Yet Another United Nations Agency Totters Into Moral Bankruptcy -- World Health Organization

"The government of Robert Mugabe presided over the dramatic reversal of its population's access to food, clean water, basic sanitation and health care."
"[Mugabe's policies led directly to] the shuttering of hospitals and clinics, the closing of its medical school and the beatings of health workers."
Physicians for Human Rights 

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe delivering a speech on October 7, 2017 in Harare.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past, when Zimbabwe had a thriving economy and its agricultural sector was so productive it was able to feed its population and do a sizeable trade selling its products elsewhere in the world. That was when Zimbabwe was considered to be an African breadbasket, and when most farms were owned and operated by white settler-farmers from Europe whose families operated their farms for generations, employing black Zimbabweans in steady jobs as farm labourers.

And then came a sea change in how Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe viewed the indignity of white Zimbabweans operating these large, productive and successful farming operations, when the government, under its long-time president, Robert Mugabe, was convinced that whatever whites could do, blacks could do even better, and white farmers had their farming properties confiscated, sometimes so violently that they lost their lives in the transformation.

The farms were then handed over to Robert Mugabe's former comrades in the independence movement that saw the country severing its ties with colonialist Britain to become proudly and fully independent. Trouble was, the black Zimbabweans had no experience and little interest in farming and once-productive farms went fallow, while thousands of Zimbabweans lost their employment and the economy slowly sank. Food had to be imported, inflation soared and the civil infrastructure that was once dependable deteriorated.

Robert Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe settled comfortably into his new role as dictator, while the people of Zimbabwe suffered privation and had to accommodate themselves to living in conditions that bore little resemblance to their former prosperity and full employment opportunities. Health care suffered because hospitals and clinics no longer had indispensable equipment and the knowledge to use them to best effect. But Mr. Mugabe wasn't concerned; he went abroad for medical treatment.

And this man who single-handedly ruined his country's economy and stifled the efforts of political opposition to his stranglehold on the government, still rules the country he has destroyed. His wife claims he will never, despite his advanced age, surrender his power, though she is prepared to make a great personal sacrifice by taking over the office from her faltering husband, to rule the country when she isn't in Paris spending a fortune on jewellery and couturier splendours.

Yet this is also the man who was lauded by WHO's newly appointed director-general, Tedros Ghebreyesus at a conference in Uruguay, as a visionary, a man of great governing talent and irreproachable moral fortitude who would be a hugely respected spokesperson for the World Health Organization, appointed as a "good-will ambassador" focusing on non-communicable diseases. President Mugabe, now 93, was pleased to accept the offer.

The new WHO head is the first African to have been appointed to the elite position with the UN health agency. He was educated and trained at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, completing his doctorate in community health at Nottingham University. As Ethiopia's health minister he was credited with furthering his country's commitment to achieving an efficient, modern approach to health services for the people of Ethiopia. He appeared, despite being the first head of WHO not to have a medical degree, to be well suited to the position.

Then came the bombshell when news of the appointment of Mugabe as good-will ambassador to the WHO became public, when sober minds reacted with incredulity at the absurdity of awarding such a post to a man with the well-earned reputation for corruption of Mugabe. Anyone who is anyone in government and concerned with universal health care was shocked into a vociferous response demanding rejection. To the extent that Tedros had no choice but to withdraw the appointment.

To their credit, WHO staff themselves reacted with shock and disdain as one staff member wrote: "Senior WHO staff dumbfounded". Fears were expressed that the credibility of WHO, as well as its funding would be impacted deleteriously, causing "great concern" among WHO staff. A 2009 report compiled by Physicians for Human Rights detailing Mugabe's systematic undermining of the country's health care system excoriated him for the damage he inflicted on Zimbabwe.

Mugabe responded to that report by banning any further reports on the health crisis in his country and simply ignored an explosion that took place of various health epidemics, the end result of which was that life expectancy in Zimbabwe fell, from 1990's 62 years, to 36 years by 2006, with no improvement in the still deteriorating situation since that time.

"It's clear that this was a prize, if not compensation for something", mused UN Watch's Hillel Neuer. "Tedros may have been rewarding Mugabe for his support in nomination to the WHO post."

But, in fact, this aborted appointment reflects in large part the dysfunction of the United Nations and its various arms, in its choices for sensitive posts such as human rights and women's rights, allowing totally inappropriate nations to take their proud seats on bodies sitting in judgement over countries dedicated to upholding human rights while they themselves are prime examples of human rights abusers.

In this particular instance, no fewer than two dozen organizations released a statement damning the appointment; organizations such as the World Heart Federation and Cancer Research U.K. stating their shock and concern. They had, in fact, attempted to convey to Tedros the nature of the ill choice he had made, but failed to convince him at the time of the Uruguay conference.

Changing his mind only when universal condemnation -- with the exception of the African Union supporting Mugabe -- unequivocally slammed Tedros for elevating Mugabe into WHO.