Safeguarding children from peacekeeper abuse
Keeping Children Safe and University of Reading launched a global initiative for organisations involved in UN peacekeeping missions to take urgent action to safeguard children from peacekeeper abuse. Despite the UN’s full commitment to a policy of zero-tolerance, cases of sexual exploitation and abuse of some of the world’s most vulnerable children continue to be reported in the context of peacekeeping missions.
Keeping Children Safe sets tough International Child Safeguarding Standards to ensure all organisations protect children from exploitation and abuse. Child safeguarding is the responsibility that organisations have to make sure their staff, operations, and programmes do no harm to children. That is that organisations do not expose children to the risk of harm and abuse, and that any concerns about children’s safety within the communities in which they work, are reported to the appropriate authorities.
Below are some useful resources, project reports, academic articles, media links, and related websites.
Resources
- Freedman, R., Blakemore, S. and Barker, C., Safeguarding Children from UN Peacekeeper Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Liberia, 2017 (PDF)
- Note by the UN Secretary General: Investigation into sexual exploitation of refugees by aid workers in West Africa (Fifty-seventh session, Agenda item 122, 11 October 2002 – PDF)
- Save the Children UK Discussion Paper – From Camp to Community: Liberia study on exploitation of children (PDF)
- Save the Children UK – No One to Turn To: The under-reporting of child sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers and peacekeepers (PDF)
- Secretary-General’s Bulletin: Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, UNHCR (9 October 2003)
- United Nations General Assembly: Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse: a new approach – Report of the Secretary-General
- United Nations Mission In Liberia (UNMIL) Mandate
- UN: Stop Sexual Abuse by Peacekeepers, Human Rights Watch (4 March 2016)
Project Reports
- Keeping Children Safe – Child Safeguarding Standards and how to implement them (PDF)
- Safeguarding Children in UN Peacekeeping Operations: Guide to the Toolkit (PDF)
- Keeping Children Safe – Special Report: Safeguarding children from sexual exploitation and abuse in the context of UN peacekeeping operations (PDF)
- Keeping Children Safe – Seminar Report: Protecting Children from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the context of UN peacekeeping operations: a seminar on good practices by Troop Contributing Countries (PDF)
Academic articles
- Beber et al, ‘Peacekeeping, Compliance with International Norms, and Transactional Sex in Monrovia, Liberia’ (IO 2017) (PDF)
- Boon, ‘The United Nations as Good Samaritan: Immunity and Responsibility’ (Chicago JIL 2016) (PDF)
- Defeis, ‘U.N. Peacekeepers and Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: an End to Impunity‘, Washington University Global Studies Law Review, 2008, Vol. 7 (2) pp.185–212
- Faure, ‘Inside the U.N. Plan to End Sexual Abuse by Peacekeepers’, News Deeply (30 August 2017)
- Freedman and Lemay-Hebert, ‘Jistis ak Reparasyon pou Tout Viktim Kolera MINUSTAH: The United Nations and the Right to Health in Haiti’ (LJIL 2015) (PDF)
- Grady, ‘Disciplinary Offences at the Court Martial’ (Crim L R 2016) (PDF)
- Grady, ‘Sex, Statistics, Peacekeepers and Power: UN Data on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and the Quest for Legal Reform’ (MLR 2016)
- Grady, ‘Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN Peacekeepers: A Threat to Impartiality‘ International Peacekeeping 17 (2). pp. 215-228.
- Jennings, ‘Service, sex, and security: Gendered peacekeeping economies in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, Security Dialogue 2014, Vol. 45(4) pp. 313–330 (PDF)
- Westendorf & Searle, ‘Sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations: trends, policy responses and future directions’, International Affairs (93: 2, 2017 – PDF)
- Whalan, ‘Dealing with Disgrace: Addressing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peacekeeping’, International Peace Institute (3 August 2017 – PDF)
Media
- AP Report Documents Child Sexual Abuse By U.N. Peacekeepers In Haiti, NPR (13 April 2017)
- Anderlini, ‘UN Peacekeepers’ Sexual Assault Problem: How to End It Once and for All’, Foreign Affairs (9 June 2017)
- Freedman, ‘UN Immunity or Impunity? A Human Rights Based Challenge’ (EJIL 2014) (PDF)
- Freedman, ‘How can we hold the UN accountable for sexual violence?’,OUPblog (7 February 2016)
- Freedman, ‘Why do peacekeepers have immunity in sex abuse cases?’, CNN (25 May 2015)
- Jennings, ‘The UN’s Shame: Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peacekeeping’, E-International Relations (21 October 2015)
- Westendorf, ‘WPS, CRSV and sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations: Making sense of the missing links’, LSE blog ( September 2017)
Related websites
- Conduct in UN Field Missions
- Keeping Children Safe
- United Nations Mission In Liberia
- United Nations Peacekeeping: Legal frameworks for deployed contingents
- United Nations Secretary-General – Ms. Jane Connors of Australia – Victims’ Rights Advocate
Original article posted on Reading University website: https://research.reading.ac.uk/peacekeeper-or-perpetrator/safeguarding-children-from-peacekeeper-abuse/
What you can do
Ways to give
Please take a look at the many ways you can support our work. Every donation helps make a difference to a child around the world.
Find out if your organisation could be putting children at risk
Use the Keeping Children Safe free self-assessment tool today.
Is your organisation involved in peacekeeping?
Contact us about implementing the Safeguarding Children in Peacekeeping Toolkit (PDF). The Safeguarding Children in Peacekeeping Project invites collaboration with academic institutions, civil society, military and government actors, particularly organisations advocating for children and women’s rights. Please get in touch to find out more.
