By Sarah Lafen
Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, North America
Port-au-Prince, HAITI — Over 100 U.N. Peacekeepers stationed in Haiti are implicated in a child sex ring. According to an investigation which focused on the presence of the Peacekeepers across the world over the past 12 years, over 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse by Peacekeepers were reported. From 2004 to 2007 in Haiti, over 134 Sri Lankan Peacekeepers exploited an average of nine children per day. While 144 Peacekeepers were sent home after an internal U.N. report on the abuse, none have been sent to jail.
One teenage Haitian boy said he was gang-raped in 2011 by Uruguayan Peacekeepers who filmed the assault on a cell phone. The report also revealed that dozens of Haitian women were also raped, while dozens of others engaged in “survival sex” with the Peacekeepers. One victim girl told U.N. investigators that from ages 12-15 she had sex with about 50 Peacekeepers, including a “Commandant” who paid her 75 cents.
Haitian lawyer Mario Joseph is working towards getting compensation for victims of a cholera outbreak, which has been linked to Nepalese Peacekeepers, that killed an estimated 10,000 people. Joseph is also trying to get child support for a dozen Haitian women who were impregnated by Peacekeepers. Joseph asked people to “Imagine if the U.N. was going to the United States and raping children and bringing cholera,” noting that “[h]uman rights aren’t just for rich white people.”
U.S. Senator Bob Corker agreed with Joseph, and recalled his own disgust at the hearing of the U.N. sexual abuse cases uncovered last year in Africa. Corker commented that “If [he] heard that a U.N. peacekeeping mission was coming near [his] home in Chattanooga, [he would] be on the first plane out of here to go back and protect [his] family.”
This past March, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced several new measures to help combat sexual abuse by Peacekeepers. However, the report had little impact and never materialized.
This sex-ring scandal comes on the heels of the April 13th vote by the U.N. Security Council to end the Peacekeeping mission in Haiti. On the same day, Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., mentioned the scandal in her remarks to the U.N. Haley asked “[w]hat do we say to these kids? Did these peacekeepers keep them safe?”
The U.N. has no jurisdiction over Peacekeepers, which means the countries who provide the troops are left responsible for their punishment.
For more information, please see:
Telesur — UN Peacekeepers Gave Haitian Kids Snacks to be Part of Sex Ring — 15 April 2017
Foreign Policy — U.N. Peacekeepers Ran a Child Sex Ring in Haiti — 14 April 2017
Independent — UN Peacekeepers in Haiti Implicated in Child Sex Ring — 14 April 2017
Associated Press — AP Exclusive: UN Child Sex Ring Left Victims but no Arrests –12 April 2017
