{"id":55710,"date":"2015-03-23T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=55710"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:55","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:55","slug":"contradictions-beset-u-n-response-to-sexual-abuse-by-peacekeepers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/contradictions-beset-u-n-response-to-sexual-abuse-by-peacekeepers\/","title":{"rendered":"Contradictions Beset U.N. Response to Sexual Abuse by Peacekeepers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The leaked report evaluated risks to Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse prevention efforts of U.N. Missions in Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and South Sudan. Credit: UN Photo\/Albert Gonz\u00e1lez Farran<\/p><\/div>\n

An internal United Nations expert report released Monday [16 Mar 2015] by the non-governmental organisation AIDS-Free World reveals serious contradictions in the U.N.\u2019s reporting of sexual exploitation and abuse by U.N. peacekeepers.<\/p>\n

The leaked expert team report, dated Nov. 3, 2013, begins by stating,\u00a0\u201cSexual Exploitation and Abuse has been judged the most significant risk to U.N. peacekeeping missions, above and beyond other key risks including protection of civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n

AIDS-Free World<\/a>, which released the report<\/a>, is\u00a0concerned it \u201ccontains valuable material that differs profoundly from the Secretary-General\u2019s own annual report on progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon released his 2015 update<\/a> on Feb. 13.<\/p>\n

Some of the key issues highlighted by AIDS-Free World include problems with the way the U.N. collects information about sexual exploitation and abuse by U.N. peacekeepers; delays in action taken which lead to effective impunity for U.N. peacekeeping personnel; and what the expert\u2019s report described as \u201ca culture of extreme caution with respect to the rights of the accused, and little accorded to the rights of the victim.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an open letter<\/a> addressed to \u201cAmbassadors of All United Nations Member States\u201d sent Monday, AIDS-Free World wrote,\u00a0\u201cWe know that the UN has never disseminated the Expert Team\u2019s Report. We therefore suspect that few if any governments are aware that independent experts, commissioned by the Secretary-General, made pointed criticisms about the way sexual violations in UN peacekeeping missions are handled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are releasing the Report today because we believe it contains valuable material that differs profoundly from the Secretary-General\u2019s own annual report on progress. It should be seen by all the Member States of the United Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inadequate reporting mechanisms<\/strong><\/p>\n

IPS spoke with Paula\u00a0Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World, who said that the expert team that compiled the 2013 report had the required expertise to address the complex problem of abuse by U.N. peacekeepers and asked pressing questions.<\/p>\n

Donovan explained that by contrast, the secretary-general\u2019s recent report used inadequate and incomplete reporting mechanisms that didn\u2019t account for the complexities of addressing an institutional culture of impunity towards sexual exploitation and abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach year the secretary-general is required to report to the General Assembly on how he is doing. Are these special measures for protection against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse working? Are we getting closer to zero [cases]?\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the expert team reported that were a number of reasons for underreporting of sexual exploitation and abuse and that \u201cU.N. personnel in all the missions we visited could point to numerous suspected or quite visible cases of SEA that are not being counted or investigated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.N. does not know how serious the problem of SEA [sexual exploitation and abuse] is because the official numbers mask what appears to be significant amounts of underreporting of SEA,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Donovan said that the secretary-general\u2019s focus on reporting a decrease in the number of allegations was problematic for a number of reasons.\u00a0\u201cOne thing that people who understand these issues know is that when numbers go down, it doesn\u2019t necessarily indicate that incidents have gone down. It may be a lack of confidence in the reporting process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donovan added that experts on sexual violence would advise that, \u201cwhen you put a programme in place that actually begins to prevent and punish sexual exploitation and abuse, one indicator that your programme is working is that people feel safe enough to come forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that U.N. peacekeepers were working \u201cto protect the most vulnerable people on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many reasons, therefore, victims of sexual assault may not feel confident to come forward, particularly if \u201cthey fear that the system doesn\u2019t work, that justice will never be served and that they may be in a worse situation than if they hadn\u2019t reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you make it clear to people that you can demonstrate that it is a safer decision to report than to stay silent, that\u2019s an indication that your programme is working,\u201d Donovan siad.<\/p>\n

Donovan added that the U.N.\u2019s focus on reporting \u201callegations\u201d as against actual cases meant that its reporting bears no resemblance to reality.<\/p>\n

She also added that the numbers reported by the secretary-general were incomplete as well as inaccurate, because they did not include data from UNICEF, which has its own separate reporting mechanism.<\/p>\n

Hopes for high-level review <\/strong><\/p>\n

There are hopes that the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations will help find practical solutions to issues of impunity and transparency within U.N. Peace Operations, including those raised in this report.<\/p>\n

Noting that the review panel was not entirely independent, given one of it\u2019s members had been simultaneously U.N. under secretary-general in charge of Field Support for the first several months of the panel\u2019s work, Donovan said that she still had hope that the review could address these complex issues.<\/p>\n

Donovan said that Aids-Free World has sent a copy of the expert team\u2019s report to panel chair\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Ramos-Horta and that \u201cif he chooses to independently take this on and insist that the U.N. take this on than there is the possibility of success.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the leadership of Jos\u00e9 Ramos-Horta, it is possible that it won\u2019t just be another panel,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Ramos-Horta shared a link to an article about Sexual Abuse by U.N. Peacekeepers with his more than 30,000 Facebook followers on Mar. 6.<\/p>\n

Lack of U.N. freedom of information policy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Donovan told IPS that when Aids-Free World originally learned that there had been an expert inquiry, they wrote to the U.N. and asked for a copy of the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were told that it was not a public document,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Most governments have quite a clear Freedom of Information policy, which includes ways of categorising classified and unclassified documents. That is not necessarily so for the U.N. so it is unclear why this particular report was not released, Donovan said.<\/p>\n

Asked for a response, the Office of the Spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary-General said in a statement, \u201cThe proposals and initiatives presented to the General Assembly in A\/69\/779 reflect an integrated approach aimed at strengthening prevention, enforcement and remedial action in connection with sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe report also revisits a number of proposals set out in the seminal 2005 Secretary-General report to the GA \u2018A comprehensive strategy to eliminate future sexual exploitation and abuse in the United Nations peacekeeping operations\u2019 which was prepared by a special task force chaired by Prince Zeid Ra\u2019ad Zeid Al-Hussein, then Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Jordan to the United Nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe report included recommendations for holding courts martial in host countries and establishing a trust Fund for Victims. Prevention, combatting and remediating acts of sexual exploitation and abuse are a top priority for the organization and will continue to be focus of sustained efforts to address the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

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