UN report on measures protect people from sexual abuse by peacekeepers 

UN: 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 Organisation presented its latest report on special measures to protect people from these crimes on March 4, 2016.


UN Photo/Marie Frechon

In December 2015, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pledged an urgent review of the recommendations made by an independent panel that found the UN 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.

New allegations of sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers in that country continued to emerge, with the UN Mission there, known by its French acronym MINUSCA, recently reporting seven new possible victims in the town of Bambari.

“It is greatly distressing when protectors, in rare instances, turn predators,” the UN Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Atul Khare, told the UN News Centre in an interview.

The report can be downloaded here. 

The next issue of CRJ examines the issue of sexual violence and abuse within the context of conflict, with articles from Dr Dyan Mazurana and Phoebe Donnely of the The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University,USA, and by Alys Brown, project officer with AMAR, who has overseen AMAR’s Escaping Darkness appeal