NEWS
Rape by "peacekeepers"

Nothing discredits the United Nations more than the continuing sexual abuse of women and girls by soldiers belonging to its international peacekeeping missions. And yet almost a year after shocking disclosures about such crimes in Congo, far too little has been done to end the culture of impunity, exploitation and sexual chauvinism that permits them to go on.
The whole purpose of these missions is to help countries ravaged by civil or international conflict restore stability, guarantee public security and instill the rule of law. When United Nations peacekeepers rape the people they were sent to protect and coerce women and girls to trade sex for food, as they were found to have done in Congo last winter, they defeat the purpose of their mission and exploit some of the world's most vulnerable people.
The Congo episode became a public scandal last March, after an investigation led by Jordan's U.N. ambassador, Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein, produced a blistering report. In the following weeks, the air at United Nations headquarters was filled with expressions of righteous outrage. The Security Council condemned sexual abuse. United Nations officials promised stricter supervision. Several groups of suspected peacekeepers were returned to their home countries for trial and punishment.
But six months later there has been disappointingly little change in the attitudes that feed such abuse. That was the finding of a new report by Refugees International, an advocacy group that recently visited peacekeepers in Haiti and Liberia. A similar view comes from Prince Zeid, who rightly faults member states for not taking the issue seriously.
The clearest possible message needs to be sent at every level that sexual abuse will not be tolerated, that individual offenders will be prosecuted and punished, and that countries that fail to impose discipline will no longer be allowed to take part in peacekeeping missions.

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