped, with prosecutors citing
"substantial credibility issues" with Diallo.
Despite
the collapse of a criminal investigation, Diallo continued to pursue
Strauss-Kahn through the civil courts, leading to a counter defamation
suit by the former IMF head.
At first,
Strauss-Kahn's lawyers tried to claim that their client had diplomatic
immunity him from being sued. But that failed, with the courts
dismissing his claims of protection.
A
settlement in the case was widely expected ahead of Monday's hearing.
Strauss-Kahn's New York attorneys had previously acknowledged that talks
had taken place. But they dismissed as "flatly false" a French
newspaper's report that the amount agreed to was a payment of $6m to
Diallo.
In court on Monday, judge Douglas McKeon confirmed that a deal had been struck, but not the amount.
"Ten minutes ago we reached a settlement in this case, which was put on the record," he said during a brief session.
He added: "The amount of the settlement is confidential."
McKeon
also confirmed that a claim against the New York Post – which had
reported that Diallo had worked as a prostitute – had also been settled.
Again, the terms were not discussed in open court.
Diallo
sat through the court proceedings accompanied by her legal
representatives. Dressed in a snow-leopard skin print headscarf and
emerald blouse, she made no statement while in the courtroom.
But
in brief comments on the steps of the Bronx supreme court, Diallo, who
was born in Guinea and who is the mother to a teenage girl, thanked her
supporters.
"I just want to say I thank everyone that supported me all over the world. I thank everybody; I thank God," she said.
Her attorney, Kenneth Thompson, said Diallo was a "strong and courageous woman who never lost faith in our system of justice".
"With this resolution, she can now move on with her life," he added.
Strauss-Kahn
was not in court. Nor did his legal representatives offer any comment
after it was announced that settlement had been struck, other than to
thank the court.
Monday's hearing marks an
apparent end to Strauss-Kahn's New York legal battles. But it has come
at cost for the 63-year-old. As well as losing his job at the IMF, it
ended any realistic chance Strauss-Kahn had at a run at the French
presidency as further lurid details of his lifestyle later emerged.
In
addition, it led to a raft of other sexual allegations being made
against him and likely contributed to his separation from his wife,
French journalist Anne Sinclair.
Next week,
Strauss-Kahn will hear if a separate attempt to get charges levied
against him by French prosecutors thrown out has been successful.
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