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WHO director-general accused of backing genocide

Dr. Tedros (center) during TPLF executive committee meeting


Addis Ababa, December 14, 2020 -   David Steinman, an American economist nominated for Nobel Peace prize in 2019, called for the prosecution of Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), for backing genocide in Ethiopia.

Steinman filed a criminal complaint on December 01, 2020, with the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor charging the chief of the WHO with "responsibility for genocide and crimes against humanity" while he was one of the top Ethiopian official before leaving to lead the WHO.

Dr. Tedros was the Minister of Health from 2005 to 2012 and Foreign Minister of Ethiopia from 2012 to 2016 and a member of the now defunct Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) Executive Committee which controlled Ethiopian federal government until its retreat to Tigray region in 2018.


The ICC complaint, which refers to firsthand witnesses and evidence, asserts that:


1. Dr. Tedros is individually responsible under the Rome Statute’s Article 25 for intentional acts that contributed to the death and injury of thousands of Ethiopians. 


2. Dr. Tedros also is liable under the Rome Statute’s Article 28 (“Superior Liability”) for failing to take reasonable steps to prevent or punish an Ethiopian government policy of genocide and crimes against humanity by security forces, paramilitaries, and civil servants partially under his effective control.


3. Under the “Effects Doctrine,” the ICC has jurisdiction over nationals of non-member states like Ethiopia whose violations injure ICC state parties. 


4. Dr. Tedros’ violations injured state parties to the Statute by increasing refugee flows, causing the waste or abuse of their foreign aid, injuring or traumatizing Ethiopian residents of state parties, causing the kidnapping of a British citizen, and subjecting member states to Covid-related harm that could have been avoided if he had not concealed his criminal past before his WHO election.


The diplomatic immunity normally accorded to senior officials of UN agencies does not shield them from ICC prosecution.


Mr. Steinman called for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to ask the ICC to accept ad hoc jurisdiction over Tedros’ alleged crimes as an additional jurisdictional basis. 


“Tedros was the smiling, public face of a criminal dictatorship. As its third highest official, he shares responsibility for the atrocities on his watch,” Mr. Steinman said. 


The ICC prosecutor will evaluate the complaint and decide whether to investigate. 

If an arrest warrant is issued, Switzerland and the 122 other state parties to the Rome Statute are obligated under the treaty to arrest Dr. Tedros and hand him over to the ICC.

 

“An international criminal runs the world’s most important global health agency,” Mr. Steinman said.


It is to be recalled that on November 04, 2020, Dr. Tedros' TPLF compatriots provoked war against the federal government by attacking the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF).


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