U.N. To Investigate Child Sexual Abuse Allegations
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Ban said yesterday the United Nations will investigate allegations by a leading children’s charity that U.N. peacekeepers are involved in widespread sexual abuse of children.
The report by Save the Children U.K., based on field research in southern Sudan, Ivory Coast, and Haiti, describes a litany of sexual crimes committed by peacekeepers and international relief workers against children as young as 6.
It said some children were denied food aid unless they granted sexual favors; others were forced to have sex or to take part in child pornography; many more were subjected to improper touching or kissing.
“The report shows sexual abuse has been widely underreported because children are afraid to come forward,” the chief executive of Save the Children UK, Jasmine Whitbread, told Associated Press Television News.
“A tiny proportion of peacekeepers and aid workers are abusing the children they were sent to protect. It ranges from sex for food to coerced sex. It’s despicable.”
