Zimbabwe’s Mugabe picked as ‘goodwill ambassador’
GENEVA » Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has long faced United States sanctions over his government’s human rights abuses. But the World Health Organization’s new chief is making the longtime African leader a “goodwill ambassador.”
With Mugabe on hand, WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus announced the appointment at a conference in Uruguay this week on non-communicable diseases. Dozens of health groups have reacted with shock. Tedros, an Ethiopian who became WHO’s first African director-general this year, said Mugabe could use the role “to influence his peers in his region” on the issue. A WHO spokeswoman confirmed the comments to The Associated Press on Friday.
In his speech, Tedros described Zimbabwe as “a country that places universal health coverage and health promotion at the center of its policies to provide health care to all.”
Two dozen organizations — including the World Heart Federation, Action Against Smoking and Cancer Research U.K. — released a statement slamming the appointment, saying health officials were “shocked and deeply concerned” and citing his “long track record of human rights violations.”
The groups said they had raised their concerns with Tedros on the sidelines of the conference, to no avail. Zimbabwe’s government has not commented.
“The decision to appoint Robert Mugabe as a WHO goodwill ambassador is deeply disappointing and wrong,” said Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, a major British charitable foundation. “Robert Mugabe fails in every way to represent the values WHO should stand for.”
The U.S. in 2003 imposed targeted sanctions, a travel ban and an asset freeze against Mugabe and close associates, citing his government’s rights abuses and evidence of electoral fraud.
U.N. agencies typically choose celebrities as ambassadors to draw attention to issues of concern, but they hold little actual power.