UN launches online sex abuse prevention program for civilian, military personnel

In light of recent sex abuse scandals involving UN peacekeepers, mainly in Africa, the United Nations on Friday announced an online learning program for all civilian and military personnel in all six official languages on how to conduct themselves, especially to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse.

In another move triggered by the scandal, the UN Department of Field Support (DFS) also said India, one of the largest troop-contributing countries in peacekeeping operations, had announced Thursday it donated 100,000 U.S. dollars for the Trust Fund in Support of Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, becoming the fund's first contributor since its inception at the end of March.

So far this year, there have been 50 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, compared to 52 such reports in 2014 and 69 for all of last year and for all categories of personnel, including military, police, civilian staff, UN volunteers, contractors and consultants, according to statistics from the Office of Internal Oversight provided by the UN Conduct and Discipline Unit.

The DFS announcement said the "new mandatory e-learning program (is) for all uniformed and civilian personnel to strengthen training on the standards of conduct, as well as the expectations of accountability and individual responsibility in matters of conduct and discipline, with a special focus on sexual exploitation and abuse."

"The new online learning program was developed with the generous funding of the government of Japan," the DFS said in a Note to Correspondents from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman. "The training is currently being piloted at UN headquarters and to select uniformed and civilian peacekeeping mission staff."

"The rollout to all field missions, as well as all peacekeeping and field support personnel in headquarters, will be completed by the end of 2016," it said. "The program will be available for all Secretariat personnel in early 2017."

"The new e-learning program is an important step in reinforcing our prevention efforts against misconduct by UN personnel," said the UN under-secretary-general for field support, Atul Khare, in the Note to Correspondent. "We are very grateful to the government of Japan for funding this initiative, which is critical to our efforts to address sexual exploitation and abuse."

"The self-paced program uses scenarios based on case studies and short videos to educate and sensitize personnel," the announcement said. "It includes short quizzes and a final assessment."

It also said the course and the program "will be translated into all UN official languages, as well as languages of troop and police contributing countries."

India, the Trust Fund's first contributor, "is currently ranked as the second largest contributor of military and police personnel," DFS said.

"With this contribution, the government of India has illustrated its strong commitment to our victim-centered approach in addressing sexual exploitation and abuse by UN civilian and uniformed personnel. We are extremely grateful for this contribution," said Khare. The UN Secretariat had requested voluntary contributions to the fund when it was established some three months ago, the announcement said. However, the UN General Assembly approved "the transfer of withheld payments to the fund in substantiated cases of sexual exploitation and abuse by civilian, military and police personnel."

Norway and Cyprus have pledged resources to the Trust Fund over the last few months, DFS said. Enditem