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Friday, 10 February 2023
PALAIS BRIEFING NOTES
Corrected version
WHO’s response in Türkiye and Syrian Arab Republic and update on WHO’s work to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct:
Speakers:
Dr Catharina Boehme, Chef de Cabinet, WHO
Dr Gaya Gamhewage, Director, Department of Prevention and Response to Sexual Misconduct, WHO.
Ms Lisa Mc Clennon, Senior Advisor to the Director-General, WHO Internal Oversight Services.
Dr Margaret Harris, WHO Spokesperson
Briefing remarks: Dr Catharina Boehme, Chef de Cabinet, WHO
I’m here to brief on WHO’s response in Türkiye and Syrian Arab Republic, where WHO has longstanding operations and is now surging with urgency.
With the weather conditions and ongoing aftershocks, we’re in a race against time to save lives and to ensure health access so that people survive. They need shelter, food, clean water and medical care, for injuries resulting from the earthquake, but also for all basic health needs.
Dr Tedros is scheduled to be in the Syrian Arab Republic later today, 10 February, together with Dr Mike Ryan, our Emergencies Executive Director, and Mr Rob Holden, the Incident Manager for the Earthquake Response, to meet with people most affected by the earthquakes and to see how WHO can further support essential health care in these areas.
WHO is supporting the response with immediate dispatch of life-saving medicines and supplies, mental health and trauma response, preparedness and service provision for sanitation, disease surveillance and outbreak prevention, and ensuring continuity of essential health services.
Yesterday, on 9 February, one flight arrived in Türkiye, carrying medical and surgical trauma supplies from our logistics hub in Dubai. Another flight will arrive today in Syria , on Friday 10 February, and a third flight is being planned and is expected to arrive in the Syrian Arab Republic on Sunday.
In total, these 110 metric tons of life-saving supplies will be used to treat and care for 400,000 people. And more will be coming.
On the first day of the earthquake, Monday 6 February, WHO released pre-positioned medical and surgical supplies in the Syrian Arab Republic to 16 hospitals treating survivors of the earthquake in the northwest of the country.
And as we said earlier this week, WHO has released US$3 million from the Contingency Fund for Emergencies for the response in both countries, including for the provision of medical supplies. The WHO Foundation has also launched a campaign to urgently raise funds.
In any emergency -- especially one as massive as this -- we are already thinking about the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse and how to prevent is. And my team will talk more about this later in the presser.
WHO’s response to sexual misconduct
And now, as there has been recent media interest in the topic, we’d like to update you on WHO’s work to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct on behalf of WHO leadership.
After I speak, I’ll hand over to Dr Gaya Gamehewage, director of WHO’s department to Prevent & Response to Sexual Misconduct; and we also have on the line Lisa Mc Clennon, head of the investigations team that handles sexual misconduct cases.
First, I want to reiterate that the Director-General -- and the entire WHO leadership including the three of us here today -- are totally committed to tackling sexual misconduct and we have been addressing the issue for nearly two years.
The work we have been doing – in our field operations, in our headquarters, in our regional offices -- is not always captured in media coverage but it is very real and very tangible throughout WHO - and it is very close to our hearts. Real, lasting change will take time and to start with, it may even look like the situation is getting worse because as confidence in the new system grows, more cases will surface. We see the increase in case reporting as a step forward, and each and every one of the allegations will be investigated promptly, and we will take action.
Over the past 18 months we have been rolling out a comprehensive programme across our entire Organization to drive systemic change: we’ve been strengthening our accountability functions, and have put in place new policies, new protocols and new mechanisms for staff to report cases. We also have a team of especially-trained investigators – the majority of whom are women – who are dedicated to investigating complaints of sexual misconduct.
And we are taking action. Last year, as a result of cases dating back to before 2022 that were substantiated, three staff were dismissed for sexual harassment and one consultant’s contract was terminated for sexual exploitation and abuse. We have a public online dashboard with this ongoing data which you can monitor.
As mentioned, confidence in the new system is growing, and people are coming forward. Last year we received 107 complaints of sexual exploitation, abuse or harassment. 75 investigations were completed, and the remaining complaints are still being investigated. Where cases have been substantiated, we will take action and perpetrators will face grave consequences, including dismissal or summary dismissal.
We are at the beginning of a journey, and we are fully committed to seeing it through. It will take time, as we have said as confidence grows more cases will surface.
Recording of press conference: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1t/k1t3ozyq1s
(On earthquake from 57.30 to 01.06); (On sexual misconduct: from 01.18 to 01.54.)
The webcast for this briefing is available here: https://bit.ly/unog100223
The audio for this briefing is available here: https://bit.ly/3HI1Al2
Additional information:
LINK to PRESS RELEASE: WHO sends health supplies to reach 400 000 people impacted by the earthquakes in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic
· Lifesaving Response to Earthquakes in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic
· Photos for media - journalists can register via this link by clicking on "media registration"
Photographs from the earthquake in Türkiye and Syrian Arab Republic
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