Pledge to stop abuse of power
MORE than 20 charities, including Oxfam Great Britain, have pledged to boost safeguarding and are calling on people to report unacceptable behaviour.
The aid agencies said there can be no tolerance for “the abuse of power, privilege or trust” within their organisations, and said they are “truly sorry” that their sector has at times failed.
The open letter, published on the Huffington Post website and signed by 22 charities, comes a day after Oxfam GB was temporarily suspended in Haiti pending an investigation into how the charity handled the case of former staff paying for sex.
Mark Goldring, Oxfam GB’s chief executive, signed the letter, which said charities have “an absolute duty” to do everything they can “to prevent, detect and eradicate unacceptable behaviour”.
Other charities among the 22 are Save the Children UK, Unicef UK, Muslim Aid, Cafod, Christian Aid, and WaterAid.
“Safeguarding is something that, as a sector, we have long taken very seriously and all our organisations have systems in place to prevent all forms of abuse and misconduct.
“However, we can never be complacent. We must do even more to protect the very people we were set up to help,” the agencies wrote.
They added: “We will all increase the resources we devote to safeguarding – meeting our responsibility to protect our staff and beneficiaries.
“We will collectively review our current referencing systems so that people found to have abused their power or behaved inappropriately are not re-employed in the sector – including in INGOs, government agencies, the UN and other associated agencies.
“We will work with these authorities and regulatory bodies to ensure any individual caught abusing their power cannot do so again.
“We will work with the Government to ensure that we can overcome the legal and institutional barriers to rigorous background checks in the UK.
“In taking these steps, we are also asking people to come forward to report unacceptable behaviour. We hope these measures send a clear message to those who experience or witness any form of abuse – it is really important that they know that we will listen and take action.”