NationStates Jolt Archive

Ok, so on a larger scale how would you fix the problem? give all females a pistol? Then males can't abuse power?
Yes, give everyone except the seriously mentally ill and violent felons weapons, and after ten years after serving their sentence if the violent felony didn't involve a gun and no one was permanently injured vet them to possibly be able to own a gun again. Would work quite well over the long term. Would also have to be over 16.

Unfortunately how to implement that control is the difficult part. Something has to be done, but at the moment I'm all out of ideas...
Save the children seem to have a couple of ideas. Here's the rundown:

RECOMMENDATIONS

To All
• The Government of Liberia , the UN Senior Management Team in Country and INGOs should work with civil society to create and implement a government-led Ombudsman office that determines appropriate disciplinary and judicial responses to reported incidents. This office should be invested with the authority and resources to effect an immediate and dramatic reversal of current levels of impunity. In order to do this, the group should proactively pursue wide coverage and geographical spread in its ongoing caseload, as well as pursuing and resolving a critical mass of cases within its first six months of existence to publicly demonstrate the workings and consequences of a new zero tolerance policy upheld by all key actors.
• The constitution of this group should have a minimum 50 per cent representation of women and should be initiated immediately. The design of the process should be done in consultation with girls, boys, parents, girl mothers and other vulnerable groups. One of the first activities of this office should be to set up a reporting system that incorporates witness and informant protection.

To the UN Secretariat
• Within the next two months, the Secretary General, the Head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), Emergency Response Co-ordinator and Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG CAAC) should meet to develop a UN Plan of Action that incorporates a thorough analysis of the global extent of the use of humanitarian aid and the role of humanitarian actors and peacekeepers in the exploitation and abuse of children and vulnerable people in post conflict settings and to identify why measures to date have been inadequate to enforce zero tolerance. The plan should be made public within six months and resourced for immediate implementation.

To International Donors
• With immediate effect, donors, including international NGOs, should hold their partners contractually accountable to report all incidents of sexual abuse and exploitation, and action taken, for project reporting periods. Donors should require that the Core Principles of Codes of Conduct are included in all implementing partners’ codes of conduct and should ensure a zero tolerance policy is enacted.
• With immediate effect, donors in emergency and post-emergency settings should require partners to allocate 2−4 per cent of funding for proactive measures to prevent and address sexual abuse and exploitation, and monitor the quality and efficacy of these measures as for other funded project components. Donors should act upon the earlier recommendations made in 2003 to hold their implementing partners contractually accountable to the conduct of their staff world wide.
• The Ombudsman office should be fully funded and resourced through international donors, the UN and the Government of Liberia, if it is able to carry out its functions effectively.
• Over the next 6 months, donors should increase their funding for sustainable community based livelihoods programmes by 50 per cent. Sufficient livelihoods focus is part and parcel of ensuring that rehabilitation and reintegration activities are fully resourced. These livelihoods programmes need to better target girls and young women in order to provide them with viable alternatives to transactional sex.

To the Government of Liberia
• Within 6 months, take steps to effectively implement legislation which prosecutes perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation, including those working in the public sector, such as civil servants, teachers and health workers. All public sector workers should be made aware of and actively held accountable against minimum standards of behaviour which are enshrined in a code of conduct on exploitation and abuse and associated monitoring, whistle-blowing and response mechanisms for the public sector.
• With immediate effect, expand its current policies and government initiatives to go beyond rape to include sexual exploitation and abuse.
• Enact a zero tolerance policy for troops committing exploitation and abuse and ensure
that such individuals are treated through its Ombudsman office.
• Institute a country-wide public awareness campaign on the issue covering extent of the problem, consequences for victims, strategies to reduce exploitation, punitive / judicial consequences for perpetrators of exploitation and abuse in the next 6 months.
• The Government of Liberia, Ministry of Education, Gender and Health should ensure public health messaging and school curriculum should include information on risks of exploitation, as well as alternatives to transactional sex and reporting options.
• Develop and publicise by 31 October 2006 a realistic and resourced plan to improve access to quality secondary education for girls and boys, with clear, regular milestones for demonstrating increasing impact in line with full attainment of all goals by 2009.
• Review selection, gender balance and training of teachers with a view to improving child protection within the school environment.

To Governments Contributing Troops to UN Peacekeeping Missions
• Troop contributing countries should hold accountable those troops who are engaged in the exploitation of children by ensuring they go through judiciary proceedings. They must ensure that any individual under investigation who is found culpable of wrong-doing be immediately removed from the force and must not be rotated elsewhere.

To UN Peace Keepers
• DPKO must reinforce more robust monitoring of troop conduct by reinforcing systems that would feed information directly to the head of the DPKO, the UN Secretariat and to commanders in troop-contributing militaries for follow-through.
• Expand role of the Conduct and Discipline Unit in Liberia and DPKO should design and implement measures to promote meaningful and constructive participation of children and communities in DPKOs conduct monitoring mechanisms.

To Local NGOs
• Improve management of field staff to ensure awareness of and accountability to minimum standards of conduct at all levels.
• Design, resource and implement mechanisms to monitor conduct of staff and contractors and to illicit and respond immediately to concerns raised or cases reported.
• Local NGOs should set up and implement sexual abuse and exploitation codes of conduct and disciplinary procedures for their staff.

To International NGOs
• All international NGOs must undertake a global audit of progress against the recommendations of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) task force on the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse by January 2007. This audit should identify both shortcomings in compliance with the original recommendations, and more broadly what barriers these organisations face to ensure the effective eradication of exploitation and abuse. Audit recommendations should be concrete, time-bound, and be made public.
• INGOs working with children should establish an effective code of conduct which is monitored and enforced and an implementation plan to ensure that all staff, partners and contractors are aware of their duties and responsibilities within it.
• INGOs should develop robust mechanisms to hold local partners accountable to fair and equitable delivery of assistance.
• INGOs should investigate all allegations of staff misconduct relating to sexual exploitation and abuse and take action where cases are proven. All cases should be reported to the relevant government authority.
• Continue to train new staff and staff in partner organisations on the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse.

To UN Agencies
• WFP should review the content and coverage of food ration distributions to remove food-related incentives for transactional sex. All ration cuts must be implemented only according to need rather than in ‘across the board’ decreases or as measures to promote return or other non-food related policies.
• All UN agencies must undertake an audit of progress against the recommendations of the IASC task force on the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse. The findings of audit results should be made public for greater accountability and transparency.
• All UN agencies should do an immediate review of their local partners and field-based staff and do regular checks to ensure local partners are abiding by codes of conduct. These checks should include consultations with communities and should take effect immediately.
• Continue to train new staff on the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse.

The list of things laid down is quite complete. Personally I don't see it happening anytime soon.

How much of this is rape and how much of it is quassi prostitution?
In Liberia, the report is primarily concerned with abuse, not rape. In a way prostitution, if you like.

Though it might be a fine line, there is a line between giving a child more food for sex and the non-consentual act that is rape.

In Liberia, the report is primarily concerned with abuse, not rape. In a way prostitution, if you like.

Though it might be a fine line, there is a line between giving a child more food for sex and the non-consentual act that is rape.

True, but is that any different from prostitution anywhere in the world? The age of the children is of particular intrest to the papers, but theoretically is it any different if the gilrs were 15, 18, 38?

True, but is that any different from prostitution anywhere in the world? The age of the children is of particular intrest to the papers, but theoretically is it any different if the gilrs were 15, 18, 38?

Well, yes. Rape is inherently different from prostitution. Thats why we have the two seperate words to describe the varying situations.

Well, yes. Rape is inherently different from prostitution. Thats why we have the two seperate words to describe the varying situations.

Dear Mongooses,

We were refering to children having sex in exchange for goods/services/food/money, often at the behest of their starving and impoverished families and not rape.

Dear Mongooses,

We were refering to children having sex in exchange for goods/services/food/money, often at the behest of their starving and impoverished families and not rape.

Well, if so, then I apologise.
I garnered from Gravlen and your own post that you were discussing... oh nevermind....

You heard me the first time. It's sodomy, not rape, and they most likely deserved it. Either way, the perpertrators were punished.
7-day forum ban and official warning for advocating sexual violence.

True, but is that any different from prostitution anywhere in the world? The age of the children is of particular intrest to the papers, but theoretically is it any different if the gilrs were 15, 18, 38?
Yes, because children cannot see the ramifications of their decisions, and are lacking the maturity to give informed consent in these cases.

After your 18th birthday, you are supposed to be mature enough and able to take care of yourself properly - and most people are. Younger children, however, are usually not ready to take full responsibility for their actions and should be protected form harming themselves.

It follows that younger children are easier to exploit and are more vulnerable because of their lack of maturity, both physically and emotionally.

So yes. It is, at least in my opinion, a difference and not as bad (though still a problem, make no mistake) if only adults traded sex for goods and services in Liberia.

Well, if so, then I apologise.
I garnered from Gravlen and your own post that you were discussing... oh nevermind....
No worries ;)

May I be blunt? Liberia does not have a working legal code or system, Liberia does not have electricity, clean water, its own police force - except in name. People have been killing each other in the thousands since Freed slaves were returned to Africa under Munroe and probably been doing it for ages before. The simple reality is this, The country has to be fixed, priority number one is reigning in the warlards, two is turning the power back on and getting the water to flow. Three is securing the borders to prevent Taylor's associates and those inclined to use Liberia as a staging ground for regional conflicts from setting up camp.

I'm sorry for the girls, but if, even for a heart beat, attention slips from the other things to this the whole house of cards could collapse around Africa's first female president's poor head. The Troops have been told by their officers, and the will be some action no doubt, but the spead of this particular trait will only be curtailed by Liberians themselves when they are economically and politically secure enough to tackle it.
True on lack of a working system, and true on the second it. It's also true that this is happening in all the other places where we have 'failed states', refugees/internally displaced people, etc etc etfuckingcetera for everywhere there is bad. Doesn't mean it can't be wrong, or that I an't lament it as wong, despite being in almost no way able to intervene or help, barring monetary contributions (to whom I know not).
Anyways, there can be something done about the soldiers. Find who they are, and punish them.

EDIT: Go away for five hours, and there's fourteen extra fricking pages.

It makes me wonder, how do you fix the problems, of the organization that's supose to be there fixing the problems????

well they could quite literaly "fix" the problum....it would keep them from everbeing a problum againm:)

well they could quite literaly "fix" the problum....it would keep them from everbeing a problum againm:)
What?

7-day forum ban and official warning for advocating sexual violence.
You can get banned just for advocating sexual violence? Damn.

May I be blunt? Liberia does not have a working legal code or system, Liberia does not have electricity, clean water, its own police force - except in name. People have been killing each other in the thousands since Freed slaves were returned to Africa under Munroe and probably been doing it for ages before. The simple reality is this, The country has to be fixed, priority number one is reigning in the warlards, two is turning the power back on and getting the water to flow. Three is securing the borders to prevent Taylor's associates and those inclined to use Liberia as a staging ground for regional conflicts from setting up camp.

I'm sorry for the girls, but if, even for a heart beat, attention slips from the other things to this the whole house of cards could collapse around Africa's first female president's poor head. The Troops have been told by their officers, and the will be some action no doubt, but the spead of this particular trait will only be curtailed by Liberians themselves when they are economically and politically secure enough to tackle it.
Africa as a whole is a basketcase. Liberia sounds like Somalia, and even Ivory Coast ( which use to be stable ) has fallen into chaos. It's unlikely to ever happen, but enlightened governments around the world would better serve the "cradle of humanity" by dropping all the stupid, expensive regional conflicts in which they're involved and develop a world-wide effort to salvage what's left of Africa. And yes, I include the American involvement in Iraq in that category. :(

I heard a lot of the Peacekeeping forces are made up of Indians and Brazilians. It's almost like using Red Army troops from the 40s.

Idiot.

India does contribute a lot of manpower to peacekeeping. But it is Bangladesh that is the largest contributer.

ALSO, it is UN AID workers, this news piece is about. Not peacekeepers.

Again, you are an idiot.

*snip*
Now now, relax, he's away on holiday for a couple of days.
And just for the record, the piece is about both aid workers and peacekeepers, but also other groups like teachers and government officials.

Idiot.

India does contribute a lot of manpower to peacekeeping. But it is Bangladesh that is the largest contributer.

ALSO, it is UN AID workers, this news piece is about. Not peacekeepers.

Again, you are an idiot.
Don't waste your time. He's been forumbanned and can't read your response.

Because I have a very low opinion of them. Not just because of the repeated instances of child molestation and rape, but also because there is a history of peacekeepers from different nations not working well together because of political or ethnic disagreements, and peacekeepers being used to settle old scores by some UN personell.

Come on, as deplorable and depressing the incidents of UN personnel doing such things are, they are still less than what would have happened if nobody was there, or a hostile force occupying the area.

You cited the BD and Pak forces not cooperating incident. I can cite the opposite. Indian and Pakistani peacekeepers doing joint operations under blue helmet.

http://www.dawn.com/2005/03/06/top7.htm
Pakistani & Indian troops come together in solidarity


By Jawed Naqvi

NEW DELHI, March 5: Indian and Pakistani soldiers of the UN contingent in Congo came together in exemplary solidarity earlier this month to hunt militants who had killed their Bangladeshi colleagues, it was reported on Saturday.

There were fears though that the soldiers may have violated regulations linked with human rights norms in such deployments as they are believed to have given a "robust response" to the alleged militants.

"After nine Bangladeshi soldiers on a peace-keeping mission in restive Congo were surrounded and killed by rebels last week, their colleagues in the United Nations decided to come up with a robust response," The Indian Express reported from the United Nations headquarters in New York.

"These colleagues happened to be soldiers from India and Pakistan. What followed was a classic operation in which an Indian helicopter supported Pakistani ground troops and ended up killing at least 50 militiamen in Congo's troubled Ituri region."

Don't waste your time. He's been forumbanned and can't read your response.

Small favours in life. :)

Come on, as deplorable and depressing the incidents of UN personnel doing such things are, they are still less than what would have happened if nobody was there, or a hostile force occupying the area.

You cited the BD and Pak forces not cooperating incident. I can cite the opposite. Indian and Pakistani peacekeepers doing joint operations under blue helmet.

http://www.dawn.com/2005/03/06/top7.htm
Yeah, I guess the UN is often the lesser of two evils.

Small favours in life. :)
He's a 17 year old kid. Kids say dumb things. They don't have enough experience to keep dumb opinions to themselves.

Africa as a whole is a basketcase. Liberia sounds like Somalia, and even Ivory Coast ( which use to be stable ) has fallen into chaos. It's unlikely to ever happen, but enlightened governments around the world would better serve the "cradle of humanity" by dropping all the stupid, expensive regional conflicts in which they're involved and develop a world-wide effort to salvage what's left of Africa. And yes, I include the American involvement in Iraq in that category. :(

Africa can't be saved as an entity, its not one great homogenis land mass with nominal borders. Most African countries are sufficienly different from the rest to demand some individual thinking.

Presonally I think that we should start with the countries that it is easiest to repair and they can and will help fix the rest. But then again I'm a Zimbabwean and fixing Zimbabwe's problems really only requires a brief intervention followed by a very busy firing squad. Zimbabwe is the best educated (adult literacy rates and highest % with overseas/local degrees and qualifications per head) of all or African countries, in part because there are only 12-15 million of us and Mugabe for all his vices spent shit loads on teaching during the first 20 years in government until he realised it was creating people who could see he was runing the country badly. - pity it didn't help my spelling.

it is not unheard of to be both German and Australian...
Believe me, it's not as easy as it sounds...

Believe me, it's not as easy as it sounds...

I'm asuming ethnic german raised in Australia as its more difficult to become German than it is to become an Australian. Of course there is also mixed parentage and ancestral claims to nationality.

I'm asuming ethnic german raised in Australia as its more difficult to become German than it is to become an Australian. Of course there is also mixed parentage and ancestral claims to nationality.
One way to do it would be to be the child of German parents, born on holidays in Australia.

Oz has a rule that grants kids born here automatic citizenship, I believe.

Germany, as a rule, doesn't deal in Dual Citizenships. There are some exceptions (for example with Turkey), but they're difficult to use. I'm in that process right now. If I succeed, I will be able to say that I'm officially both.

Until then, I'm just like any other German, I just happen to have a permanent residence visum.

One way to do it would be to be the child of German parents, born on holidays in Australia.

Oz has a rule that grants kids born here automatic citizenship, I believe.

Germany, as a rule, doesn't deal in Dual Citizenships. There are some exceptions (for example with Turkey), but they're difficult to use. I'm in that process right now. If I succeed, I will be able to say that I'm officially both.

Until then, I'm just like any other German, I just happen to have a permanent residence visum.
Ah but you are talking about legal identiy while I'm inclined to see it as a emotional thing. I'm British, because I have a British Passport and my father was British (he is still alive, but no longer a British citizen), however, I am a Zimbabwean - Mugabe took away my citizenship, but can't take away my identity. My father, by the way, still refers to himself a English/Rhodesian/Zimbawean but never British, I'm in Scotland and becoming Scottish (slightly).

One way to do it would be to be the child of German parents, born on holidays in Australia.

Oz has a rule that grants kids born here automatic citizenship, I believe.

Germany, as a rule, doesn't deal in Dual Citizenships. There are some exceptions (for example with Turkey), but they're difficult to use. I'm in that process right now. If I succeed, I will be able to say that I'm officially both.

Until then, I'm just like any other German, I just happen to have a permanent residence visum.Actually, there's no exceptions for that because of Turkey. If you get born with both, you usually get to keep them, but attaining German citizenship requires you to give up your other passport.

Ah but you are talking about legal identiy while I'm inclined to see it as a emotional thing.
Well, true, I suppose. Emotionally, I'll never be anything but a Hamburger. :p

But then, why can't KP be German? It's obviously how he tends to identify himself sometimes.

Actually, there's no exceptions for that because of Turkey. If you get born with both, you usually get to keep them, but attaining German citizenship requires you to give up your other passport.
Right, thanks for that. I just hate all this legal crap. :(