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Former US Ambassador Criticizes UN for Promoting Sex Trafficking in Peacekeeping Missions

A former US ambassador accused the United Nations of being among the major promoters of human trafficking in the world by failing to halt sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers.

John Miller, a former U.S. ambassador at large on modern-day slavery who is now a professor, urged the world body to enact real reforms in its peacekeeping department.

A senior official in the U.N. peacekeeping department, Yewande Odia, called the accusations "completely false" and "actually offensive." She said the U.N. has taken action on many fronts to try to end sexual abuse by peacekeepers.

Miller said the abuse by peacekeepers constituted sex trafficking and the U.N. had done too little to implement suggested reforms in a report written after allegations of abuse came to light in 2005.

"It is hard for the United Nations to take the lead in combating human trafficking when it is one of the major promoters of human trafficking in the world,” said Miller, who teaches international affairs at George Washington University.

Allegations of abuse have dogged U.N. peacekeeping missions since their inception over 50 years ago, but the issue was thrust into the spotlight after the United Nations found in early 2005 that peacekeepers in Congo had sex with Congolese women and girls, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money.

Jordan's U.N. ambassador at the time, Prince Zeid al Hussein, wrote a report several months later that described the U.N. military arm as deeply flawed and recommended withholding the salaries of the guilty and requiring nations to pursue legal action against perpetrators.

Odia, chief of the disciplinary and conduct team in the U.N. peacekeeping department, countered that "we've implemented every single thing" in Zeid's report. She noted that the department has set up discipline teams in 10 missions that regulate the conduct of every U.N. peacekeeper. The U.N. has also revised the contract between troop-contributing countries and the U.N. to include prohibitions of sexual abuse, she said. However, the revised contract, which was introduced in December, has not yet been accepted by the troop-contributing countries, Odia said.

They have not only failed to adopt the new contract but in several cases where accusations of sexual misconduct have been confirmed and the U.N. has repatriated peacekeepers, countries have not informed the U.N. if any legal action was taken against them.

Adapted from: "Former U.S. ambassador criticizes U.N. for promoting sex trafficking in peacekeeping missions." International Herald Tribune. 12 April 2007.