Jurist Report: WHO response to Ebola failed to prevent sexual exploitation

[Dadparvar]

An independent report published on Tuesday revealed that the World Health Organization (WHO) failed to prevent sexual exploitation during its response to the Ebola epidemic between August 2018 and June 2020.

The Independent Commission on Allegations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse during the Response to the 10th Ebola Outbreak collated data from interviews, field trips and documents. The report highlighted that many alleged victims were pressured into sexual activity by persons who held a position of power and knew of the women’s scarce financial means.

Individual accounts included women being pressured to engage in sexual intercourse to secure work, although such work seldom materialized. Other women alleged that they had been sexually harassed by superiors in the hospitals they worked in, being pressured into sex to remain employed.

Nine rape allegations were also documented in the report.

The report stated:

For some of the alleged victims, working for the response represented a unique opportunity in a region where employment opportunities, especially for women, are extremely rare. The economic insecurity and precariousness were so great that for them the need to get a job outweighed everything else, including the coercion to have sex in exchange for the promise of a job.

Of the 83 alleged perpetrators, 21 were employees of the WHO. Going forward, employees of the WHO “will be required to participate in additional training to ensure that they are able to create an environment for the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment, and to take managerial action without delay in case of any suspected incident.”

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the WHO shared in a press conference that he is engaging external investigators to determine whether, and if so what, additional steps are necessary going forward.

While the report recommended increased training and policy changes, it did not recommend that the alleged perpetrators be referred to national legal systems to face trial. This is despite many women alleging they had been the victim of rape and other criminal sexual offences. The report has received criticism in this respect.

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