The UN Department of Field Support on Wednesday formally notified the permanent UN missions of all 193 member states of the establishment of the "Trust Fund in Support of Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse" (SEA), urging them to consider voluntary financial contributions, a UN spokesman told reporters here.

"The contributions will be used to provide medical, legal and psycho-social assistance to victims and children born as a result of sexual exploitation and abuse," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"This Trust Fund was one of the key proposals of the (UN) secretary-general in his reports on special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse," Dujarric said.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon will also seek to have the monies withheld from individual UN personnel who commit SEA and diverted to the trust fund for victims, he said.

In early March, Ban said in his report that 69 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse were reported in 10 UN peacekeeping missions in 2015 and called for on-site court-martials of alleged perpetrators and DNA testing to identify them.

The report, for the first time, provided the names of all countries whose troops are allegedly involved. The allegations will be posted online and updated with the progress and outcome of investigations.

The 69 allegations reported last year were a marked increase from the 52 in 2014, and higher than the 66 in 2013, the report said.

Nearly one-third of the 2015 allegations, or 22, are from the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, which has made headlines over reports of some peacekeepers sent to protect civilians instead traded sex for money and sexually abused minors. 

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by Xinhua News Agency

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