Watchdog needed to prevent peacekeeper child abuse, says charity

May 27, 2008, 9:12 GMT

UN peacekeepers take control of the streets in Puerto Principe, Haiti, 08 April 2008. EPA/Kena Betancur

London/Nairobi - A global watchdog is urgently required to help stop aid workers and United Nations peacekeepers sexually abusing children in war zones and disaster areas, a leading British charity said Tuesday.

Save the Children said that the scale of the problem remained 'significant' and that children as young as six were being raped, forced into prostitution and also coerced into swapping sex for food, money, soap and sometimes mobile phones.

'This research exposes the despicable actions of a small number of perpetrators who are sexually abusing some of the most vulnerable children in the world, the very children they are meant to protect,' Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children UK, said.

The charity's report No One To Turn To, which queried hundreds of children in southern Sudan, Ivory Coast and Haiti, found that incidents were being chronically underreported as many children were too afraid to report abuse.

'People don't report it because they are worried that the agency will stop working here, and we need them,' a teenage boy in Southern Sudan told the charity.

UN peacekeepers have been the focus of sexual abuse accusations in recent years, but Save the Children said that exploitation was a problem at all levels in every type of humanitarian organization.

The charity cited a case in Haiti, where a 15-year-old girl told them that aid workers had offered her money for sexual favours.

'My friends and I were walking by the National Palace one evening when we encountered a couple of humanitarian men. The men called us over and showed us their penises,' the girl told the charity.

'They offered us 100 Haitian gourdes (2.8 dollars) and some chocolate if we would suck them. I said no, but some of the girls did it and got the money,' she continued.

Save the Children said that eight of its own staff faced accusations of abuse in 2007 and that three staff were dismissed after the charges were proven.

Whitbread said that while the vast majority of aid workers were not involved in any abuse or exploitation, humanitarian and peacekeeping agencies had to face up to the problem and 'tackle it head on.'

'In recent years, some important commitments have been made by the UN, the wider international community and by humanitarian and aid agencies to act on this problem,' he said.

'But welcome as these are, in most cases statements of principle and good intent have yet to be converted into really decisive and concerted international action,' he added.

The UN said it would study the report, but spokesman Nick Birnback told the BBC that it was impossible to have 'zero incidents' within an organization that has some 200,000 staff serving worldwide.

'What we can do is get across a message of zero tolerance, which for us means zero complacency when credible allegations are raised and zero impunity when we find that there has been malfeasance that's occurred,' he said.

Save the Children also recommended that the UN set up local complaints systems to make it easier to report crimes and also increase investment in tackling the underlying causes of sexual abuse.