WHO WILL WATCH THE WATCHMEN?

Organizations that send peacekeepers and aid workers to dangerous places are now facing a new concern: how to ensure the moral integrity of people who are supposed to be helping others. A report this week by the British branch of Save the Children underlines the problem:

• In a study carried out last year in southern Sudan, Haiti and Cote d'Ivoire, Save the Children found widespread sexual abuse of children, some as young as six, by aid workers -- particularly by UN peacekeepers.
• More than half the 250 boys and girls aged 10-17 they interviewed said they knew of such cases.
• The abuse remained widely underreported because most children were too frightened to come forward.

The UN has an unfortunate history of sex scandals, says the Economist:

• After a series of shocking rapes by Nepalese peacekeepers in Congo in 2003, then-UN secretary general Kofi Annan set up a committee to investigate.
• Following the Congo scandal, there have been serious incidents of alleged rape of civilians by UN peacekeepers each year: in Burundi (2004), Sudan (2005), Haiti (2006), Liberia (2006), and Cote d'Ivoire (2007).
• Last year the UN received 748 allegations of misconduct by its peacekeepers, 127 of which involved sexual exploitation and abuse.

The UN is in a difficult situation, because it has no legal jurisdiction over the alleged culprits; it can only dismiss alleged culprits and recommend their repatriation to their home country...

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