“There are many of us who stand with survivors and stand
with those who identify as victims and are truly committed, but also frustrated
by where things have stood to date,” Loyce Pace, assistant secretary for global
affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told a meeting of
WHO’s Executive Board on Tuesday.
Last month, the AP reported that a WHO doctor accused of
sexually assaulting a woman at a Berlin conference in October was flagged to
senior WHO directors years ago for allegedly harassing another staffer. The
earlier allegation didn’t result in any significant consequences for the
doctor, Temo Waqanivalu, who was preparing to run for regional director of the
Western Pacific, with help from WHO colleagues and the presidential office in
his home country of Fiji.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the
meeting that a probe into the October incident had been completed.
“We regret that the media identified the alleged
perpetrator,” Tedros said during a discussion on preventing sexual abuse. There
are no plans to publicly release the investigation into Waqanivalu’s reported
misconduct.
“If the allegations are substantiated, disciplinary action
will be taken,” Tedros said.
Speaking to the WHO board, Pace cited the issue of sexual
misconduct by a staffer who reportedly “had a record of prior accusations,”
saying the case “really needs to be addressed by WHO.”
“It’s important to many of us who have faced this personally
in our experience working in the global health and development space, and not
just in terms of earlier in our careers, but even now,” she added.
According to confidential documents obtained by the AP,
senior WHO directors were informed of a sexual harassment allegation made
against Waqanivalu in 2018. The accuser was later informed that pursuing a
formal investigation might not be the best option for her. Waqanivalu was later
given an informal warning that didn’t cite the woman who made the claim or his
specific behavior.
In his interviews with WHO investigators, Waqanivalu
“categorically” denied that he had ever sexually assaulted anyone. He declined
to comment to the AP.
In recent years, WHO has been plagued by numerous reports of
misconduct. In May 2021, the AP reported that senior WHO managers were informed
of sex abuse allegations during an Ebola outbreak in Congo but did little to
stop it. A panel appointed by WHO later found that more than 80 workers under
WHO’s direction sexually abused women.
No senior WHO officials tied to the exploitation have been
fired. Tedros said Tuesday that three WHO staffers who had been on
administrative leave following the abuse allegations had now returned to work,
after a U.N. investigation disputed findings by an independent panel that they
had engaged in “managerial misconduct.”
At the session on Tuesday, a Fijian delegate to WHO said all
individuals accused of sexual misconduct should be treated fairly. She said the
officials at WHO who had leaked “highly confidential information” should be
held responsible. “Due process must be respected and all individuals involved
must be treated fairly,” the official said.
The Western Pacific regional director Waqanivalu was seeking
to replace at WHO was put on leave in August, months after the AP reported that
numerous staffers had accused him of racist and abusive behavior that
compromised the U.N. agency’s response to COVID-19.