WHO cancels Robert Mugabe goodwill ambassador role
Mr Mugabe often travels abroad for medical treatment
The World Health Organization has
revoked the appointment of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador
following a widespread outcry.
"I have listened carefully to
all who have expressed their concerns," WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a
statement.
He had previously praised Zimbabwe
for its commitment to public health.
But critics pointed out that
Zimbabwe's healthcare system had collapsed under Mr Mugabe's 30-year rule.
Staff often go without pay,
medicines are in short supply, and Mr Mugabe, who has outlived the average life
expectancy in his country by three decades, travels abroad for medical
treatment.
Mr Tedros said he had consulted with
the Zimbabwean government and decided that rescinding Mr Mugabe's position was
"in the best interests of" the WHO.
He said he remained "firmly
committed to working with all countries and their leaders" to build
universal health care.
Mr Tedros, elected in May under the
slogan "let's prove the impossible is possible" had said he hoped Mr
Mugabe would use his goodwill ambassador role to "influence his peers in
the region".
But the appointment was met by a
wave of surprise and condemnation. The UK government, the Canadian prime
minister, the Wellcome Trust, the NCD Alliance, UN Watch, the World Heart
Federation, Action Against Smoking and Zimbabwean lawyers and social media
users were among those who criticised the decision.
The BBC's Andrew Harding in
Johannesburg reports that Mr Mugabe's supporters are likely to see this episode
as Western meddling in Africa.
Questions
follow PR disaster
Imogen Foulkes, BBC News, Geneva
Following the storm of criticism
from human rights groups and expressions of dismay from many member states, the
WHO had little choice but to cancel its plan to make Robert Mugabe a goodwill
ambassador.
The about-face will raise questions
over the leadership of the WHO's new director general Dr Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus.
The decision to honour Mr Mugabe is
likely to have been taken several weeks ago, and at no point did Mr Tedros seem
aware that appointing as goodwill ambassador a man who has been accused of
human rights abuses, and of neglecting to the point of collapse his own
country's health service, might be controversial.
The WHO was supposed to be embarking
on a new era of reform. Instead, it is mired in a public relations disaster.
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