Sex exploitation by UN peacekeepers

MEMBERS of a UN peacekeeping mission engaged in "transactional sex" with more than 225 Haitian women who said they needed it for things like food and medication.
A REPORT obtained by The Associated Press suggests that sexual exploitation remains significantly under reported in such missions.
The draft by the Office of Internal Oversight Services looks at the way UN peacekeeping, which has about 125,000 people in some of the world's most troubled areas, deals with the problem of sexual abuse and exploitation. The report, expected to be released this month, says major challenges remain a decade after a groundbreaking UN report first tackled the issue. The report found about a third of alleged sexual abuse involves minors under 18 and help to victims is "severely deficient". And widespread confusion remains on the ground about consensual sex and exploitation. A year ago, the report says, investigators interviewed 231 people in Haiti who said they'd had transactional sexual relationships with UN peacekeepers. "For rural women, hunger, lack of shelter, baby care items, medication and household items were frequently cited as the 'triggering need'," the report says. "Only seven interviewees knew about the United Nations policy prohibiting sexual exploitation and abuse." None knew about the mission's hotline to report it. Each of those instances of transactional sex, the report says, would be considered prohibited conduct, "thus demonstrating significant under reporting". It was not clear how many peacekeepers were involved. For all of last year, the total number of allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation against members of all UN peacekeeping missions was 51, down from 66 the year before, according to the secretary-general's latest annual report on the issue. The UN prohibits "exchange of money, employment, goods or services for sex", and it strongly discourages sexual relationships between UN staff and people who receive their help, saying they are "based on inherently unequal power dynamics" and undermine the world body's credibility.