WHO chief 'rethinking' Robert Mugabe's appointment
The new head of the World Health
Organisation (WHO) is rethinking a plan to appoint Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus's original proposal sparked an outcry.
He had previously praised Zimbabwe for its commitment to public health.
But
Mr Mugabe's critics say Zimbabwe's healthcare system has collapsed
under his 30-year rule, with staff often going without pay while
medicines are in short supply.
It led Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Doug Coltart to take to Twitter to question how the WHO felt about having "a Goodwill Ambassador who destroyed the health sector in his country".
Other
social media users accused the president - who, at 93, has outlived his
country's average life expectancy by more than three decades - of
travelling abroad to receive his own medical treatment.
Dear @WHO— Alex T Magaisa (@Wamagaisa) October 21, 2017
Your new goodwill ambassador presides over a collapsed health system & goes to Singapore for treatment pic.twitter.com/6rontGROXZ
Meanwhile, the UK government described his selection as "surprising
and disappointing" given his country's human rights record, and warned
it could overshadow the WHO's work.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau said he "thought it was a bad April Fool's joke", while the US
state department said it "clearly contradicts the United Nations ideals
of respect for human rights and human dignity".
Zimbabwe's leader has been frequently taken to task over human rights abuses by both the EU and the US.
Other groups who have criticised Mr Mugabe's appointment include the
Wellcome Trust, the NCD Alliance, UN Watch, the World Heart Federation
and Action Against Smoking.
Dr Tedros had said Zimbabwe was a
country that "places universal health coverage and health promotion at
the centre of its policies to provide health care to all".
However, the Ethiopian said on Saturday he was "rethinking his approach in light of WHO values".
Mr
Mugabe was supposed to be goodwill ambassador "to help tackle
non-communicable diseases", which includes things like heat attacks and
asthma.
Dr Tedros is the first African to lead the WHO. He was elected in May with a mandate to tackle perceived politicisation in the organisation.
BBC
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