27/05/2008

UK Charity Reveals 'Sex-ploitation' By Peace-Keepers

Save the Children has revealed children in post-conflict zones are suffering at the hands of peace and aid workers.

The UK charity has called for the setting up of an international watchdog to monitor the foreign workers, who according to the charity are abusing the very children they were sent to protect.

The announcement came following research in the Ivory Coast Southern Sudan and Haiti.

The charity said it had sacked three of its own workers for breaching its codes after three men were dismissed after having sex with girls aged 17, which the charity said was a sackable offence, despite being legal.

The UN has said it welcomes the charity's report, which says it will study closely.

According to Save the Children, an Ivory Coast boy told them the girls are promised mobile phones and food rations.

They said: "Our fieldwork suggests that already vulnerable children are particularly at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and aid workers.These include orphans and children separated from their parents.

"Every agency is at risk from this problem. This is not to say that every person associated with the international community is a perpetrator of child sexual abuse – far from it.

"However, the breadth of local and international NGOs, UN agencies and other actors implicated by those who took part in the study suggests that this is a problem for a wide range of organisations."

The charity said they expected the establishment of a watchdog by the end of 2008 at the latest.

(DW)


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