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Peacekeepers 'abusing children'
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by Dave Keating | May 27, 2008 at 02:14 am
264 views | 2 Recommendations | 2 comments
A very troubling report has been issued by Save the Children saying that some UN Peacekeepers have been sexually abusing children.
Children as young as six are being sexually abused by peacekeepers and aid workers, says a leading UK charity.
Children in post-conflict areas are being abused by the very people drafted into such zones to help look after them, says Save the Children.
After research in Ivory Coast, southern Sudan and Haiti, the charity proposed an international watchdog be set up.
Save the Children said it had sacked three workers for breaching its codes, and called on others to do the same.
The three men were all dismissed in the past year for having had sex with girls aged 17 - which the charity said was a sackable offence even though not illegal.
Save
the Children said the most shocking aspect of child sex abuse is that
most of it goes unreported and unpunished, with children too scared to
speak out.
Children as young as six are being sexually abused by peacekeepers and aid workers, says a leading UK charity.
Children
in post-conflict areas are being abused by the very people drafted into
such zones to help look after them, says Save the Children.After
research in Ivory Coast, southern Sudan and Haiti, the charity said an
international watchdog should be created to deal with the issue.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 04:25 on May 27th, 2008
Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff.
According to The Guardian newspaper's report on this, the UN pleaded 'bad apples' saying it was only a small minority of its staff. (A repeat of the Abu Graib situation again?)
Yet UN peacekeepers are repeatedly accused both of sexual abuse and corruption and the UN appears weak in its response. Some critics say the UN does not like to criticise the countries that supply peace keeping staff, for fear of alienating them. Yet the UN seems unwilling to put in place any rigorous checks on staff. The Metropolitan Police, accused of racism over the Stephen Lawrence murder, had to acknowledge that it was 'Institutionally racist' (Macpherson Report 1999) and tackle it properly and systematically before things improved. This is what the UN needs to do if it is committed to dealing with sexual abuse adequately.
Any trawl through Google on UN sexual abuse gives a litany of occurrences: yet nothing really happens. I'm glad you highlighted this.
Gerrypops
at 12:48 on May 27th, 2008
It is a disgrace, they should be ashamed, great story