WUNRN
THE GIRL CHILD
Please see 2 parts of this WUNRN
release.
Direct Link to Report:
No
One to Turn To - The Under-Reporting of Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by
Aid Workers and Peacekeepers
27 May 2008
Save the Children
Children living in countries affected by conflict and natural disaster are being sexually exploited and abused by the very people hired to help them - aid workers and peacekeepers. Almost as shocking is the general silence surrounding the abuse. Children and their families are not speaking out because of fear and powerlessness. And international organisations are failing to respond effectively to allegations of abuse levelled against them.
No One to Turn To seeks to move the debate on and reinvigorate efforts to address this appalling problem. Based on research with communities and international organisations, it examines the chronic under-reporting of abuse and the inadequate response to it. It provides new analysis on why this abuse persists despite international efforts to stop it, and proposes new solutions to tackle it.
Download No One to Turn To (English version)
Download No One to Turn To (French version)
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International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/28/america/abuse.php
UN
to Investigate Report of Peacekeepers Sexually Abusing Children
May 28, 2008
UNITED NATIONS, New York: The United Nations will investigate allegations by a leading children's charity that UN peacekeepers were involved in widespread sexual abuse of children, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said.
The report, released Tuesday by Save the Children UK, was based on field research in southern Sudan, Ivory Coast and Haiti. It describes a litany of sexual crimes committed by peacekeepers and international relief workers against children as young as 6 years old.
According to the report, some children were denied food aid unless they granted sexual favors; others were forced to have sex or to take part in child pornography; many more were subjected to improper touching or kissing.
"The report shows sexual abuse has been widely underreported because children are afraid to come forward," Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children UK, said.
"A tiny proportion of peacekeepers and aid workers are abusing the children they were sent to protect. It ranges from sex for food to coerced sex. It's despicable."
Calling the sexual exploitation of minors a "very serious issue," Ban reiterated to reporters that he has a "zero tolerance" policy for UN personnel who engage in such behavior.
"I think that the report is very valuable and does give us some good points to which the United Nations should continue to address this issue," Ban said Tuesday. "On all these cases which have been raised, we will very carefully investigate" and will take "necessary measures" where appropriate.
Earlier, a UN spokeswoman, Michele Montas, praised the report. "It's fair, and I think it's essentially accurate," she said.
Abuses have been reported in peacekeeping missions ranging from Bosnia and Kosovo to Cambodia, East Timor, West Africa and Congo. The issue moved into the spotlight after the United Nations found in early 2005 that peacekeepers in Congo had sex with Congolese women and girls, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money.
Several month later, Jordan's UN ambassador at the time, Prince Zeid al-Hussein, wrote a report that described the UN military arm as deeply flawed. He recommended withholding the salaries of the guilty and requiring nations to pursue legal action against perpetrators.
In response, the UN adopted a zero tolerance policy toward sexual exploitation and abuse, and a universal code of conduct. The UN requires training for all peacekeepers, but punishment for offenders is left to individual countries.
Montas said the report stated that the UN had already undertaken steps designed to tackle the problem, from establishing conduct and discipline units in all UN missions to strengthening training for all categories of UN personnel. She said the UN also needed to strengthen its investigative capacity.
The study was based on research, confidential interviews and focus groups conducted last year. The charity emphasized that it did not produce comprehensive statistics about the scale of abuse but did gather enough information to indicate the problem was severe.
The report said that more than half the children interviewed knew of cases of sexual abuse and that in many instances children knew of 10 or more such incidents carried out by aid workers or peacekeepers.
The Save the Children UK researchers, who met with 129 girls and 121 boys between the ages of 10 and 17, as well as with a number of adults, found an "overwhelming" majority of the people interviewed would never report a case of abuse and had never heard of a case being reported.
The threat of retaliation, and the stigma attached to sex abuse, were powerful deterrents to coming forward, the report said.
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