Claims of abuse rise against missions

UNITED NATIONS — Allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation in U.N. peacekeeping and political missions rose significantly in 2019, with claims against civilian personnel nearly doubling, a U.N. report finds.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the report to the U.N. General Assembly that while the number of alleged victims and perpetrators decreased last year, the number of allegations increased to 80 from the 56 reported in 2018.

More than half of the 2019 allegations — 41 — were related to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic, while 15 involved the mission in Congo, the report said. The joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur, the U.N. force in Lebanon, and the former peacekeeping missions in Liberia and Haiti accounted for three-fourths of the remaining 24 cases, it said.

The United Nations has long been in the spotlight over allegations of child rape and other sexual abuses by its peacekeepers, especially those based in Central African Republic and Congo. But the latest figures demonstrate again that sexual misconduct spans the entire U.N. system.

Guterres stressed in the report that the majority of the more than 190,000 uniformed and civilian personnel in more than 30 bodies in the U.N. system serve “with professionalism and dedication,” but he said “significant challenges” remain in dealing with sexual abuse and exploitation.

Guterres has made combating sexual abuse and exploitation a high priority and stressed enforcement of the U.N.’s “zero-tolerance“policy for sexual misconduct.