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Mugabe’s WHO Job Criticized

Mugabe’s WHO Job Criticized
Mugabe’s WHO Job Criticized

The World Health Organization (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. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the appointment at a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Uruguay on Wednesday, Reuters reported. 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”. But the NCD Alliance, which represents 28 international health 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”. WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said the WHO chief had made the move seeking broad support for the agency’s work. “Tedros has frequently talked of his determination to build a global movement to promote high-level political leadership for health,” he said by e-mail.

 

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