Sex abuse by peacekeepers still a problem, says report

A Save the Children report says that efforts to prevent the abuse of children in Haiti, Ivory Coast, and South Sudan are falling short.

from the May 27, 2008 edition

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The UN's own watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, has established field offices in many of the countries where abuse has been reported.

Each mission has a conduct and discipline office, which coordinates a raft of trained staffers in the field who are publicly the first focal point for allegations of abuse.

Peacekeepers and staff preparing for new missions are inducted into the UN's policies and punishments for child abuse.

"A lot has been done, a lot is underway. But the fact is that more needs to be done," says Nick Birnback, public affairs chief at the UN department for peackeeping operations in New York. "We agree that this an important and an underreported problem, and we're doing everything we can on our side to train and monitor our civilian staff."

But according to Heather Kerr, country director of Save The Children in Ivory Coast, the horror of such attacks is followed by a second abuse, that of silence and impunity towards the perpetrators.

The majority of the children interviewed for Tuesday's report, titled "No-one To Turn To," said that they would not report a case of abuse themselves and had never heard of others doing so.

Few here trust local authorities or the aid agencies or peacekeeping missions to sensitively investigate allegations and punish perpetrators.

"It's not just the initial attack, it's the fear of reporting it, the fear of reprisals, the fear of stigma from being identified as someone who has been raped," says Ms. Kerr.

The UN received 371 allegations of sexual exploitation or abuse against children and adults by UN staff in 2006, but figures show that less than half of complaints are resolved within 12 months.

"In recent years, some important commitments have been made by the UN, the wider international community, and by humanitarian and aid agencies to act on this problem," says Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save The Children in Britain. "But welcome as these are, in most cases statements of principle and good intent have yet to be converted into really decisive and concerted international action."

Her organization is calling for a global watchdog agency to be set up to monitor international agencies' efforts to tackle abuse.

The watchdog, which should be in place by the end of this year, the report says, would both monitor and evaluate agencies, confirming that they have appropriate child-protection policies and whether they were being implemented.

In Elizabeth's case, her family reported the rape the next day to the UN peacekeeping office. But no investigation was conducted.

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