The World Health Organization (WHO) has fired one of its doctors following allegations of sexual assault.
The Associated Press first reported the sexual assault allegations in January. According to the report, Fijian national, Doctor Temo Waqanivalu allegedly assaulted a woman in October of last year, during a conference in Berlin. But this wasn’t the first allegation against him. Senior directors at the WHO reportedly received another complaint years ago.
Waqanivalu was the head of a team researching noncommunicable diseases and was up for a promotion as the regional director of the Western Pacific when news of his alleged sexual misconduct rose.
The WHO has been under fire for reports of sexual misconduct perpetrated by officials in recent years. in 2021, allegations of sexual abuse in Congo during an Ebola outbreak broke. However, the allegations were investigated internally, and found that 21 out of 83 alleged perpetrators were included in the 3-year mission from 2018-2020.
This recent case has not gone unnoticed and the WHO put Waqanivalu on leave after reports of other transgressions like racism and abusive behavior surfaced from other staff.
Finally, the WHO fired Waqanivalu. In an email to the Associated Press, spokeswoman Marcia Poole of the WHO said, “Dr. Temo Waqanivalu has been dismissed from the WHO following findings of sexual misconduct against him and corresponding disciplinary process… Sexual misconduct of any kind by anyone working for WHO — be it as staff, consultant, partner — is unacceptable”
The UN organization is cracking down on these serious allegations. Just last month, Dr. Takeshi Kasai, another regional director in the organization was fired for “findings of misconduct.”