NationStates Jolt Archive

I find the following disturbing but unfortunatly not too supprising.My feeling on this is that the soilders involved should be forced to serve their time in a Liberian prison.

GIRLS ABUSE WIDESPREAD
IN LIBERIA
-------------
A report by the aid agency, Save The
Children, says sexual exploitation of
girls by aid workers in Liberia is
still widespread, despite international
promises to stamp out such abuse.

Save The Children said workers for
local and international aid agencies in
Liberia were trading food for sex.

It said UN peacekeeping soldiers,
government officials and teachers were
also demanding sex from girls, some as
young as eight years old.

The UN promised to put safeguards in
place after sexual abuse in the refugee
camps of west Africa was first exposed
four years ago.

I've heard of these stories before and yea, they are pretty disturbing.

Edit: I have a huge amount of respect for NZ peacekeepers (and most peacekeepers in general). I've read lots about how they are rebuilding schools, bridges and whatever else in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's really great work they do.

Promises are not enough as we see.where are the sanctions?
it s same in everywhere:(

PEACE! (i hope)

Promises are not enough as we see.where are the sanctions?
it s same in everywhere:(

PEACE! (i hope)

How can you sanction the UN? :confused:

How can you sanction the UN? :confused:
you can't. :(

I've heard of these stories before and yea, they are pretty disturbing.
The problem is that even if caught these people will probably be given the opertunity of serving time in their own countries instead of the country were the abuse took place.Now while I realise Liberia is a hellhole I believe they should serve the sentence where they committed the crime.

I heard this on the news this morning, and I was appalled. All this is is an abuse of power within a culture that has sadly learnt that they have to 'give' to receive. This is a terrible world. :mad:

How can you sanction the UN? :confused:
what is the reason of found of UN? if it is for better humanistic conditions should't it have it's own sanctions? where is the PEACE?

what is the reason of found of UN? if it is for better humanistic conditions should't it have it's own sanctions? where is the PEACE?

The UN does have its own sanctions. They just don't WORK.

then what is the meaning of sanctions if they don't work? then what is the meaning of UN? there are lots of wrongs :(

*raises one eyebrow*

Where did this organisation called Save the children came from?


One wonders if it just might be one of those groups out to generally damage the UN.

*raises one eyebrow*

Where did this organisation called Save the children came from?


One wonders if it just might be one of those groups out to generally damage the UN.

They have been around for ages. There's been a shop in Croydon run by them for years. Its a charity which I think is British but am not sure.

They have been around for ages. There's been a shop in Croydon run by them for years. Its a charity which I think is British but am not sure.


Fair enough, I suppose.

Rather then jumping on the 'the UN is evil' bandwagon- I'd prefer to see the makeup of these troops. Where are they from? Are they subcontracted out? (i.e African Union troops) Is it sporadic individuals or is it a policy from some offical?

Details children, details.

Rather then jumping on the 'the UN is evil' bandwagon- I'd prefer to see the makeup of these troops. Where are they from? Are they subcontracted out? (i.e African Union troops) Is it sporadic individuals or is it a policy from some offical?

Details children, details.

Save The Children said workers for
local and international aid agencies in
Liberia were trading food for sex.

It said UN peacekeeping soldiers,
government officials and teachers were
also demanding sex from girls, some as
young as eight years old.

Seems like its a wide spread problem ranging from locals to the United Nations.

Seems like its a wide spread problem ranging from locals to the United Nations.
Still didn't answer my question. Who do the troops belong to? Who is doing it? Rather then just blanket it 'the UN'

Are they.... French? Nigerian? American? British? Fijian? Angolan?

Details.

Still didn't answer my question. Who do the troops belong to? Who is doing it? Rather then just blanket it 'the UN'

Are they.... French? Nigerian? American? British? Fijian? Angolan?

Details.

If they were American troops, it would've been all over the news by now so I doubt they are American troops involved.

I believe that one of these cases involved Romanians... The Irish were in the same task force, but didn't get up to anything nasty (well, apparently).

i think theres a list on the UN website about the composition of peacekeeping forces/nations and their military and civilian police personnel contributions...

after checking i found them

the summarys are monthly, and for example (jan 2006)
USA contributed 370 personnel to UN peacekeeping operations, the UK contributed 365, Bangladesh contributed 10,154 (to global un ops, not specifically liberia)

http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/contributors/

is the link to the monthly summaries and other info

if you can find out the name of the peacekeeping operations in liberia you could see which nations have forces over there

** the mission in Liberia is UNMIL ( http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unmil/ )

http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/contributors/2006/march_5.pdf

starts at page 21
15,841 personnel total

even more info!

http://www.unmil.org - the UNMIL's own website
http://www.unmil.org/read.asp?newsID=1272&cat=unmil - article about the abuse story

I'll repeat myself....these are not "UN Peacekeepers" as in the UN trains and employs them.

Here is how it works:
The UN General Assembly and Security Council decide that an area needs help in the form of security forces to stop the fighting and act as a sort of police.
They draft a mission to the area and ask member nations to sign up. All major countries always decline, leaving India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other less developed countries to pick up the tab.

So Nepal (one example of a country where rapist-peacekeepers were from) agrees to help the mission. They pledge a few dozens or hundreds of their own soldiers to take part.

"The UN" only has an indirect influence on this, by providing the framework in which the nations taking part in the mission make their decisions.

On the ground however, it's Nepalese soldiers, not "UN Soldiers" - even though that's the banner they're officially under. It's Nepalese training and discipline that's lacking, not the UN.

If you now began a rant about the insufficient response by the UN to these allegations, go ahead. But you shouldn't blame anyone but the Nepalese military if Nepalese peacekeepers misbehave.

As for Aid Workers, they often have nothing to do with the UN anyways.

My heart goes out to these poor women and girls. :(