THE EFFECTIVENESS OF UN EFFORTS TO COMBAT SEXUAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 STATE 068780 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KPKO PHUM UN SE KCRM KWMN SUBJECT: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF UN EFFORTS TO COMBAT SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE IN UN PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS ¶1. This is an action request for response by July 8. Please see paragraph 8. ¶2. The Department is preparing its Congressionally mandated semi-annual report to Congress on measures to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and trafficking in persons (TIP) involving UN peacekeeping personnel. IO prepares the report in collaboration with the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP). ¶3. Background. Consistent with the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 (TVPRA),the Department of State reports to the Congress information on measures to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and trafficking in persons (TIP) involving UN peacekeeping personnel. The TVPRA specifies that such reporting include an assessment of the effectiveness of UN efforts to prevent SEA and TIP, and that such reports be made at least fifteen days prior to a UN Security Council vote on the creation or continuation of a UN peacekeeping mission. Section 2, part 2 of the TVPRA specifies that reporting include: (A) A description of the measures taken by the organization to prevent the organization's employees, contractor personnel, and peacekeeping forces serving in the peacekeeping mission from trafficking in persons exploiting victims of trafficking, or committing acts of sexual exploitation or abuse, and the measures in place to hold accountable any such individuals who engage in any such acts while participating in the peacekeeping mission; and (B) An analysis of the effectiveness of each of the measures referred to in subparagraph (A). ¶4. Definitions: ¶A. Trafficking in persons (TIP) - As defined in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Section 103(8), the term 'severe forms of trafficking in persons' means: (A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or (B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. Section 103(9) SEX TRAFFICKING. The term 'sex trafficking' means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act. ¶B. Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) - As defined in the United Nations Secretary General's October 2003 Bulletin, sexual exploitation means any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another. Sexual abuse means the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions. ¶5. The Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Office of Peacekeeping, Sanctions, and Counter-terrorism (IO/PSC) collects monthly updated information from the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) on SEA enforcement actions and countermeasures taken by the UN in UN peacekeeping missions. This information is provided to congressional committees and has been well received, but it lacks the analysis of effectiveness specified by the TVPRA. ¶6. In its most recent report, the UN's Office of Internal STATE 00068780 002 OF 002 Oversight Services (OIOS) credits the UN's concerted efforts following Prince Zeid's report on a comprehensive strategy to eliminate future sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping operations (A/59/710) with signs of improvement. However, the number of allegations of SEA in select missions, including MINUSTAH, UNMIL, and MONUC remains disproportionately high. In response, OIOS has expanded its presence in certain missions, including MONUC. As a result of allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of children by military personnel deployed in MINUSTAH, 114 members of Sri Lanka's contingent, including one Lieutenant-Colonel and two Majors, were repatriated on disciplinary grounds. Also in 2007, OIOS began preparations for staffing a new office at MINURCAT headquarters. ¶7. The UN DPKO report on countermeasures records whether there is SEA language in the mission mandate, a conduct and discipline team (CDT),an OIOS team, a point of contact for SEA allegations to be reported, if a senior UN representative has visited the mission regarding SEA, and whether there are designated off-limit areas for mission personnel in an effort to abate SEA cases. According to the report, all UN peacekeeping missions require their personnel to complete a course in preventing sexual exploitation and abuse prevention when they arrive at the mission, and all UN peacekeeping missions have a CDT in place. End Background. ¶8. Action Request: The Department requests that posts with UN peacekeeping missions whose mandate will be renewed between September 1, 2008 and February 28, 2009, provide an assessment, no later than July 8, of the efficacy of UN efforts to prevent SEA and/or TIP. These peacekeeping missions are MINURCAT, UNMIL, MINUSTAH, UNOMIG, UNFICYP, UNDOF, MONUC, UNOCI, and UNMIT. Posts are requested to comment in detail on host government and popular perceptions (such as local human rights NGOs, the general public, and the media) of the scope of the SEA and TIP problem as it relates to UN peacekeeping personnel, the seriousness with which UN leadership approaches SEA and TIP, and the degree to which UN actions have been effective in preventing SEA and TIP. Please list government and non-governmental organizations that were interviewed. Posts are also requested to provide the reference number of your previous report in your cable. The congressional notification will include approximately one page of background and analysis per mission, so post input need not be more than three or four paragraphs long. Since nearly all peacekeeping mandates are extended by the Security Council in six-month increments, most posts will be asked to update their analysis twice a year. UNTSO will not be included in the report since it has an open-ended mandate; however, we would appreciate Tel Aviv's and Jerusalem's comments on UNDOF. ¶9. The point of contact for this request is Elizabeth Renieris in IO/PSC (202-736-7737). RICE