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United Nations Sexual Assault/Harassment Reports on Wikileaks

United Nations Sexual Assault/Harassment Reports on Wikileaks

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February 25, 2009

By Shelley Walden (Whistleblower Typepad)[1]

The website Wikileaks recently posted numerous confidential UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) investigative reports. Certain reports demonstrate how OIOS investigated sexual assault/harassment allegations made by those within and outside the United Nations, including:

  • Allegations made by female employees in the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo of sexual exploitation/rape by a staff member who threatened their continuing employment. OIOS did not fully investigate this case or make a judicial referral due to a lack of corroborating evidence.
  • Sexual harassment and abuse of employees of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). OIOS found insufficient evidence to support the sexual harassment allegations. OIOS then attempted to identify the individual who had leaked the harassment allegations to the British, U.S. and Ethiopian governments. OIOS recommended that the suspected leakers be disciplined and that the Office of Legal Affairs consider initiating a civil suit against a former employee for “damage” caused by this leak.
  • Allegations of sexual harassment by an employee of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The case was initially investigated by two people at UNRWA who had no “formal investigative training” and found no harassment. OIOS subsequently investigated and found that the evidence tended to support the allegations of sexual harassment but not of workplace harassment. Because the harasser had retired, he was not disciplined.
  • 217 allegations of abuse of girls and women by peacekeepers in Eastern Congo against 39 peacekeepers. Of these, only one allegation of sexual exploitation and abuse against an individual peacekeeper was substantiated. It is not clear what disciplinary measures, if any, were taken.

It should be noted that in most of these cases there were multiple complainants, a circumstance that lends substantial credence to the allegations. But even in cases where there were numerous complainants, OIOS rarely found proof of wrongdoing. Even more disturbingly, in the few instances in which OIOS did substantiate sexual assault allegations, it appears that disciplinary measures may not have been taken. This suggests that sexual assailants in the UN can attack with impunity. To address this situation, the UN should reform OIOS (as suggested in two recent studies) and the UN formal justice system and refer prosecution of assault perpetrators to the relevant national authorities for criminal prosecution.

First appeared in Whistleblower Typepad. Thanks to Shelley Walden for covering this issue. Copyright remains the aforementioned.

Source documents:

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UN finds 217 sex abuse claims against blue helmets

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January 14, 2009

The Associated Press (The new York Times)

GENEVA: A United Nations probe collected 217 allegations of abuse of girls and women by peacekeepers in eastern Congo, from sex with teenagers in the back room of a liquor store to threats of "hacking" victims for cooperating with investigators.

The 2006 investigation found many allegations credible and said evidence suggests "frequent and ongoing" sexual exploitation in the region. But it could only establish proof against one of 75 peacekeepers accused of wrongdoing.

Details of alleged incidents dating back to 2004 are summarized in a "strictly confidential" 17-page document.

It is dated Jan. 30, 2007, and was published Wednesday by whistleblower Web site Wikileaks.org. The report has previously been referred to by human rights organizations and the U.N. itself, but not made public. U.N. officials confirmed its authenticity.

Allegations of sex abuse and other crimes have dogged U.N. peacekeeping missions almost since their inception in 1948; the global body has in recent years adopted a "zero tolerance" approach.

The report cited a number of cases where victims may have been pressured or bribed to keep silent. "One victim informed (investigators) that she had received a message from a peacekeeper that he would 'hack them' if he ever saw them again," the report said.

Ten alleged victims, all girls below 18, were living at a liquor store that doubled as a brothel.

The United Nations mission in Congo has 22,000 soldiers and police from dozens of countries. It began in 1999 during a civil war that brought in neighboring countries seeking to exploit Congo's mineral wealth.

It is now the U.N.'s biggest peacekeeping mission and has recently dealt with a conflict partially fueled by festering ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 slaughter of a half-million Tutsis in neighboring Rwanda.

First appeared in The New York Times. Thanks to The Associated Press and The New York Times for covering this document. Copyright remains with the aforementioned. Contact www.nytimes.com for reprint rights.

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United Nations confidential reports

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January 14, 2008

Wikileaks staff writers

Wikileaks has released 70 United Nations investigative reports classified "Strictly Confidential". The reports expose matters from allegations of hundreds of European peace-keepers sexually abusing refugee girls [1] to generals in Peru using Swiss bank accounts to engage in multi-million dollar frauds against the UN.

The bulk of the reports were released today with 17 reports relating to Kosovo having being released on 24 Oct 2008.

A number of the reports are both classified "Strictly Confidential" and have selected regions redacted. Often these redacted regions can be "unredacted" by "cut and pasting" the blanked region. On the description page for each report, where possible, Wikileaks has provided a simple text version of the report that includes the redacted information. A good example is United Nations Procurement Task Force: Interim Report on a Concerned UN Staff Member (PTF-R011-06), 19 Dec 2006, starting page 15.

Since the number reports exceeds the ability of the world press to digest them, we ask that journalists and other investigators take responsibility for those reports immediately before and after the month and day of their date of birth before considering the material at large.

Strictly Confidential Investigation case reports (58)

Strictly Confidential Procurement Task Force reports, 2006-2007 (18)

Strictly Confidential Kosovo corruption reports (17)

All oversight reports (614)

Many of these reports are also available at the United States UN mission, although, interestingly, not generally from the UN itself.

 

  

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