U.N. Peacekeepers Ran a Child Sex Ring in Haiti

The action against sex abuse was late in coming.
¤¤¤¤¤¤
There’s little doubt sexual abuse has become a systemic problem among peacekeepers. To date, there have been over 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse, 300 of those involving children, according to the AP report. But due to legal restrictions, the U.N. is not permitted to punish perpetrators, a responsibility which is left to host countries in places where those governments are often neither capable nor willing to bother.

The U.N first commissioned a report on sexual abuse among its peacekeeping forces more than 10 years ago, but little was done to effectively stop it. In 2016, the U.N. mission in the Central African Republic became embroiled in reports that more than 100 people had faced sexual abuse at the hands of peacekeepers.

Some have accused the U.N. of taking no action in the face of sex abuse reports, what former U.N. investigator Peter Gallo referred to as an “‘out of sight, out of mind’ strategy.” In June 2016, Anders Kompass, a child sex abuse whistleblower at the U.N., resigned in frustration at the U.N.’s failure to adequately respond to allegations.