Journalist drags WHO boss to Criminal Court for ‘genocide’ | Abroad

As head of the WHO, Tedros has diplomatic immunity, but according to Steinman, that should not prevent him from prosecuting the Ethiopian. For heads of state, immunity has not been an obstacle to the ICC, but a prosecution of director-general who works for a UN organization has never occurred before.

“Tedros was too much of a part of the system to not have been responsible for the misdeeds committed by government officials,” Steinman said.

Experts wonder how promising the charge is. Without reading the charges, they ask whether Tedros is the right person to prosecute. “Has the specific role of Tedros in those crimes been so great and there are no others with a greater role”, says Göran Sluiter, professor of international criminal law at the University of Amsterdam. Professor of international relations at Tilburg University Mirjam van Reisen agrees.

Tedros is from the Tigray region, where a bloody conflict is now underway between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the current Ethiopian government. The Ethiopian army has accused him of helping local authorities in the rebellious region. Tedros is a member of the TPLF.

Country of origin

Steinman said he has only charged Tedros for the time being because the Ethiopian government issued arrest warrants for other high-ranking Ethiopian leaders during the 1991 to 2018 period when the TPLF was in power in Ethiopia ten days ago. “The ICC does not prosecute people who are also prosecuted in the country where the acts took place.”

According to the journalist, who has long been an adviser to opposition members in Ethiopia, the charges have now been filed because the WHO “cannot be led by a criminal in the moment of a pandemic.”

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