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UN peacekeeping Envoy captured ​having sex in an official car

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The study into the UN mission in the disaster-hit Caribbean country said girls as young as 11 were left pregnant after being sexually abused.

Some of the girls were traded for ‘a few coins’ in order to get food and would have sex with the peacekeepers so they could survive, the British academic-led study found. After their children were born, the young mothers were left to a life of poverty, according to the Times.

After the emergence of the sex tape footage. The United Nations says it is “shocked and deeply disturbed” by footage of an apparent sex act in one of its official cars in Israel.

The clip shows a woman in a red dress straddling a man in the back seat of a white 4×4 with UN markings.

The video, shared widely on social media, was apparently filmed on a main street by Tel Aviv’s seafront. The UN said it was investigating the incident and was close to identifying the individuals seen in the video.

Those involved are believed to be staff members of a peacekeeping organisation in Israel, the UN said.

Another passenger can be seen slumped in the front, but the driver can’t be seen as the car moves away.

Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN’s Secretary General, António Guterres, described the behaviour seen in the 18-second video as “abhorrent”. That kind of behaviour “goes against everything we stand for and having been working to achieve in terms of fighting misconduct by UN staff”, Mr Dujarric told the BBC on Friday.

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When asked if the apparent sex act was consensual or involved payment, Mr Dujarric said those questions were part of the ongoing investigation.

The UN has strict policies against sexual misconduct by its staff members. “We are shocked and deeply disturbed by what is seen on this video,” Mr Dujarric said. He said an investigation led by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services was “moving very quickly”.

Mr Dujarric said the location of the incident was known and identification of the individuals seen in the video was “close to being completed”.

Based on buildings visible in the video, the footage appears to have been captured on HaYarkon Street, a usually busy area parallel to the promenade. “We expect the process to be concluded very quickly and intend to promptly take the appropriate action,” Mr Dujarric said.

Mr Dujarric said the individuals involved were probably assigned to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO), which has served in the region since 1948.

 

UN envoys track record

Soldiers from as many as 12 different countries, including Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Canada and France, were found to have impregnated local women, the report stated.

The UN also knew of charity workers offering refugees food in exchange for sexual favours for more than a decade, it has been revealed.

An 84-page report on ‘food-for-sex’ practices in West African refugee camps was compiled and handed over to the UN in 2002, but was never published.

It claimed that workers at more than 40 aid organisations, of which 15 are major international charities including Save the Children and Médecins Sans Frontières, sexually exploited young refugees.

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It marked yet another aid worker sex scandal in the spotlight. Last June a charities watchdog found Oxfam failed to investigate the sexual abuse of children as young as 12 and ‘lost sight of the values it stands for’, following an 18-month investigation.

The 142-page report investigated Oxfam’s conduct since 2012. It found there were ‘systematic weaknesses’ in its attitude to safeguarding, and there was no up-to-date safeguarding strategy in place as recently as 2018.

This included weaknesses in human resources practices, including on vetting, referencing, recruitment and induction. There was also a failure to consistently hold people to account for poor behaviour and to ensure robust and consistent action was taken, resulting in a culture of tolerance of poor behaviour, the regulator’s investigation concluded.

This was likely to have resulted in putting victims off speaking up. The report found the risk to and impact on victims ‘appeared to take second place at times’ and was not taken seriously enough, and that victims, whistleblowers and staff who tried to raise concerns were let down.

Oxfam was plunged into crisis in February 2018 when it emerged that some of its workers engaged in ‘sex parties’ with prostitutes after the humanitarian disaster in the Caribbean country of Haiti in 2010.

The commission launched its inquiry amid concerns Oxfam may not have fully and frankly disclosed material details about the allegations at the time in 2011, its handling of the incidents since, and the impact these have had on public trust and confidence.

The report said the incidents in Haiti identified in 2011 were not ‘one-offs’, with evidence of behavioural issues as early as June 2010.

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It also found serious allegations of wrongdoing including sexual abuse of children were not fully disclosed. The Charity Commission for England and Wales said there was a ‘culture of poor behaviour’ among Oxfam staff sent to help victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Oxfam sent a team of 230 to help the homeless and starving. Within months, allegations surfaced of senior staff using prostitutes – some of whom may have been under 18.

Roland van Hauwermeiren, head of the charity’s Haiti mission, was accused of paying teenage girls between £70 and £140 a time for sex at his hilltop villa known as the Eagle’s Nest.

Former staff told the Mail earlier this year that Mr van Hauwermeiren, a 68-year-old Belgian, ‘loved young girls’. Instead of being dismissed, he was offered a deal to resign if he co-operated with the investigation. Mr van Hauwermeiren was allowed ‘a phased and dignified exit’ by then Oxfam chief executive, Dame Barbara Stocking. The charity released a statement in August 2011 saying he had voluntarily stepped down because of staff misconduct. Mr van Hauwermeiren became head of mission for Action Against Hunger in Bangladesh from 2012 to 2014.

Despite employment checks, the charity said Oxfam ‘did not share any warning regarding unethical conduct’.


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JohnBosco is a Liberated Mind. Polymath. Incisive Pundit on Governance, Independent Investigative Commentator and a Medic. For any insightful info email [[email protected]]

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