Sexual abuse and rape by U.N. peacekeepers
When Quebec police participating in a U.N. mission in Haïti father children with Haitian women
Several police officers from [the Canadian province of Quebec] have committed acts of sexual misconduct while working for the United Nations in Haïti. Radio-Canada has learned that a few policemen have even fathered children with Haitian women during their U.N. mandate.
“There is a conspiracy of silence. The cases which are not reported are kept secret. These people go back [to their country] and go back to their earlier lives. With no one the wiser”, explains a former policeman with the U.N. mission for the stabilization of Haïti (MINUSTAH).
According to our information, at least two policemen from the ‘Service de police de la Ville de Montréal’ or SPVM (i.e. the Montreal city police) have fathered children while participating in the MINUSTAH mission in Haiti.
One of these men fathered a child with his Haitian housekeeper while on mission in 2013, which contravenes the U.N.’s rules of engagement which forbid sexual relations with residents during deployment. The man, who had a spouse in Canada, was reported by colleagues upon his return to Canada. The SPVM suspended him for nine days and he has since retired and is purported to be assisting the mother of his child in Haïti.
This case and the sanction imposed on the policeman in question have had echoes even so far as the U.N. in New York, which recently published its annual report on allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in the United Nations system. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, stated during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the nine day suspension was a clearly insufficient sanction in response to the actions of this individual in Haïti.
Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations PHOTO : RADIO-CANADAThe nine day suspension is a joke. It really is a joke. It’s insulting. The Canadian government needs to take measures to ensure such things do not happen.
Marie-Yolaine Gilles, militant and colleague of Rosy Auguste
This is an opinion shared by Rosy Auguste, of the ‘Réseau national de défense des droits humains en Haïti’ (National Network for the Defense of Human Rights in Haiti). “Nine days trivialises the life of a child and trivialises the resolution/rule stating that this type of relationship between Haitian women and agents of MINUSTAH [is inappropriate and should not occur]”, she says.
In 2012, another policeman from the SPVM fathered a child during his U.N. mandate in Haïti. The relationship remained secret until the woman decided to lodge a complaint against the policeman, who had ceased paying child support for the child. After investigation the man was suspended for five days. According to our information he still refuses to aid the mother of his child.
These people leave the country and abandon young children. It’s sad. The women don’t have money to eat, so they will definitely not be able to pay for a lawyer to take legal action against this policeman who has left. The objective of the mission is to help the Haitian people, not worsen their situation.
A former policeman of MINUSTAH who knows the case
Since 2010 [Canadian] police deployed in the context of peacekeeping missions have had approximately twenty children in countries around the world; 15 of these were bon in Haïti. The actions of these policemen working for the U.N. have made some Haitian women even poorer than they were before, according to Marie-Yolaine Gilles.
“This increases people’s misery. Haïti is a poor country and this creates a lot of misery because humanitarian money is only passing through. Leaving a child without a father, I think this creates many more problems”, she says.
Abuse and sexual exploitation during U.N. missions
The cases concerning police were reported between 2010 and 2015.
* Sexual abuse refers to sexual assault and sexual exploitation occurirng between adults.
The ‘Sûreté du Québec’ (i.e. Quebec police outside of Montreal) as well
In the last U.N. report on the subject, it was revealed that there was also an officer from the ‘Sûreté du Québec’ or SQ (i.e. the Quebec police outside of the city of Montreal) who engaged in sexual misconduct in Haiti.
The agent was repatriated to Canada last year for having had sexual relations with Hatian women while on mission for the U.N. One of the women filed a complaint. The case is very recent so the individual has not yet had their hearing before the disciplinary board of the SQ, which is expected to take place this July.“We expect exemplary conduct from our police. There are rules which must be followed and which are unique to the role of police deployed within the cadre of humanitarian missions. There have been cases [where these have not been respected]. And it is deplorable.”
Guy Lapointe, spokesman for the ‘Sûreté du Québec’or SQIn 2013, Radio-Canada reported that another SQ agent left Haïti after engaging in sexual misconduct. After returning to Canada he resigned [from the SQ] in order to avoid a disciplinary hearing. “The policeman resigned before his disciplinary hearing and therefore we lost jurisdiction [with regards to the case]”, explained the spokesman for the SQ.
How to avoid having this become commonplace
The ‘Réseau national de défense des droits humains’ (National Network for the Defense of Human Rights) in Haiti denounces the impunity with which MINUSTAH members have acted, an impunity which has existed for years. “We must ensure that this does not become the rule, that soldiers and police cannot father children with women from countries where they are deployed [without consequences].”
A former policeman who participated in a few U.N. missions in Haiti and who desired to remain anonymous revealed that it can be difficult for the United Nations to oversee the actions of police deployed under U.N. mandate.“Canadian police are everywhere in the country. They are not only in the capital. When you have a hundred or so police who are deployed, it becomes difficult to control their actions.”
A former policeman
“This kind of behavior darkens Canada’s image, as well as that of the entire international community”, says Edouard Delaplace, director of legal affairs at ‘Avocats sans frontières Canada’ (i.e. Lawyers Without Borders Canada).
He expresses doubt that Haitian women in such situations will be able to defend their rights. “I have difficulty imagining how a woman in Port-au-Prince who has had a relationship with a Quebec expatriate, or with a Canadian or person of any other nationality, how she would go about defending her rights. How she would go about forcing the person to recognize paternity and thus obtain child support. It would seem to me to be extremely complicated.”
U.N. action
“We have a lot of work to do, a lot of work to do to preserve the credibility of our missions, the credibility of our actions”, says the under-secretary general of the United Nations for peacekeeping operations, El Ghassim Wane.
M. El Ghassim Wane, under-secretary general of the United Nations for peacekeeping operations. PHOTO : RADIO-CANADA
----------------------------------
The problem is of such importance and scale that the U.N. plans to create a special fund to aid victims of sexual misconduct by U.N. personnel in Haïti and elsewhere “so as to mobilize the resources victims need and to provide them with the necessary support whether it is medical, psychological or legal. What we expect from Canada, as well as from other member countries, is support of this action in order to mobilize the resources needed for this fund.”
Canada takes this issue very seriously
The [Canadian] Foreign Affairs Minister refused to grant us an interview on this topic, but did send us the following email declaration:
“Canada takes any allegation of sexual abuse or exploitation or other misconduct on the part of personnel in peacekeeping operations very seriously and will take all appropriate measures once an examination of the facts has been concluded.”
“The U.N. is still in the process of determining the parameters of the fund and has not yet approached member states, including Canada, regarding their contribution. This is a relatively recent proposition of the secretary general which Canada in general supports. Canada will explore the new options recommended by the secretary general to assist victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.”
-----------------------------------
SOURCE (in French, the translation is by OP). OP: A much worse example is below, showing that this is a widespread problem at the U.N.
-----------------------------------Peacekeepers sexually abused 108 girls in Central African Republic: UN
The United Nations on Thursday announced 108 new alleged victims of sexual abuse, the vast majority of them minors, by peacekeepers in Central African Republic, and it called “shocking to the core” a report that three girls said a French military commander forced them to have sex with a dog.
The revelations dramatically widened the scope of a sexual abuse scandal that has persisted for months. France’s U.N. ambassador, Francois Delattre, called the allegations “sickening and odious” and promised “exemplary disciplinary action” if they’re proven true.
The latest allegations, dating from 2013 through last year, were first announced by a U.S.-based advocacy group, AIDS-Free World, late Wednesday. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Thursday told reporters that the U.N. can’t confirm the allegations involving a dog at this point but that investigations continue.
AIDS-Free World said Wednesday night that 98 girls in Central African Republic, also known as CAR, had reported being sexually abused between 2013 and 2015 by perpetrators who have left the country. It also said information on the alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl by a Congolese peacekeeper only three days ago in a hotel room has been turned over to the United Nations.
The United Nations has been in the spotlight for months over dozens of allegations of child rape and other sexual abuses by its peacekeepers, especially those based in Central African Republic, which has faced sectarian violence since 2013. There have been similar allegations against the French force known as Sangaris, which operates independently in CAR.
“We must face the fact that a number of troops sent to protect people instead acted with hearts of darkness,” Dujarric said Thursday.
The U.N. human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, in a statement called the allegations “sickening” and said all three countries whose peacekeepers are accused - Burundi, Gabon and France - have been formally notified. He said governments must do more to stop abuse and hold their troops accountable, “otherwise this awful cycle of abuse will never end.”
Dujarric said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that U.N. actions must be matched by those of member states, “who alone have the power to discipline their forces with real consequences.”
The United Nations has more than 100,000 peacekeepers deployed in 16 missions around the world.
Dujarric said last week that a U.N. team was sent to gather information about recently reported allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by U.N. and non-U.N. forces as well as civilians in Kemo prefecture, east of the capital Bangui, in 2014 and 2015. He said in a note to correspondents late Wednesday that the new allegations went back to 2013 and included allegations against local armed groups.
Dujarric said that for the first time the United Nations would be jointly investigating the allegations with Burundi and Gabon.
The U.N. recently reported that 25 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation were registered with the U.N. mission in Central African Republic in January and February, most from previous years. That compares with a total of six allegations in the 15 other U.N. peacekeeping missions in the first two months of this year, the U.N. peacekeeping department said.
A U.N. report earlier this month said there were 69 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers in 2015 - 22 of them in CAR.
AIDS-Free World called the information it received “shocking.” Two weeks ago, it said, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF interviewed 98 girls who reported being sexually abused.
The group said a delegation from the U.N. peacekeeping mission on Saturday met local leaders and victims who alleged that troops from France and Gabon had sexually abused girls. Some victims left the area because they were stigmatized by the community, it said.
During the delegation’s visit, AIDS-Free World said the three girls reported being tied up inside a camp by a French military commander. After having sex with the dog, the group said, each girl was given 5,000 Central African Francs, or about $9.
One girl told the U.N. human rights officer that a fourth girl who later died of an unknown disease “was called ‘the Sangaris’ dog’ by people in the community.”
AIDS-Free World also said the mother of a 16-year-old girl informed local police in another part of CAR that a Congolese U.N. peacekeeper raped her daughter in a hotel room Monday afternoon.
The group said that when the soldier was questioned by police in the presence of his commander, he confirmed that he “had sexual intercourse” with the victim several times and paid her between 2,000 and 5,000 Central African Francs.
--------------------------------------
SOURCE 2.
OP: This is absolutely horrible. Regarding the police officers from Quebec, I am not surprised because the police here (i.e. I live in Quebec, Canada) are incredibly racist and horrible.
The second article in particular makes me want to quit the human race.
(1) The U.N. recently adopted a resolution regarding sexual abuse by peacekeepers.
(2) More on this at the U.N.'s website.
Several police officers from [the Canadian province of Quebec] have committed acts of sexual misconduct while working for the United Nations in Haïti. Radio-Canada has learned that a few policemen have even fathered children with Haitian women during their U.N. mandate.
“There is a conspiracy of silence. The cases which are not reported are kept secret. These people go back [to their country] and go back to their earlier lives. With no one the wiser”, explains a former policeman with the U.N. mission for the stabilization of Haïti (MINUSTAH).
According to our information, at least two policemen from the ‘Service de police de la Ville de Montréal’ or SPVM (i.e. the Montreal city police) have fathered children while participating in the MINUSTAH mission in Haiti.
One of these men fathered a child with his Haitian housekeeper while on mission in 2013, which contravenes the U.N.’s rules of engagement which forbid sexual relations with residents during deployment. The man, who had a spouse in Canada, was reported by colleagues upon his return to Canada. The SPVM suspended him for nine days and he has since retired and is purported to be assisting the mother of his child in Haïti.
This case and the sanction imposed on the policeman in question have had echoes even so far as the U.N. in New York, which recently published its annual report on allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in the United Nations system. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, stated during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the nine day suspension was a clearly insufficient sanction in response to the actions of this individual in Haïti.
Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations PHOTO : RADIO-CANADAThe nine day suspension is a joke. It really is a joke. It’s insulting. The Canadian government needs to take measures to ensure such things do not happen.
Marie-Yolaine Gilles, militant and colleague of Rosy Auguste
This is an opinion shared by Rosy Auguste, of the ‘Réseau national de défense des droits humains en Haïti’ (National Network for the Defense of Human Rights in Haiti). “Nine days trivialises the life of a child and trivialises the resolution/rule stating that this type of relationship between Haitian women and agents of MINUSTAH [is inappropriate and should not occur]”, she says.
In 2012, another policeman from the SPVM fathered a child during his U.N. mandate in Haïti. The relationship remained secret until the woman decided to lodge a complaint against the policeman, who had ceased paying child support for the child. After investigation the man was suspended for five days. According to our information he still refuses to aid the mother of his child.
These people leave the country and abandon young children. It’s sad. The women don’t have money to eat, so they will definitely not be able to pay for a lawyer to take legal action against this policeman who has left. The objective of the mission is to help the Haitian people, not worsen their situation.
A former policeman of MINUSTAH who knows the case
Since 2010 [Canadian] police deployed in the context of peacekeeping missions have had approximately twenty children in countries around the world; 15 of these were bon in Haïti. The actions of these policemen working for the U.N. have made some Haitian women even poorer than they were before, according to Marie-Yolaine Gilles.
“This increases people’s misery. Haïti is a poor country and this creates a lot of misery because humanitarian money is only passing through. Leaving a child without a father, I think this creates many more problems”, she says.
Abuse and sexual exploitation during U.N. missions
The cases concerning police were reported between 2010 and 2015.
* Sexual abuse refers to sexual assault and sexual exploitation occurirng between adults.
The ‘Sûreté du Québec’ (i.e. Quebec police outside of Montreal) as well
In the last U.N. report on the subject, it was revealed that there was also an officer from the ‘Sûreté du Québec’ or SQ (i.e. the Quebec police outside of the city of Montreal) who engaged in sexual misconduct in Haiti.
The agent was repatriated to Canada last year for having had sexual relations with Hatian women while on mission for the U.N. One of the women filed a complaint. The case is very recent so the individual has not yet had their hearing before the disciplinary board of the SQ, which is expected to take place this July.“We expect exemplary conduct from our police. There are rules which must be followed and which are unique to the role of police deployed within the cadre of humanitarian missions. There have been cases [where these have not been respected]. And it is deplorable.”
Guy Lapointe, spokesman for the ‘Sûreté du Québec’or SQIn 2013, Radio-Canada reported that another SQ agent left Haïti after engaging in sexual misconduct. After returning to Canada he resigned [from the SQ] in order to avoid a disciplinary hearing. “The policeman resigned before his disciplinary hearing and therefore we lost jurisdiction [with regards to the case]”, explained the spokesman for the SQ.
How to avoid having this become commonplace
The ‘Réseau national de défense des droits humains’ (National Network for the Defense of Human Rights) in Haiti denounces the impunity with which MINUSTAH members have acted, an impunity which has existed for years. “We must ensure that this does not become the rule, that soldiers and police cannot father children with women from countries where they are deployed [without consequences].”
A former policeman who participated in a few U.N. missions in Haiti and who desired to remain anonymous revealed that it can be difficult for the United Nations to oversee the actions of police deployed under U.N. mandate.“Canadian police are everywhere in the country. They are not only in the capital. When you have a hundred or so police who are deployed, it becomes difficult to control their actions.”
A former policeman
“This kind of behavior darkens Canada’s image, as well as that of the entire international community”, says Edouard Delaplace, director of legal affairs at ‘Avocats sans frontières Canada’ (i.e. Lawyers Without Borders Canada).
He expresses doubt that Haitian women in such situations will be able to defend their rights. “I have difficulty imagining how a woman in Port-au-Prince who has had a relationship with a Quebec expatriate, or with a Canadian or person of any other nationality, how she would go about defending her rights. How she would go about forcing the person to recognize paternity and thus obtain child support. It would seem to me to be extremely complicated.”
U.N. action
“We have a lot of work to do, a lot of work to do to preserve the credibility of our missions, the credibility of our actions”, says the under-secretary general of the United Nations for peacekeeping operations, El Ghassim Wane.
M. El Ghassim Wane, under-secretary general of the United Nations for peacekeeping operations. PHOTO : RADIO-CANADA
----------------------------------
The problem is of such importance and scale that the U.N. plans to create a special fund to aid victims of sexual misconduct by U.N. personnel in Haïti and elsewhere “so as to mobilize the resources victims need and to provide them with the necessary support whether it is medical, psychological or legal. What we expect from Canada, as well as from other member countries, is support of this action in order to mobilize the resources needed for this fund.”
Canada takes this issue very seriously
The [Canadian] Foreign Affairs Minister refused to grant us an interview on this topic, but did send us the following email declaration:
“Canada takes any allegation of sexual abuse or exploitation or other misconduct on the part of personnel in peacekeeping operations very seriously and will take all appropriate measures once an examination of the facts has been concluded.”
“The U.N. is still in the process of determining the parameters of the fund and has not yet approached member states, including Canada, regarding their contribution. This is a relatively recent proposition of the secretary general which Canada in general supports. Canada will explore the new options recommended by the secretary general to assist victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.”
-----------------------------------
SOURCE (in French, the translation is by OP). OP: A much worse example is below, showing that this is a widespread problem at the U.N.
-----------------------------------Peacekeepers sexually abused 108 girls in Central African Republic: UN
The United Nations on Thursday announced 108 new alleged victims of sexual abuse, the vast majority of them minors, by peacekeepers in Central African Republic, and it called “shocking to the core” a report that three girls said a French military commander forced them to have sex with a dog.
The revelations dramatically widened the scope of a sexual abuse scandal that has persisted for months. France’s U.N. ambassador, Francois Delattre, called the allegations “sickening and odious” and promised “exemplary disciplinary action” if they’re proven true.
The latest allegations, dating from 2013 through last year, were first announced by a U.S.-based advocacy group, AIDS-Free World, late Wednesday. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Thursday told reporters that the U.N. can’t confirm the allegations involving a dog at this point but that investigations continue.
AIDS-Free World said Wednesday night that 98 girls in Central African Republic, also known as CAR, had reported being sexually abused between 2013 and 2015 by perpetrators who have left the country. It also said information on the alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl by a Congolese peacekeeper only three days ago in a hotel room has been turned over to the United Nations.
The United Nations has been in the spotlight for months over dozens of allegations of child rape and other sexual abuses by its peacekeepers, especially those based in Central African Republic, which has faced sectarian violence since 2013. There have been similar allegations against the French force known as Sangaris, which operates independently in CAR.
“We must face the fact that a number of troops sent to protect people instead acted with hearts of darkness,” Dujarric said Thursday.
The U.N. human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, in a statement called the allegations “sickening” and said all three countries whose peacekeepers are accused - Burundi, Gabon and France - have been formally notified. He said governments must do more to stop abuse and hold their troops accountable, “otherwise this awful cycle of abuse will never end.”
Dujarric said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that U.N. actions must be matched by those of member states, “who alone have the power to discipline their forces with real consequences.”
The United Nations has more than 100,000 peacekeepers deployed in 16 missions around the world.
Dujarric said last week that a U.N. team was sent to gather information about recently reported allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by U.N. and non-U.N. forces as well as civilians in Kemo prefecture, east of the capital Bangui, in 2014 and 2015. He said in a note to correspondents late Wednesday that the new allegations went back to 2013 and included allegations against local armed groups.
Dujarric said that for the first time the United Nations would be jointly investigating the allegations with Burundi and Gabon.
The U.N. recently reported that 25 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation were registered with the U.N. mission in Central African Republic in January and February, most from previous years. That compares with a total of six allegations in the 15 other U.N. peacekeeping missions in the first two months of this year, the U.N. peacekeeping department said.
A U.N. report earlier this month said there were 69 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers in 2015 - 22 of them in CAR.
AIDS-Free World called the information it received “shocking.” Two weeks ago, it said, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF interviewed 98 girls who reported being sexually abused.
The group said a delegation from the U.N. peacekeeping mission on Saturday met local leaders and victims who alleged that troops from France and Gabon had sexually abused girls. Some victims left the area because they were stigmatized by the community, it said.
During the delegation’s visit, AIDS-Free World said the three girls reported being tied up inside a camp by a French military commander. After having sex with the dog, the group said, each girl was given 5,000 Central African Francs, or about $9.
One girl told the U.N. human rights officer that a fourth girl who later died of an unknown disease “was called ‘the Sangaris’ dog’ by people in the community.”
AIDS-Free World also said the mother of a 16-year-old girl informed local police in another part of CAR that a Congolese U.N. peacekeeper raped her daughter in a hotel room Monday afternoon.
The group said that when the soldier was questioned by police in the presence of his commander, he confirmed that he “had sexual intercourse” with the victim several times and paid her between 2,000 and 5,000 Central African Francs.
--------------------------------------
SOURCE 2.
OP: This is absolutely horrible. Regarding the police officers from Quebec, I am not surprised because the police here (i.e. I live in Quebec, Canada) are incredibly racist and horrible.
The second article in particular makes me want to quit the human race.
(1) The U.N. recently adopted a resolution regarding sexual abuse by peacekeepers.
(2) More on this at the U.N.'s website.