A report released this month by the United Nations found that U.N. workers were allegedly involved in at least 80 cases of rape, sexual assault, and sex trafficking in 2014. Most accusations were targeted at peacekeepers in Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan. The report recommends holding courts-martial in countries where the complaints were made, rather than sending soldiers home, a recommendation that the U.N. General Assembly has ignored in the past. The report also recommended instituting a trust fund to compensate victims of sexual abuse. Civil society organizations have criticized the U.N. for playing down the issue of sexual violence and exploitation by UN personnel, referring to an earlier and unpublished U.N. report that stated, “impunity is more norm than exception.”
Compiled from: Sengupta, Somini, United Nations Workers Accused of Sexual Abuse, The New York Times (March 16, 2015).