The United Nations peacekeeping mission to Haiti has allegedly participated in widespread sexual exploitation and assault of women and children since first arriving in Haiti in 2004, according to a report by the non-profit group 100 Reporters. The two-part report focuses on the actions of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, which in 2013 accounted for over one-quarter of all sexual violence allegations against U.N. peacekeepers worldwide. In general, the report found that sexual exploitation and assaults by U.N. peacekeepers are largely under-reported due to the poverty, displacement and vulnerability of the populations the peacekeepers are sent to protect. Perpetrators enjoy impunity for sexual violence because they generally cannot be prosecuted in the country where the crime occurred; at most, the accused peacekeeper is sent home.
Compiled from: Klarreich, Kathie, United Nations in Haiti: When Protectors Turn Predators, 100 Reporters (January 12, 2015); Armstrong, Lisa, United Nations in Haiti: Justice Invisible for Survivors of Rape, 100 Reporters (January 2015).