UN votes to send home peacekeepers accused of sexual abuse
The UN Security Council has approved a resolution calling for the repatriation of peacekeeping forces whose soldiers face charges of sexual abuse. This is a first of its kind resolution passed by the Security Council to deal with the issue of sex abuse by the peacekeepers. The resolution also requires UN to replace contingents where accusations are not suitably investigated.
UN peacekeeping operations started in 1948. Since then, 69 peacekeeping operations have been deployed by the UN. A total of 120 countries have contributed military and police personnel to UN peacekeeping. There are currently 16 UN peacekeeping operations and one special political mission, deployed on four continents. Of the uniformed personnel, currently 92,695 serving are troops and military observers and about 13,550 are police.
In August 2015, UN envoy to Central African Republic (CAR), Babacar Gaye, was dismissed amid multiple accusations of sexual exploitation by peacekeepers, where a 12-year-old had been raped. In the CAR region, the UN forces were charged with sexually abusing street children in exchange of food. A panel called the UN response to allegations in the CAR "seriously flawed" and a "gross institutional failure".
After CAR, the second highest number of sex crime allegations at the behest of the UN peacekeeping forces came from Congo, with 16 cases, followed by Haiti with nine.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, urged the member countries whose soldiers were guilty of rape and sexual crimes on peacekeeping missions to stop hiding their "crimes and put them on trial." Ban said stringent action against sexual exploitation by peacekeepers was "a number one priority". He asked the member nations to exhibit "greater institutional responsibility" by probing and punishing their troops.
The UN report on sexual crimes by peacekeepers showed that there were "69 claims against peacekeepers in 2015, up from 52 in 2014 was 66 in 2013." Almost one-third of the 2015 claims came from the Central African Republic. Overall, 10 peacekeeping missions were named in the 2015 allegations. The accusations involved international police, military personnel, other staff and volunteers.
