An Associated Press investigation revealed in 2017 that more than 100 UN peacekeepers ran a child sex ring in Haiti over a 10-year period and none were ever jailed. The report further found that over the past 12 years there have been almost 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and other U.N. personnel around the world. A.P. found the abuse is much greater than previously known. After the A.P. report, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, urged all countries to hold U.N. peacekeeping soldiers accountable for any sexual abuse and exploitation. As early as 2004, Amnesty Internationalreported that under-age girls were being kidnapped, tortured and forced into prostitution in Kosovo with U.N. and NATO personnel being the customers driving the demand for the sex slaves. The U.N.'s department of peacekeeping in New York acknowledged at that time that "peacekeepers have come to be seen as part of the problem in trafficking rather than the solution".[1][2][3]
Reporters witnessed a rapid increase in prostitution in Cambodia, Mozambique, Bosnia, and Kosovo after UN and, in the case of the latter two, NATO peacekeeping forces moved in. Instances of abuse in Cambodia caused widespread outrage after many of the abused women and girls also ended up contracting HIV/AIDS and other diseases that were not prevalent among the local population.[4] A Kosovo victims support group reported that of the local prostitutes, a third were under 14, and 80% were under 18. Amnesty said the victims were routinely raped "as a means of control and coercion" and kept in terrible conditions as slaves by their "owners"; sometimes kept in darkened rooms unable to go out.[2][5][6] In Haiti, the Sri Lankan peacekeepers wanted girls and boys as young as 12 for sex. "I did not even have breasts," said Victim No. 1, a girl. She reported to UN investigators that from ages 12 to 15 she had sex with over 40 peacekeepers, including someone called "Commandant" who paid her 75 cents. She stated that she slept in UN trucks on the UN base. In Haiti, 134 peacekeepers from Sri Lanka operated the child sex ring, luring children with candy and cash, according to the AP. After a U.N. report incriminated the peacekeepers, most were sent back to Sri Lanka, but none served any jail time.[1][7]
Internal Canadian government documents reports dated 2016 suggest that The United Nations has "glaring gaps" in its procedures for tracking and prosecuting peacekeepers accused of exploitation and sexual abuse, and that only a small fraction of cases may be reported. The Toronto Star obtained the memo which reads in part: "Events in (the Central African Republic) and the data coming out of the (Secretary General’s 2016) annual report point to a system that is lacking in efficiency, transparency and coherency." The memo goes on to say: "Part of the answer to these deficiencies lies in establishing enduring, system-wide structures but the nature of UN governance makes this a challenging endeavor. In addition, as we continue to unpack how member states themselves can better approach this issue from pre-deployment training to punishing perpetrators to victims’ assistance, there must also be a greater willingness by individual countries to examine and address internal shortfalls." In 2016 a UN report named 21 countries that had 69 credible reports of incidents in 2015. It documented 69 allegations in 2015 alone. One briefing note obtained by the Star pointed to "unique, structural factors within the UN system" complicated goals of greater transparency and enforcement. "Although military personnel are covered by military codes of conduct and justice systems, UN police and civilian staff accused of SEA in the field may face only minor disciplinary measures, such as repatriation and being barred from future deployments," the unclassified document reads.[8]
In the 1996 UN study The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, former first lady of Mozambique Graça Machel documented: "In 6 out of 12 country studies on sexual exploitation of children in situations of armed conflict prepared for the present report, the arrival of peacekeeping troops has been associated with a rapid rise in child prostitution."[6]
There was one highly publicised case where members of the UN peacekeeping force were accused of direct involvement in the procurement of sex slaves for a local brothel in Bosnia.[10] The use of agents for procurement and management of brothels has allowed the military to believe itself shielded from the issue of sexual slavery and human trafficking.[citation needed] Some NATO troops and private contractors of the firm DynCorp have been linked to prostitution and forced prostitution in Bosnia and Kosovo, as have some UN employees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they were accused of the sexual abuse of girls.[11][12]
Proponents of peacekeeping argue that the actions of a few should not incriminate the many participants in the mission, yet NATO and the UN have come under criticism for not taking the issue of forced prostitution linked to peacekeeping missions seriously enough.[2][15]
Troops in Haiti, Sudan and Central African RepublicEdit
Most recently, UN troops in Haiti and Sudan have been accused of sexual abuse of children.[16] In 2015, a UN report interviewed over 200 Haitian women—a third of whom were minors—who told they were forced to have sex with UN soldiers in exchange of material aid.[17] In Central African Republic at least 98 girls said they had been sexually abused by international peacekeepers.[18]
UN identified 41 troops from Burundi and Gabon accused of sexual abuse and exploitation in Central African Republic in 2014 and 2015. The identified troops have now left the country.[19]
22 February 2018 – The United Nations has received 40 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse across its entities and implementing partners for the last three months of 2017, including 15 reported from peacekeeping operations, UN Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric announced on Thursday.
7 December 2017 – The relationship between United Nations peacekeepers and civilian staff and the vulnerable people in South Sudan they are working for must be one of mutual trust and confidence, said a senior UN official, noting that instances of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel not only breaks down that relationship, it also destroys the trust communities have in the Organization.
3 November 2017 – Briefing the press at United Nations Headquarters in New York for the first time, the first-ever UN advocate for the rights of victims of sexual exploitation and abuse on Friday highlighted her role to give those who have suffered “visibility” and amplify their voices.
18 October 2017 – Speaking to the press at United Nations Headquarters, in New York, Secretary-General António Guterres announced that he will be travelling to the Central African Republic early next week to draw attention to the fragile situation in the country “that is often far from the media spotlight.”
11 October 2017 – United Nations Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said Wednesday that the UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) reported it had received an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor that took place in Bambari by UN peacekeepers.
29 September – More than 90 United Nations Member States have signed or intend to sign the voluntary compact on preventing and addressing sexual exploitation and abuse, answering the call of Secretary-General António Guterres to address the scourge.
18 September 2017 – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today called on the world to stand in solidarity to condemn sexual exploitation and abuse as he detailed the key initiatives at the heart of his victim-centred approach to address the scourge across the UN system.
18 September 2017 – Pledging to overhaul the United Nations bureaucracy to make the world body stronger and more responsive to the people it serves, Secretary-General António Guterres today launched a pledge of support for reforms that has the backing of 128 countries.
17 September 2017 – Ahead of a high-level United Nations meeting on preventing sexual exploitation and abuse, the Organization's Special Coordinator on the issue is urging global leaders to join the “Circle of Leadership,” lend the political weight of their offices, and act – both at the national and international levels – to eradicate the scourge.
13 September 2017 – While the efforts of the Governments in Africa's Lake Chad Basin have diminished Boko Haram's combat capacity in the region, the terrorist group has changed its tactics, increasing the use of suicide attacks, the top United Nations political official reported to the Security Council today.
23 August 2017 – Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Jane Connors, Australian law professional and long-time human rights advocate, as the first United Nations advocate for the rights of victims of sexual exploitation and abuse.
14 July 2017 – Senior United Nations officials on Thursday underscored the importance of a strong partnership between the Organization and Member States in moving forward with efforts to prevent and address sexual exploitation and abuse.
7 July 2017 – In the ongoing effort to improve the overall performance of United Nations peacekeeping missions, the heads of the armed forces of around 100 countries met at UN Headquarters in New York today to discuss issues such as rapid deployment, training, increasing the number of female peacekeepers, and conduct and discipline.
5 July 2017 – While a number of steps have been taken to address the scourge of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), the former deputy head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) has urged continued vigilance to ensure that the world body’s personnel do no harm while carrying out their duties.
29 May 2017 – Marking International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, Secretary-General António Guterres today said that peacekeeping must have the tools and rules it needs to adapt to the dangerous and challenging environments they face.
22 May 2017 – With United Nations peace operations being carried out in highly complex environments and facing multiple challenges, Secretary-General António Guterres recently stressed the need to adapt peacekeeping to “our changing world.” It is in this context that Jean-Pierre Lacroix took up his post as the new Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations at the beginning of April. The French national, who has more than 25 years of political and diplomatic experience, currently oversees 16 UN peacekeeping operations deployed on four continents.
6 April 2017 – Following his analysis of the report of the High-Level External Independent Review Panel on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by International Peacekeeping Forces in the Central African Republic, former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Jane Holl Lute of the United States as Special Coordinator on improving the Organization’s response to sexual exploitation and abuse, in February 2016.
4 April 2017 – The United Nations Security Council today expressed its support for the efforts of President Faustin Archange Touadera of the Central African Republic (CAR) to restore State authority as well as for the African Union-led mediation initiative to find a political solution to the situation in the crisis-torn country.
4 April 2017 – A “vanguard brigade” of UN Peacekeepers which can be deployed within 60 days to new trouble-spots, would have been “impossible” to envisage just two years ago.
31 March 2017 – The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for another year but reduced the number of troops.
24 March 2017 – United Nations peacekeeping is becoming more agile and capable, the outgoing chief today said, even as the cost for each peacekeeper fell 16 per cent in recent years, dropping the entire budget of the blue helmets worldwide to around $7.2 billion.
9 March 2017 – Underscoring that the United Nations should not be, in any way, associated with the vile and vicious crimes of rape, sexual violence, exploitation and abuse, Secretary-General António Guterres has outlined a new victim-centred approach to prevent and respond to such abuses committed by those serving under the UN flag.
26 January 2017 – Welcoming the progress thus far in negotiations led by Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders, as well as ongoing efforts, the United Nations Security Council today encouraged the sides to “grasp the current opportunity with determination” to secure a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus.
13 January 2017 – Noting that the number of children arriving in Italy by themselves via the sea in 2016 more than doubled over the previous year, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today called for urgent and special measures to protect them from trafficking, exploitation and abuse.
6 January 2017 – The United Nations today announced that it plans to strengthen its approach to preventing and responding to sexual exploitation and abuse by creating a high-level task force that will develop a “clear, game-changing strategy” to achieve “visible and measurable further improvement.”
13 May 2016 – Briefing the General Assembly on the challenges being faced and progress being made to end the exploitation and abuse by United Nations peacekeepers, senior UN officials today indicated that immediate concerns have been focused on providing protection and support to the victims, and reiterated the need for collective efforts to put stronger measures in place to ensure prevention and greater accountability.
18 March 2016 – Speaking with senior United Nations officials who are preparing to be deployed to field missions, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said he holds them all responsible for helping to address sexual exploitation or abuse, and for helping to create a 'zero-tolerance' culture.
4 March 2016 – With 99 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse uncovered by the United Nations in 2015 – 69 of these in countries where peacekeeping operations are deployed – the Organization is today presenting its latest report on special measures to protect people from these crimes.
8 February 2016 – Facing a series of allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today named Jane Holl Lute, an American official with wide-ranging United Nations experience, to coordinate efforts to curb the scourge.
5 January 2016 – The United Nations is investigating new allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse and other misconduct by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR), this time by forces under the world body’s flag, the top UN official there said today, as further steps are being put in place to combat the scourge.
17 December 2015 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today pledged to urgently review the recommendations made by an independent panel that found that the United Nations did not act with the “speed, care or sensitivity required,” when it uncovered information about crimes committed against children by soldiers – not under UN command – sent to the Central African Republic (CAR) to protect civilians.
Now UN peacekeepers stand accused after 612 cases of sex abuse
MORE than 600 women and children claim they are the victims of sexual abuse and exploitation at the hands of United Nations peacekeeping forces sent in to protect them.
The UN has recognised 612 claims of sexual abuse over the past five years
And top officials believe the allegations represent only “the tip of the iceberg”, estimating the true figure to be up to 10 times that amount.
Official UN statistics reveal over the past five years the UN has recognised the claims of 612 women and children who say they were victims of abuse, involving 353 separate claims against UN staff in peacekeeping operations alone.
Some incidents involved multiple women or children claiming they were abused by more than one perpetrator.
In 131 cases the victim said they had been made pregnant by their attacker with many of the mothers being children when they were abused.
Since the beginning of last year a total of 21 of the abuse allegations relate to children, with seven claiming their abuser left them pregnant.
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Antonio Guterres has said the organisation has 'wrestled with the issue for many years'
The UN does not disclose the number of claims that have been dismissed.
Despite there being 561 UN personnel at the centre of these abuse claims over the past five years, just 30 individuals were jailed for having carried out abuses, with even smaller numbers being fined, demoted or sacked.
Last night Andrew MacLeod, visiting professor of war and security studies at King’s College London and former chief of operations at the UN’s Emergency Coordination Centre in Pakistan, demanded UN forces committing sexual crimes in the field should be properly held to account.
He said: “These figures show the damning reality of the situation which is that the UN is not taking these allegations seriously.
“This is only peace operations and we have no visibility over non-peace operations.”
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In 131 cases, the victim said they had been made pregnant by their attacker
He cited a recent estimate carried out by the global sexual abuse charity Hear Their Cries which claimed UN staff could have carried out 60,000 acts of rape, sexual assault and abuse over the past decade.
This estimate is based on previous research on the reporting of sex crimes.
Prof MacLeod added thousands of “predatory” sex abusers specifically target aid charity jobs to get close to vulnerable women and children.
He said: “While some people have disputed this estimate no one has come up with an alternative credible figure, but everyone agrees the official figures are just the tip of the iceberg.”
UN peacekeeping missions have been dogged by allegations of sexual abuse in the past.
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In 2006, peacekeepers in Liberia and Haiti were accused of forcing girls to perform sexual favours
In 2006, peacekeepers in Liberia and Haiti were accused of forcing girls to perform sexual favours in return for food.
Two years later, researchers from Save the Children found UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast, South Sudan and Haiti had raped children as young as 13.
The UK funds approximately 6 per cent of the UN peacekeeping operations and is one of the top 10 contributors to its overall budget.
Under the current rules the UN cannot prosecute UN soldiers. Instead, it is left up to the “troop-providing country”.
UN civilian and police personnel can be referred to the authorities in the country where the alleged crime took place or they may be repatriated to their home country.
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The UN deploys 100,000 uniformed military and police professionals around the world
The UN examines allegations under its “administrative” procedure.
But experts say this lengthy process often sees vital evidence lost or cases fail because of the problems of substantiating claims in a disaster zone.
Prof MacLeod, who has worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Balkans and Rwanda as well as the UN in several countries, called for new legislation between the UN and prosecuting authorities so that all allegations of sex abuse are “immediately referred for criminal investigation in member states”.
He added: “There needs to be a systematic change. I want to see prosecutions by police and the current wilful blind eye become an illegal act of aiding and abetting by negligence.
“In Manila I would stand and watch aid workers meet women and some were apparently under age, but when I reported it, nothing was done.”
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The UK funds approximately 6% of the UN peacekeeping operations
He added: “This is rape and child rape, perpetrated in our name, using our money and it must stop.”
Prof MacLeod stressed that he had not levelled any allegations against the Red Cross, which he said had rigorous training procedures.
The news comes as Oxfam was put under more pressure last week after it was revealed the aid worker at the centre of its sex scandal in Haiti had already been forced out of another British humanitarian agency over claims about his use of prostitutes.
Belgian, Roland van Hauwermeiren, 68, had been investigated by the charity Merlin, now part of Save the Children, after allegations about his sexual behaviour in war-torn Liberia in 2004.
The UN deploys 100,000 uniformed military and police professionals and 95,000 civilians around the world.
Eamonn Holmes shouts at guest over Oxfam scandal
Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General, said the organisation had “wrestled for many years with the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse”.
On its website the UN states that it has been trying to stamp out abuses since 2003 and that in 2014 robust measures had been put in place, such as training and vetting of personnel for prior misconduct, offering support to victims, greater transparency, and the need for member states to become accountable for those who commit acts of sexual exploitation and abuse.
However, in 2015 a leaked internal document which examined UN peacekeeping missions in Congo, Haiti, Liberia and South Sudan described a culture of “impunity”.
Researchers said: “UN personnel in all the missions we visited could point to numerous suspected or quite visible cases of sexual exploitation and abuse not being counted or investigated.”
A UN Peacekeeping spokeswoman said: “Not all forms of misconduct equate to crimes under the national laws of member states.
Children in the Central African Republic alleged that French peacekeepers sexually abused them during a peace-keeping mission called Operation Sangaris. Photograph: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images
The UN’s children’s agency has admitted shortcomings in its humanitarian support to children who allege that they were raped and sexually abused by French peacekeepers in Central African Republic.
A statement by Unicef Netherlands is the first public acknowledgement of the agency’s recent failure to provide support to some of the victims of alleged abuse by peacekeepers in the African nation. It comes as the aid sector and the UN face increasing scrutiny for their failings in managing internal sexual misconduct by their own staff.
Unicef was given the task of overseeing the support for children who said they had been abused by peacekeepers.
But in March last year, an award-winning investigation by Swedish Television’s Uppdrag Granskning (Mission Investigate) revealed that some of the children supposedly in the UN’s care were homeless, out of school and forced to make a living on the streets, despite UN assurances that they would be protected. Unicef’s representative in CAR told the programme that the children were in the agency’s assistance programme for minors and were being supported. He said he was not aware that some were on the streets.
But earlier this month – ahead of a Dutch screening of the programme – Unicef Netherlands admitted to the Dutch television programme Zembla that Unicef had failed in its duty to help some of the alleged victims. But it said that since the programme had first aired, it had taken steps to locate the children featured in the programme and provide them with support.
Marieke van Santen, of Zembla, said she found the Swedish film “astonishing” because the children who were interviewed were known to Unicef, yet they were not being cared for.
Van Santen said: “It is quite shocking to realise that not only once but twice UN agencies have failed to help these victims.”
The statement from Unicef Netherlands was welcomed by Karin Mattisson, a reporter for Mission Investigate. “I hope it makes a difference to the children and gives them strength. They have said they were failed,” said Mattisson.
“I hope they live up to this statement,” she said. “When we investigated the UN and Unicef it was a long journey into their culture of silence.”
Some of the children Mattisson spoke to had given evidence to officials investigating reports of abuse by the French Sangaris peacekeeping force, which was not part of the UN peacekeeping mission, but under UN security council control. Since then, however, other cases of alleged sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers have emerged.
The agency first came under fire for its failure to care for the child victims of alleged abuse in CAR in 2015. An independent panel, which found the UN’s failure to respond to allegations that French peacekeepers sexually abused children in the country amounted to “gross institutional failure” . It also said Unicef and human rights staff in CAR had failed to ensure the children received medical attention and humanitarian aid and “failed to take steps to protect other victims”. Unicef responded by saying it “deeply regretted” the failings.
Before airing the film in the Netherlands, Zembla said it wanted to know if the agency had instigated any changes. “We wanted to understand that, and we also wanted to know what happened after the documentary,” said Van Santen.
The Unicef Netherlands statement, issued to Zembla, said: “First of all: it is horrible what happened in the Central African Republic. Children should never be the victim of abuse, violence and exploitation. It is terrible that this happened and that relief was not enough.”
It said that since March it had “tightened up” sexual abuse reporting and intensified efforts to provide support to victims of sexual exploitation, including medical, psychosocial support and help with food and education. It stressed the “difficult circumstances” of working in CAR, a country of extreme poverty and excessive violence, which has been involved in a long civil war.
“As the largest organisation that provides help to children here, we have a big responsibility. We must continuously watch to do our work as well as possible.”
A statement by Unicef’s HQ said it had followed up with the cases exposed by the Swedish documentary, and provided assistance “where appropriate”.
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