Commission to probe DRC sex abuses

The WHO is setting up a seven-person independent commission to investigate claims of sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers during the recent Ebola outbreak in the DRC. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, an investigation by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The New Humanitarian established that more than 50 women accused aid workers from the WHO and leading charities of demanding sex in exchange for jobs during the 2018-2020 crisis. A report on the News24 site notes that five out of seven of the organisations named in the expose have pledged to investigate. Leading the WHO inquiry will be former Foreign Affairs Minister Aichatou Mindaoudou and Congolese rights activist Julienne Lusenge. ‘The role of the Independent Commission will be to swiftly establish the facts, identify and support survivors, ensure that any ongoing abuse has stopped, and hold perpetrators to account,’ said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.