I was wrong, the UN does accomplish a few things

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.

By Mike Pflanz Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the May 27, 2008 edition

Man, Ivory Coast - Half a year before 12-year-old Elizabeth was raped by 10 United Nations peacekeepers, a gathering of the world's humanitarian agencies hammered out promises to end sexual abuse of children by aid staff.

Much more would be done, promised delegates at the Dec. 2006 conference in New York. Investigations would be faster, punishments harsher, codes of conduct strengthened.
But the findings of an investigation released Tuesday by Save The Children suggest that these commitments are still, largely, words on paper.

Of the 341 children in Haiti, South Sudan, and Ivory Coast who spoke to the British agency during its 12 month investigation, more than half reported cases of being coerced into sex, often in return for the very food or protection aid staff or peacekeepers were there to provide.

A third knew of cases of children who had been raped.

Elizabeth (not her real name) knew nothing of the commitments to stop this exploitation as she walked to her mother's fields with her brother early one June morning last year close to Man, 375 miles northwest of Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan.

The men with the blue helmets who called to her from behind the sandbags of their camp's guard position, however, should have known.

The United Nations, to whom they were contracted as peacekeepers, has said repeatedly that it drills into its staff and representatives a code of conduct which explicitly forbids sexual interaction with people under 18.

"They called my little brother over and gave him biscuits," she told The Monitor last week in a village close to Man, as she nervously fiddled with the material of her yellow cotton skirt, her eyes downcast.

"I refused to go, but one man came to me and held me .... I could not flee. They were big men. Afterwards, I ran to my village. I was crying all night ...."

The girl who used to be, according to her aunt, "active and playful" is now withdrawn and fearful. She has dropped out of school, too afraid to leave the security of her parents' village.

She freezes at the sight of the white four-wheel-drive vehicles used by the UN and aid agencies who operate in this once war-torn corner of her country.

[...]

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





.