"The UN is fairly toothless when it comes to punishing its peacekeeping personnel," Ann-Marie Orler, former director of the Joint UN police forces, told Swedish national broadcaster SVT.
According to her, the whole UN peacekeeping operations system is built in a way that makes unnecessary publicity and prosecutions against UN staff self-harmful. The peacekeeping operations are in effect and upheld by the UN's 193 member states, which contribute money and personnel. The whole system is dependent on over 100,000 people participating each year. To accuse a country of involvement in child abuse would therefore entail political consequences and potentially drain the UN of both money and workforce.
Additionally, UN personnel enjoy immunity and cannot be tried in the country where they operate, whereas the UN itself does not have legal mechanisms to convict anyone. If a case involves solders or policemen, the accused are sent to their respective home countries, where there is a large risk of losing both witnesses and evidence. Civilians, on the other hand, are investigated by the UN itself and only risk administrative punishment, which amounts to employment termination at worst.
However, the very scope of the abuse no longer allowed any cover-ups. Earlier in March, the UN announced decisive action on this matter, with its new Secretary-General António Guterres placed the fight against abuse under the UN flag as one of the organization's priorities.
Sexual exploitation and abuse have no place in our world. Let's root out this scourge, put victim rights and dignity first. pic.twitter.com/Q38n5Qsb0v
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) 9 марта 2017 г.
However, many of the UN's efforts to curb the problem are only for show, assistant professor Sabrina Karim of the Cornell University argued in an interview with Finnish national broadcaster Yle. One of the UN's recurring proposals to stop abuse is to include more women among peacekeepers, which would also boost the UN's gender profile. Opponents of the idea venture that enlisted men therefore wouldn't need to look elsewhere for sex.
"The responsibility of putting a stop to this should not be vested in women, but on men who commit crimes. Women should not be charged with controlling the behavior of their colleagues," Sabrina Karim told Yle.
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