In early June, following the UN Secretary-General’s announcement of his intention to establish an External Independent Review of the UN’s handling of child sex abuse allegations against international peacekeepers and broader issues, the UN subsequently indicated that a UN peacekeeper was being investigated for sexual abuse of a minor in eastern Central African Republic. Several days later, media reported that UN peacekeepers in Haiti exchanged food, money and other material goods for sex with hundreds of women, despite rules prohibiting transactional sex, citing an Office for Internal Oversight Services report released publicly on June 15.
On June 3, 2015, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement announcing his intention to appoint an External Independent Review to examine the UN’s handling of allegations of child sex abuse by international peacekeepers in the Central African Republic and ‘the broad range of systemic issues’ in the UN’s response to sexual exploitation and abuse. AIDS-Free World, in welcoming the decision, noted that the Review must truly be independent; that the highest levels of the UN must be examined; and, crucially, that the Review must indeed be a broad examination of the UN’s approach to sexual exploitation and abuse, in order to make its ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy a reality.
On May 29, 2015, AIDS-Free World publicly disseminated previously unreleased internal UN documents, memos, and emails that implicate high-level United Nations officials in ignoring documented child sex abuse by international peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR). The release of these documents bolstered AIDS-Free World’s call as part of the Code Blue campaign for an independent, external review of the UN system’s handling of sexual exploitation and abuse, including the CAR scandal. The widespread media coverage that followed — a selection of which is available here — led to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s announcement of such a review on June 3, 2015. (UN Photo / Sylvain Liechti)
CODE BLUE CAMPAIGN LAUNCH: MEDIA COVERAGE
On May 13, 2015, AIDS-Free World launched Code Blue, a campaign to end immunity for sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers. AIDS-Free World co-directors Paula Donovan and Stephen Lewis were joined at a press conference in New York by Ms. Graça Machel, L.Gen. Roméo Dallaire, Ms. Theo Sowa, and Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury. Read selected media coverage and watch a short video from the launch.
PEACEKEEPER SEX ABUSE IN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
April 29, 2015: The Guardian broke news of reported child sex abuse by soldiers, mainly from France, and also from Chad and Equatorial Guinea who were sent as peacekeepers to war-ravaged Central African Republic. Media from around the world are covering the unfolding saga of sexual violence by soldiers, months of inaction by the UN, nearly a year of inexplicable silence, and the UN’s suspension of the senior staff member who personally alerted French authorities to the crimes, and is now accused of breaching UN protocol by bypassing the UN’s normal diplomatic channels. The internal UN document, which contains detailed firsthand and witnessed sexual abuse reported by young boys to UN staff, was given to The Guardian by AIDS-Free World co-director Paula Donovan. (UN Photo/Albert Gonzalez Ferran).
On March 16, 2015, AIDS-Free World released a leaked Experts’ Team Report on sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping operations, in an open letter to all Ambassadors to the United Nations. The report, which makes pointed criticisms about the way the UN handles sexual exploitation and abuse within mission contexts, differs significantly from the Secretary-General’s own annual report on progress (A/69/779). (UN Photo / JC McIlwane)
