Beware Bogus Stats From "Experts" About UN Sex Abuse
February 14, 2018: We wish to declare, definitively, that the Code Blue Campaign has no affiliation with or respect for the "expertise" being peddled to media outlets by Andrew MacLeod in relation to sexual exploitation and abuse by UN and non-UN humanitarian personnel. We denounce base opportunism and are offended by any attempt to co-opt a crisis. Appropriation of any part of the #MeToo movement for personal glorification and gain is noxious. In discussions of a matter of such grave importance, there is no room for mansplaining, dubious analyses, or fallacious statistics.
Mr. MacLeod claims that UN personnel have committed 60,000 rapes in the last decade. That is a fictitious number drawn from thin air and based on feckless extrapolations. Such irresponsible fearmongering discredits all of us engaged in honest, constructive critiques of the UN’s response to its sexual abuse crisis, and it endangers bona fide efforts aimed at reform. Code Blue joins other advocates and survivors in declaring our own zero tolerance—for bogus, media-amplified assertions that exploit the suffering and pain of women and children. We wish to dissociate our organization from any statements made by Mr. MacLeod, and we sincerely hope that others will recognize the risk and heed this warning.
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AIDS-Free World's Code Blue Campaign to end impunity for sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel. www.codebluecampaign.com
MEDIA CONTACT:
Gill Mathurin, media@aidsfreeworld.org, +1-646-924-1710
(UN Photo / Logan Abassi)