UN mission sets up units to check sexual abuse

Following reports of sexual exploitation of host populations in several peacekeeping missions in Africa, the UN Mission in Burundi, known as ONUB, has established a Code of Conduct Unit and appointed a gender adviser to make sure this problem does not arise in Burundi. The code of conduct unit and the gender adviser are to help train and sensitise the mission's staff on the expected code of behaviour. The mission's code of conduct officer, Roxanne Carrillo, told IRIN at the mission's headquarters in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, the idea of setting up a unit to handle issues relating to the behaviour of peacekeeping personnel arose from scandals in UN-peacekeeping missions in West Africa. Recently also, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN troops were accused of sexual abuse and exploitation of the host population, especially women and children. There were cases of flour and other foodstuffs being sold to refugees in exchange for sex, Carrillo said on 26 October. "There were cases of young women, and even children, being abused by the security personnel, the military and civilians," she added. In order to prevent any such cases from happening in Burundi, Carrillo was asked to join the mission and develop the new unit. "It is only at this mission that a unit has been appointed to oversee and develop a strategy for the mission in relation to behaviour and conduct, therefore it is virgin terrain," she said. She said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's bulletin of 9 October 2003 on sexual exploitation and his "zero tolerance" approach was among the UN documents guiding the Code of Conduct Unit's operations. The Secretary-General's bulletin, detailing the special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, defines sexual exploitation as "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. "Similarly, the term sexual abuse means the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions," the bulletin added. Besides this bulletin, the head of the UN Mission and Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Burundi Carolyn McAskie issued a memo on 9 October to all the mission's personnel, detailing the standards of conduct and behaviour expected of UN civilian and military staff in Burundi. "The purpose of this memorandum is to confirm to all staff [military, civilian police and civilian personnel] the standards of conduct and behaviour expected," McAskie said. "You should be aware that serious misconduct has occurred in other missions. This mission will, therefore, take clear steps to assure a mission-wide preventive approach based on zero tolerance." She added: "We have an opportunity to build a model approach, which can set the standard." Carrillo said the Code of Conduct Unit was also relying on a guide developed by the UN on the behaviour expected of all categories of peacekeeping personnel. The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) also stipulated disciplinary directives; gender and codes of conduct regulations in its Compilation of Guidance and Directives on Disciplinary Issues of Personnel Serving in UN Peacekeeping and other Field Missions. Since her arrival in Burundi in August, Carrillo has mainly been involved in setting up the unit and putting policy and strategy measures in place. She said since the UN mission began operations in June, there were no reported cases of sexual misconduct by UN personnel. However, she added there had been a case involving a South African soldier, a member of a unit of a protection force in Burundi that is not part of the UN mission, which resulted in the death of a young Burundian woman. "It was really not under the UN mission's jurisdiction, but we were concerned because in the eyes of the local population there is not so much difference [between the protection force] and the UN, " she said. Regarding the unit's method of gathering information, Carrillo said the mission was undertaking campaigns to sensitise the population on how to report cases of misconduct. She said internally, contact persons among the civilian and military personnel were in place to handle such information. If the complainant is afraid to report abuse, any other member of staff who gets to know of such a case can file a complaint on behalf of the victim. She said all cases would be handled with confidentiality. She said just recently the UN mission completed a tour of two military camps belonging to the Pakistani battalion of the UN troops and that the process of informing the population is the next step. The UN mission's public information unit has started radio programmes to inform the public of the mission's activities. Carrillo said she would explore ways to collaborate with this unit to make sure that it knows the extent of this directive and the strategies that could be adopted to make sure the public is involved. The Code of Conduct Unit has also established a taskforce with focal points from all sectors of ONUB. The members of this taskforce are people from all the different offices helping to implement the overall mission strategy about the code of conduct. Carrillo said her unit would also set up regional offices across the country with focal points that would then report to the mission's headquarters. "These focal points will keep us informed and they will always be able to keep information, collect the cases, and document the sexual cases of abuse," she said. On her part, ONUB Gender Adviser Fernanda Tavares told IRIN on 26 October that the Gender Unit was established, under a Security Council resolution, to bring forth issues of gender in the peacekeeping mission. "Gender aspects are crucial to peace and security in a post-conflict situation such as the one in Burundi," Tavares said. "It is important to have the participation of women in the peace process – in negotiations, politics and so on, as this can help in the recovery process." She said the presence of females in war-torn societies needed attention, as women often formed half of the population. Gender mainstreaming lobbies actively for the solving of the aspirations and needs of all sectors of the population. "Implementation of gender mainstreaming involves the whole community - girls, boys, men and women," Tavares said. "In ONUB, the key aspect of the Gender Unit is to mainstream gender, focusing on the mandate under which the unit was created." "The unit aims to focus on the special needs of women in demobilisation - the issues of sexual violence, with women often as the victims - police, forensics, logistics and the judicial process," she added. The unit also encourages ONUB personnel to promote gender equality. It is involved in the training and sensitisation of the civilian police within ONUB, mainly on gender and peacekeeping. "We have a generic gender-peacekeeping package that every peacekeeper receives when they arrive on the mission," she said. Tavares also conducts induction training for all peacekeepers, focusing on support to women’s participation in peacekeeping. Moreover, she has formed a special ONUB taskforce on gender, with focal points from all sectors of the mission. The unit is awaiting budgetary allocation in order to strengthen this taskforce, she said. The Gender Unit also works with umbrella bodies of Burundian women organisations – three major ones and each with hundreds of member women’s groups - to sensitise them on the need to participate in the electoral process. She said some 100 women had indicated their interest in parliamentary seats when the elections come in April 2005. She said the maximum number of women were already in the National Assembly. "We have also lobbied to have the quarter for women enshrined in the constitution," Tavares said. "I think the Gender Unit, with enough budgetary support, has the potential to improve the lot of most women who are often under represented in society, yet they are the majority in society." The major challenge to the unit, she said, was the resistance of people to mainstream gender. "Also being part of the UN, the size of the unit and its budget, are the other main challenges," she said.