Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has ousted his representative in the Central African Republic because of problems of sexual misconduct among UN peacekeepers there. The New York Times has this report. In addition to an ongoing independent investigation into how the UN handled a particular episode,
"A separate internal inquiry into how the organization handles sexual abuse claims found that investigations tended to be mired in procedural matters, that commanders were not always held accountable for misconduct in their contingents, and that the most common form of punishment turned out to be sending the accused back home, where there were no guarantees of prosecution.
"Mr. Ban’s remarks Wednesday signaled his frustration with that pattern. 'I want member states to know that I cannot do this alone,' he said. 'They have the ultimate responsibility to hold individual uniformed personnel to account, and they must take decisive preventive and punitive action.'
"The United Nations cannot prosecute or punish perpetrators. That is left up to the countries that send their citizens to take part in United Nations missions."
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