Zero Tolerance campaign against sex abuse, exploitation showing "some impact": UN

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's "Zero Tolerance" campaign against sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) involving peacekeeping missions is beginning to see "some impact," a senior UN official said on Friday.

Anthony Banbury, UN assistant secretary-general for field support, told a press conference that the world organization was breaking with the long-standing practice of withholding identifications of accused and "for the first time will identify countries involved and we will be naming names."

Banbury briefed reporters preceding a report expected next month on SEA by the secretary-general and the Zero Tolerance campaign, following reports that surfaced earlier this month of additional allegations of SEA in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Ban's spokesman, Stephan Dujarric, said earlier the mission reported additional allegations "concerning both sexual exploitation and abuse and other misconduct by UN peacekeepers and international forces in Bangui," CAR.

The UN mission in CAR is known by the acronym MINUSCA.

Banberry, who said "we see some impact" as a result of the zero tolerance campaign, cited 85 "confirmed allegations" of SEA involving UN Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) in 2010, 60 in 2012 and 51 in 2014 with no cases involving MINUSCA.

However, he said, there were 69 total "likely cases" reported in 2015, 22 of them alone in CAR. There were also reports of SEA involving French troops that were not part of MINUSCA.

The assistant secretary-general said the United Nations was pressuring

TCCs will speed up investigation of allegations and prosecution of confirmed cases, by asking TCCs to investigate within six months allegations against any of its personnel, military or civilian.

The more recent allegations of SEA involved personnel from Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Niger and Senegal, Banberry said. Enditem