#minusca

Code Blue

The Code Blue Campaign works to end impunity for sexual abuse by un personnel.

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The UN has a longstanding crisis caused, first, by UN personnel who commit sexual offenses against members of the populations they’re intended to serve and against other UN personnel and, second, by the institution’s response—the policies, procedures, and practices that create and sustain an institutional culture of impunity.

We have identified three root causes of the UN’s culture of impunity:

The institution has taken the liberty to manage its crisis internally.

UN senior managers responsible for responding to and deliberating on individual cases are all rendered non-neutral by the conflicts of interest inherent in their positions: each is simultaneously called upon to represent and defend the best interests of the UN, the rights of the Organization’s accused employees and witnesses, and the rights of claimants.

UN immunity makes the Organization’s “words and deeds” uniquely impervious to oversight or audit, shielding its functions and functionaries from external scrutiny and effectively negating the freedom of information that is a cornerstone of due process and a necessary precondition to equal justice for all.

The Code Blue Campaign is concerned with overhauling several UN practices now in place that allow the UN Organization to dismiss and violate claimants’ fundamental rights to due process and neutral justice before the law:

In addressing claims of “sexual exploitation and abuse” and “sexual harassment and assault” made against UN personnel, UN officials consistently misinterpret, misrepresent, and misapply UN immunity (an important legal protection intended to protect the multilateral work of the world body) to shield individual personnel from accountability and the Organization’s officials from reputational damage.

The license to manage its sexual abuse crisis internally has evolved in tandem with the linear, largely unplanned growth of the UN system into a sprawling bureaucracy with many dozens of semi-autonomous “entities” that operate in relative isolation with barely monitored and rarely questioned authority accorded the heads.

This combination of rapid de-centralization and unmonitored, quasi-independence and authority has in turn given rise within the various “entities” to dozens of inharmonious, non-coherent, and often conflicting policies, procedures, and practices for addressing sexual offense claims made against the personnel of those entities.

The result is a non-system in which claimants and accused UN personnel associated with one entity of the UN Organization are subject to policies and procedures that may bear no resemblance to those followed by other entities of the same UN Organization. The only unifying factors across the system are the root causes of the UN’s culture of impunity for sexual offenses: the internal handling of all cases including those in which crimes beyond the UN’s “jurisdiction” are alleged; the misinterpretation and misapplication of UN immunity; and the inherent conflicts of interest underlying every case.

The Code Blue Campaign has arrived at these conclusions through years of intense research. We have exposed several cases that illustrate the injustice, the incoherence, the innate and insurmountable conflicts of interest, and the long history of rights violations and abusive treatment by the UN Organization, primarily of victims but also of the accused. We argue that unjust UN policies and practices have, over decades, resulted in a culture of impunity for sexual “misconduct” ranging from breaches of UN rules to grave crimes. This represents a contravention of the UN Charter. Member States must intervene immediately. The General Assembly could end this crisis by divesting the UN Organization of any role in cases of “sexual misconduct,” and delegating the authority instead to an appropriate entity created, staffed by and reporting directly to the Member States, and entirely independent of the Organization.

Member States have not yet come to the realization that the day of reckoning is approaching. If they do not take the initiative to fully recognize, understand, and solve a problem that has become an attention-getting Achilles heel, the UN’s sexual abuse crisis is likely to reach a pinnacle soon that could hobble the United Nations’ ability and authority to perform any of its functions. The UN could follow in the unenviable footsteps of another enormously powerful, largely secretive global institution whose former heights of moral authority are now universally queried: the Catholic Church.

▻http://www.codebluecampaign.com

Comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects: report of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly

▻https://www.refworld.org/docid/524e97e84.html
#résolution

Taking action on sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers: Report of an independent review on sexual exploitation and abuse by international peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic

Executive Summary

I. Introduction

When peacekeepers exploit the vulnerability of the people they have been sent to protect, it is a fundamental betrayal of trust. When the international community fails to care for the victims or to hold the perpetrators to account, that betrayal is compounded.

In the spring of 2014, allegations came to light that international troops serving in a peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (“CAR”) had sexually abused a number of young children in exchange for food or money (the “Allegations”). The alleged perpetrators were largely from a French military force known as the Sangaris Forces, which were operating as peacekeepers under authorization of the Security Council but not under UN command.

The manner in which UN agencies responded to the Allegations was seriously flawed. The head of the UN mission in CAR failed to take any action to follow up on the Allegations; he neither asked the Sangaris Forces to institute measures to end the abuses, nor directed that the children be removed to safe housing. He also failed to direct his staff to report the Allegations higher up within the UN. Meanwhile, both UNICEF and UN human rights staff in CAR failed to ensure that the children received adequate medical attention and humanitarian aid, or to take steps to protect other potential victims identified by the children who first raised the Allegations.

Instead, information about the Allegations was passed from desk to desk, inbox to inbox, across multiple UN offices, with no one willing to take responsibility to address the serious human rights violations. Indeed, even when the French government became aware of the Allegations and requested the cooperation of UN staff in its investigation, these requests were met with resistance and became bogged down in formalities. Staff became overly concerned with whether the Allegations had been improperly “leaked” to French authorities, and focused on protocols rather than action. The welfare of the victims and the accountability of the perpetrators appeared to be an afterthought, if considered at all. Overall, the response of the UN was fragmented and bureaucratic, and failed to satisfy the UN’s core mandate to address human rights violations.

By examining these failures and recommending reforms to deter future incidents of sexual violence by peacekeepers, this Report provides an opportunity for the UN to chart a new course of action and to undertake meaningful organizational change. If the Secretary-General’s zero tolerance policy is to become a reality, the UN as a whole—including troop contributing countries (“TCCs”)—must recognize that sexual abuse perpetrated by peacekeepers is not a mere disciplinary matter, but a violation of the victims’ fundamental human rights, and in many cases a violation of international humanitarian and criminal law. Regardless of whether the peacekeepers were acting under direct UN command or not, victims must be made the priority.

In particular, the UN must recognize that sexual violence by peacekeepers triggers its human rights mandate to protect victims, investigate, report and follow up on human rights violations, and to take measures to hold perpetrators accountable. In the absence of concrete action to address wrongdoing by the very persons sent to protect vulnerable populations, the credibility of the UN and the future of peacekeeping operations are in jeopardy.

▻https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Independent-Review-Report.pdf

#rapport

#Fondation
#Femme_Plus (Rdc)

Spécialisée en accompagnement psychosocial des personnes vivant avec le #VIH (PVVIH), des personnes affectées par le #Sida (PA) et des #survivantes_des_violences_sexuelles (SVS) et des patients tuberculeux.

▻https://femmeplusrdc.wordpress.com

Innocence en danger. Mouvement mondial de protection des enfants contre toutes formes de #violences notamment sexuelles.

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Innocence en Danger (IED) est un mouvement mondial de protection des enfants contre toutes formes de violences notamment sexuelles, présent dans une dizaine de pays et partenaire d’associations internationales actives dans la lutte contre la pédocriminalité.

Le Directeur Général de l’Unesco, Fédérico Mayor, nomme en 1999, Homayra Sellier Présidente du mouvement de protection mondial de l’enfance. Depuis avril 2000, Innocence en Danger (IED) est une association Loi 1901 en France à vocation internationale. Elle est indépendante de tout organisme, déclarée à la préfecture de Paris, à but non lucratif et reconnue d’intérêt général.

Innocence en Danger regroupe tous les acteurs militants de notre société : spécialistes d’internet, juristes, experts de l’enfance, décideurs des mondes politiques, économiques et médiatiques. Son but est de sensibiliser l’opinion internationale aux fléaux croissants rencontrés par l’enfance, afin de peser sur les décisions des gouvernements.

Innocence en Danger constitue une force d’action, de sensibilisation, de proposition, d’éducation et d’information auprès des organisations gouvernementales ou non gouvernementales, des instances européennes et internationales, des entreprises, des écoles, des collectivités locales, des groupes de jeunes…

Innocence en Danger tient le rôle de relais d’informations entre le public et les institutions publiques. Elle accompagne au quotidien les enfants victimes et le(s) parent(s) protecteur(s). Elle est la première et la seule association à avoir mis en place des séjours de résilience.

▻https://innocenceendanger.org

#violence #violences_sexuelles

Je ne comprends pas bien : l’article évoque bien les affaires impliquant les soldats français, mais la France ne fait pas partie des cinq pays « nommés publiquement par l’ONU ». Pourquoi inaugurer cette « nouvelle règle » avec uniquement des pays non occidentaux ?

D’après ce que je comprends les pays cités par l’onu sont ceux de la MISCA (une mission de l’Onu), mais la France ne fait pas partie de la mission, elle intervient de son côté avec ses propres soldats.
Par ailleurs, des soldats géorgiens de l’EUROFOR sont aussi visés.

Des responsables de l’ONU désignent des pays dont les troupes sont accusées d’abus sexuels en Centrafrique
▻http://www.un.org/apps/newsFr/storyF.asp?NewsID=36535

L’ONU veut suspendre la solde des casques bleus accusés d’abus sexuels

Antonio Guterres, le Secrétaire général de l’ONU, a présenté son nouveau plan pour tenter d’enrayer la vague d’abus sexuels qui a touché les opérations de maintien de la paix en 2016. Mais devant la levée de boucliers suscitée par ses mesures punitives, l’ONU a dû revoir ses ambitions à la baisse.

▻http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20170311-onu-suspend-le-solde-casques-bleus-accuses-abus-sexuels

#ONU #casques_bleues #RCA #Centrafrique #Minusca #viols #viols_de_guerre

Why do some UN peacekeepers rape?

In the first of a four-part series, Al Jazeera examines the accusations of sexual abuse and exploitation against the UN.

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#République_Centrafricaine