Outrage after Mugabe appointed as WHO goodwill ambassador
geneva— The World Health Organisation (WHO) should overturn its decision to appoint of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador, global health leaders said on Saturday, describing the move as unjustifiable and wrong.
The British government said Mugabe’s appointment was “surprising and disappointing” and added that it risked overshadowing the WHO’s global work.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the appointment at a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Uruguay on Wednesday.
The meeting was attended by Mugabe, 93. He is blamed in the West for destroying his country’s economy and numerous human rights abuses during his 37 years leading the country as either president or prime minister.
In a speech, Tedros praised Zimbabwe as “a country that places universal health coverage and health promotion at the centre of its policies to provide health care to all”.
The former Ethiopian health and foreign minister, who was elected last May as WHO’s first African director-general, added: “Today I am also honoured to announce that President Mugabe has agreed to serve as a goodwill ambassador on NCDs for Africa to influence his peers in his region to prioritise NCDs.”
But the NCD Alliance, which represents 28 international health > WHO made Mugabe as a goodwill envoy on non-communicable diseases (NCDs). > Given his long track of human rights violations , global health leaders called on the world body to reverse its decision. > The NCD Alliance, seeking to groups seeking to combat chronic diseases, said it was “shocked and deeply concerned” to hear of the appointment, given Mugabe’s “long track record of human rights violations”.
Jeremy Farrar, a leading global health specialist and director of the Wellcome Trust charity also said combat chronic diseases, was also shocked and deeply concerned over the appointment. > The British government says Mugabe’s appointment was ‘surprising and disappointing’ > WHO director-general continues to defend his appointment the decision was “deeply disappointing and wrong” and called on Tedros to be brave and reverse it.
“Robert Mugabe fails in every way to represent the values WHO should stand for and those that Dr Tedros has stood for since becoming DG and has done over many years,” Farrar said. —
World body urged to reverse its decision