Saturday, May 30, 2015

More leaks in connection with inquiry into peacekeeper discipline

Today's New York Times has this report on the latest developments in the controversy over allegations of sexual crimes involving children by French peacekeepers in Africa. The latest developments include a leak of internal documents from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and a claim that the OHCHR employee who made public unredacted documents regarding the peacekeeper misconduct is being investigation as an act of reprisal. From The Times's story:
“The documents indicate a total failure of the U.N. to act on claims of sexual abuse,” Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World, based in New York, said in a statement published with links to the documents
Ms. Donovan asserted that more than 30 officials had been aware of the allegations for months and took no action. When Mr. [Anders] Kompass, a Swede, resisted pressure to resign by threatening to go public, according to her narrative, they conspired to silence him and mask their earlier inaction by starting the internal investigation. 
AIDS-Free World has not revealed the source of the leaked documents. Efforts to reach Mr. Kompass were not immediately successful. 
Documents leaked so far include a statement by Mr. Kompass’s immediate supervisor, Flavia Pansieri, the deputy high commissioner for human rights, acknowledging that she failed to follow up on the report when he brought it to her attention. They shed no light, however, on why Mr. Kompass did not pursue the matter with Navi Pillay, the high commissioner at the time and a strong advocate for action to curb sexual abuse.

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