From Africa Recovery, Vol.16 #2-3 (September 2002), page 32

PEACEKEEPING
UN vows to stop sexual exploitation

The head of UN peacekeeping operations, Under-Secretary-General Jean-Marie Guéhenno, has announced that the UN will not tolerate sexual exploitation and trafficking of women and girls by its officers. Addressing a special session of the Security Council in July, he urged countries that contribute soldiers and policemen to UN peacekeeping missions to "take appropriate disciplinary and, if needed, criminal action against their nationals who commit such acts."

His comments come at a time when the UN has been investigating allegations of sexual exploitation of refugee girls by aid workers and peacekeepers in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The charges were made in a report released early this year by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the non-governmental Save the Children (UK).

According to the claims, some of which were contested in subsequent press reports, employees of at least 40 aid organizations and UN agencies denied assistance to refugees, mainly girls between the ages of 13 and 18, unless they submitted to sex. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a team of investigators to West Africa to examine the charges, and the team is expected to present its findings to the General Assembly.

The sheer number of complaints confirms that a "serious problem of sexual exploitation exists" in the three countries, noted the UNHCR/Save the Children report. It noted that the abuse involved "those who are engaged to protect the very children they are exploiting." The UNHCR already has responded by increasing security and international personnel in refugee camps, deploying more female staff and establishing new reporting procedures.

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