Stop sex assaults

If women and children in war-torn countries can’t trust United Nations peacekeepers to protect them from sexual exploitation and rape, who can they turn to?

That question is becoming all too relevant as disturbing reports pile up about UN peacekeepers sexually exploiting those they are sent to protect, ignoring sexual assaults by other soldiers or not being held accountable for their offences when they return home.

Last week, two unfolding events — one in South Sudan, the other in Canada — illustrated just how toothless the UN’s declarations of “zero tolerance” are in preventing and punishing sexual violence and exploitation. The UN — and member countries sending peacekeepers to war-torn countries — must act, not just talk, to deter rape and exploitation.

First is the horrifying story of women and girls being raped near a UN camp in Juba, South Sudan, where they had sought refuge. At least two died from their injuries after gang rapes. In one instance reported by The Associated Press, two armed South Sudanese soldiers dragged away a woman just a few hundred metres from the UN camp while at least 30 peacekeepers from Nepalese and Chinese battalions looked on. A UN mission spokeswoman has not disputed that the rapes outside the compound took place.

Second is the disgraceful story of two members of the Sûreté du Québec accused of sex-related breaches while working as UN peacekeepers in Haiti. Both officers were excused from internal hearings, despite a UN decree that countries must hold their own personnel accountable, because they retired before the force had a chance to fully investigate. We are not making this up.

As CBC News reported last week, the SQ had a hearing scheduled for July12 for one sergeant under investigation, but he left the force a month earlier. A second SQ sergeant had even been placed on administrative duty with a paid suspension until his retirement in April 2015. His hearing was never scheduled.

This action by the SQ explicitly contravenes the UN’s direction to peacekeeper-providing countries that they must hold their personnel accountable. The SQ’s failure is a blight on Canada’s proud record of peacekeeping.

It’s not the first time peacekeepers in Haiti have had to hang their heads. A 2015 draft UN report said peacekeepers engaged in “transactional sex” with more than 225 Haitian women who needed food and medicine. Last year, a Canadian police officer serving on a peacekeeping mission in that country was given a token nine-day suspension for sexual exploitation.

In 2015, former Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps was asked by the UN to investigate a scandal involving French peacekeepers in the Central African Republic after soldiers reportedly demanded sex from young children in return for food. The list, sadly, goes on.

Sexual misconduct by soldiers wearing the blue helmets of the UN — ones that should stand for peace, safety and security — must be forcefully punished if it is to be discouraged. Serious accusations of sexual violence must be fully investigated. And the training of peacekeepers must make it absolutely clear they are responsible for protecting vulnerable women and children from sexual assault by outside forces and will be punished for ignoring attacks.

Here at home, Ottawa must take the lead in ensuring that no Canadian peacekeeper accused of sexual exploitation escapes full investigation, and no one guilty of sexual violence escapes justice.