{"id":23850,"date":"2016-03-12T01:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-03-12T01:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/un-votes-to-send-home-peacekeepers-accused-of\/"},"modified":"2016-03-12T01:00:49","modified_gmt":"2016-03-12T01:00:49","slug":"un-votes-to-send-home-peacekeepers-accused-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/un-votes-to-send-home-peacekeepers-accused-of\/","title":{"rendered":"UN votes to send home peacekeepers accused of sexual abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution calling for the repatriation of peacekeeping units whose soldiers face allegations of sexual abuse.}<\/p>\n

The resolution is the first passed by the Security Council to tackle sex abuse claims against peacekeepers.<\/p>\n

It was passed by 14 of the 15-member body, with Egypt abstaining.<\/p>\n

Last year there were 69 allegations of child rape and other sexual offences by peacekeepers from 10 missions. The number rose from 52 in 2014.<\/p>\n

The allegations involve military personnel, international police, other staff and volunteers.<\/p>\n

Under UN rules, it is up to the country that contributes the peacekeepers to investigate and prosecute any soldier accused of misconduct while serving under the UN flag.<\/p>\n

But the organisation has been criticised for failing to act quickly on sexual abuse allegations made against peacekeepers.<\/p>\n

Drafted by the US, the biggest funder of UN peacekeeping missions, the UNSC resolution endorses a recent decision by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to repatriate military or police units where there’s credible evidence of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

The resolution also calls upon the UN to replace contingents where allegations are not properly investigated.<\/p>\n

Egypt put forward a last-minute amendment that would have added criteria for the repatriation of entire contingents, a move US Ambassador Samantha Power said would have “watered down” the resolution.<\/p>\n

The amendment was backed by Angola, Russia, China, Egypt, Venezuela but fell short of the nine votes needed for approval.<\/p>\n

Some countries have raised concerns that soldiers innocent of any wrongdoing might fall victim to collective punishment.<\/p>\n

Last August, the UN envoy to Central African Republic (CAR), Babacar Gaye, was sacked amid multiple allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers.<\/p>\n

It came after Amnesty International alleged that a 12-year-old girl was raped by a UN peacekeeper.<\/p>\n

The 10,000-strong UN force, deployed in 2014 to help restore order in CAR, has also faced allegations of sexually abusing street children.<\/p>\n

Last December, an independent panel called the UN response to allegations in the CAR “seriously flawed” and a “gross institutional failure”.<\/p>\n

It accused senior UN officials of abusing their authority by failing to take action over allegations of abuse by soldiers from France, Equatorial Guinea and Chad.<\/p>\n

\"There<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution calling for the repatriation of peacekeeping units whose soldiers face allegations of sexual abuse.} The resolution is the first passed by the Security Council to tackle sex abuse claims against peacekeepers. It was passed by 14 of the 15-member body, with Egypt abstaining. Last year there were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","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":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","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":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23850","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=23850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23850"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23850"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}