(cross-posted at Cure This)
This morning on National Public Radio, I listened as a broadcaster recited a 40 second news blurb on sexual abuse by humanitarian aid workers against CHILDREN. This is part of it:
U.N. Vows To Intensify Investigation Of Alleged Abuse
U.N. officials said Tuesday will take steps to ensure the safety of children after a new report revealed youngsters are frequently sexually abused by peacekeepers and international aid workers...
(more after the jump)
Save the Children United Kingdom said more than half the children interviewed in war zones and disaster areas knew of cases of coerced sex and improper sexual touching.
In many cases, the children interviewed in southern Sudan, Haiti and the Ivory Coast said they were too afraid to report sexual abuse, the report stated.
Jane Holl Lute, assistant secretary-general for U.N. peacekeeping operations, said improvements must be made in strengthening the complaint mechanism and follow-ups. She vowed to intensify efforts to investigate sexual abuse by peacekeepers.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that the U.N. will make certain its personnel are trained and maintain the highest standards of conduct.
The news reporter mentioned something about aid workers in some instances trading food for sex. And then the news reporter went right on to talk about the next 40 second news clip. And I wanted to vomit.
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I just took a look at the Save the Children United Kingdom site, where I found this very well compiled report:
"No One to Turn To: The under-reporting of child sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers and peacekeepers".
Check it out if you get a chance. The report was compiled after numerous focus groups were conducted. (from the report):
• 38 focus group discussions with a total of 341 people living in chronic emergencies in three countries.This included 129 girls and 121 boys aged between 10 and 17 years, as well as 36 men and 54 women.We also conducted individual in-depth interviews with several of these people
• Meetings with 30 humanitarian, peace and security professionals working at national, regional and international levels.These included staff from within Save the Children UK, other international and national non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governments, and several United Nations (UN) agencies
• Desk-based research on a cross-section of humanitarian, peace and security organisations to understand their policies and procedures and their effectiveness, as well as on the prevalence of allegations and how they are handled
• Desk-based research into existing models of independent performance monitoring and enforcement, and complaints mechanisms from the humanitarian, peace and security, and public service sectors.
And the following questions were asked in the focus groups and meetings:
- How many times have you seen, heard about, or experienced different kinds of sexual exploitation and abuse of children by peacekeepers or aid workers in your community?
- Which children are most vulnerable to this abuse?
- Which humanitarian, peace or security organisations are the perpetrators of abuse most likely to come from?
- Have you ever reported an abuse or have you heard of others in the community doing so?
- How would you report an abuse?
- What other action might you take in response to a case of abuse?
- What are the reasons why someone in your community might not report an abuse?
- What can be done to encourage people in your community to report an abuse?
- What other action should be taken to stop this abuse from happening?
The recommendations are bold, add a good amount of accountability to tough situations, and are well appreciated. But with any issue of this caliber, not only would these recs be a challenge to carry out, the power differential in such situations is hard to overcome.
A note of caution, the report is REALLY tough to read.