UN chief urges investigations on peacekeeper sexual abuse to be concluded within six months

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday told the Security Council that he urged member states to adopt the time standard that all investigations on allegations of sexual abuse against UN peacekeepers should be concluded within six months at most.

"All investigations should be concluded within six months at most, with the most urgent cases concluded within three months," said Ban at a Security Council meeting on UN peacekeeping operations sexual exploitation and abuse.

"I urge member states to adopt this standard," said Ban. "I also urge Member States to cooperate with the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) in the conduct of investigations."

The OIOS is the internal oversight body of the United Nations, carrying with the mandate to investigate reports on possible misconduct in the system, and establish facts to guide UN Secretary-General to jurisdictional or disciplinary action to be taken.

The investigation of an allegation involves procedural reporting and coordinations among the UN Secretariat, UN missions in the field as well as troop-contributing countries, which is considered to be time-consuming.

Besides, once an investigation is completed, the UN has no authority to prosecute those peacekeepers but to repatriate them back to home country.

Previous UN reports have found that sexual abuse conducted by UN peacekeepers is very much under-reported, and investigations take excessively long and the perpetrators of such misconduct are rarely punished.

Ban also said he is considering ending the deployment of uniformed personnel from specific member states if there is "prima facie evidence" of widespread or systemic exploitation and abuse.

"Accountability demands that member states live up to their responsibility to bring to justice those who have committed crimes while serving with the United Nations," said Ban. "We expect them to impose sanctions commensurate with the seriousness of the offence."

"I have asked member states to establish on-site martial proceedings, and to ensure that domestic legislation applies to sex crimes committed by their national while they are serving UN peace operations," he added.

Ban's latest report on sexual exploitation and abuse shows that the total number of such misconduct recorded in 2015 in the UN system was 99, and 69 of them took place in countries where peacekeeping operations are deployed. At least 22 children were sexually abuse by peacekeepers.

Statistics show out of those 69 allegations, only 17 of them have concluded investigations. Enditem