{Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon conducted Yesterday an urgent video conference with the heads of United Nations peacekeeping operations, Force Commanders, and Police Commissioners following a series of revelations alleging abuse by UN \u2018blue helmets\u2019 in the field, Including, most recently in the Central African Republic.}<\/p>\n
Addressing the regular press briefing at the Organization\u2019s Headquarters in New York, UN Spokesperson St\u00e9phane Dujarric confirmed that the Secretary-General had gathered the senior leadership \u201cto speak directly to them\u201d about reports of ongoing sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers while underlining the UN\u2019s policy of \u201czero tolerance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe stressed that zero tolerance means zero complacency and zero impunity and that when allegations are substantiated, all personnel \u2013 whether military, police or civilians \u2013 must be held accountable,\u201d reported Mr. Dujarric.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Secretary-General expressed his resolve to help the affected individuals [and] preserve the integrity of the UN flag,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
In addition, explained the UN Spokesperson, Mr. Ban told the peacekeeping officials that, under the existing guidelines, Heads of Mission were directly accountable for maintaining conduct and discipline within their mission, with the support of the senior mission leadership.<\/p>\n
The UN chief\u2019s conversation with his senior mission leadership follows a series of recent allegations \u2013 revealed earlier this week by the human rights group Amnesty International and concerning actions by UN \u2018blue helmets\u2019 serving with the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) \u2013 of sexual abuse committed by MINUSCA peacekeepers.<\/p>\n
According to Mr. Dujarric, in today\u2019s meeting, the Secretary-General also discussed the importance of prevention, training, risk assessment and risk mitigation, continuous education for and awareness-raising in local communities to stop this problem while calling on the senior leadership of missions to use \u201cevery opportunity to reinforce the message that the United Nations will not abide any misconduct, including sexual exploitation and abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Furthermore, he reportedly noted that Mr. Ban stressed that Troop and Police Contributing Countries are responsible for ensuring that their personnel are properly trained and on mandatory standards of conduct and discipline, and that their peacekeepers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law if found to have committed abuse.<\/p>\n
As part of the UN\u2019s increased scrutiny into the global scourge of sexual abuse in field missions, the Secretary-General has also requested a special session of the Security Council, to take place later this afternoon.<\/p>\n
{{UN News Centre}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon conducted Yesterday an urgent video conference with the heads of United Nations peacekeeping operations, Force Commanders, and Police Commissioners following a series of revelations alleging abuse by UN \u2018blue helmets\u2019 in the field, Including, most recently in the Central African Republic.} Addressing the regular press briefing at the Organization\u2019s Headquarters in New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000069449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-20418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000069449,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20418.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20418.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20418.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20418.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20418.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20418.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000069449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20418"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=20418"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=20418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}