

French forces patrol Sibut, some 140 miles northeast of Bangui, Central African Republic, on April 11, 2014. French prosecutors and military authorities are investigating accusations that French soldiers in Central African Republic sexually abused children they were sent to protect. (Jerome Delay/AP)

When the Central African Republic stumbled into chaos in 2013, French soldiers were sent to protect the country's most vulnerable people. Now, some of those soldiers stand accused of sexually exploiting children instead of defending them -- and it is only the latest accusation of sexual crimes committed by peacekeeping troops backed by the U.N.

Whereas the U.N. says that its own mission was set up after the alleged crimes occurred, reporting by the British Guardian suggests that the organization might nevertheless have neglected its responsibility in revealing the abuses. Although the U.N. did not operate the French mission it appears to have had knowledge of the incidents. The French peacekeeping mission was backed by the United Nations.

If the accusations in CAR are true, it would be a dark chapter in the history of U.N.-backed peacekeeping. However, some experts say that they would not be surprised if the U.N. had indeed failed to reveal the allegations. They describe the U.N.'s dealing with sexual assault and abuse allegations as systematically flawed.

In fact, the most recent case involving French soldiers would hardly have been revealed, had a senior U.N. aid worker not illegally passed a confidential inquiry on to French prosecutors. Those documents were obtained by Britain's Guardian newspaper, which revealed them earlier this week. The inquiry was conducted internally by U.N. staff and concluded that there was evidence of sexual abuse by French soldiers in the Central African Republic in spring 2014.

Although the inquiry was sent to the Geneva-based Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights last summer, no formal investigation was launched at first, and the case only became public when it was leaked. The whistleblower has since been suspended by the United Nations.

French prosecutors continue to investigate more than a dozen French soldiers. “If some soldiers have behaved badly, I will show no mercy,” French President François Hollande was quoted by the Guardian.

Sexual exploitation appears to be a systematic problem

Was it the U.N.'s formal inability or its unwillingness which prevented the investigation from going forward? "The U.N. itself is unable to prosecute soldiers accused of sexual abuse," Ruth Wedgwood, an international law expert at the Johns Hopkins School of International Affairs explained to The Washington Post.

U.N. peacekeepers on patrol. (Ariel Schalit/AP)

"The prosecution of offenders is the responsibility of the countries they work for. The real problem, however, is that the U.N. rarely checks whether allegations were ever examined or led to court sentences," she said. Even if there is a trial, there is rarely enough evidence to convict the accused soldiers. In certain countries, it would be highly unlikely that prosecutors would press charges, at all.

The allegations against the French soldiers come only days after more general criticism was voiced over the U.N.'s handling of sexual abuse and exploitation allegations. An internal U.N. report, which was presented in November 2013 and leaked this March, paints a bleak picture of the organization.

"Sexual Exploitation and Abuse has been judged the most significant risk to U.N. peacekeeping missions," the report concluded and specified that the incidents could "undermine the tremendous amount," of past achievements.

The report, which is distinct from the recent inquiry which has led to the investigation against the French soldiers, is based on an internal U.N. investigation which took place in 2013 and is limited to data from 2012. Whereas the current case only concerns French soldiers operating under the authority of the French government the 2013 report is based on U.N. peacekeeping missions.

The internal expert mission singled out four operations where sexual abuse was believed to be a problem: Haiti, Liberia, Congo and South Sudan. Together, they accounted for 85 percent of all reported cases in 2012.

Although the document notes that there has been a recent decrease in reported cases of sexual abuse and exploitation in these four missions, 60 allegations were made in 2012. Nearly half of them (45 percent) involved serious sexual abuse and exploitation. 30 percent of all allegations involved minors, and 15 percent were based on allegations of non-consensual sex with minors.

Based on those numbers, the report's authors accused the U.N. of a "significant amount of underreporting."

"A culture of silence"

The internal report paints a dark picture of U.N. peacekeeping missions and the organization's failure and alleged unwillingness to address the problem. Its authors state that there was a "culture of silence" in dealing with allegations, as well as "poor investigation competencies and capacities in the field," which meant that many cases could not be sufficiently documented. "Those who break the rules are not punished and … impunity is norm (rather) than exception."

The United Nations does not have its own troops and purely relies on its member states in enforcing its decisions. This dependence could be part of the problem: In order not to offend and embarrass the nations who send troops for its missions, U.N. officials might have ignored allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation.

"Cases have been kept in the shadows partially because few countries would continue to deploy their soldiers to U.N. peacekeeping missions if accusations and internal investigations were automatically made public or if the soldiers' immunity were questioned," Wedgwood explained.

Given those restrictions, the authors of the internal report emphasize the need for better training because "sexual objectification of sexual coercion of women may be seen as normal and acceptable," by some soldiers.

Those who need to be protected are often the most vulnerable

Talking to the Associated Press, the mother of a 9-year-old who was among those allegedly exploited in the Central African Republic, explained: “The children were vulnerable because they were hungry and their parents had nothing to give them, so the children were forced to ask the soldiers for food."



French soldiers, of the Sangaris contingent, patrol in central Bangui on May 30, 2014. (MARCO LONGARI/AFP via Getty Images)

Similar accusations have been made against other troops in the past. "The blue helmet has become black and blue through self-inflicted wounds... We will not sit still until the luster of that blue helmet is restored," Jane Holl Lute, a senior U.N. peacekeeping official, told a congressional committee in 2005.

However, such promises were short-lived. Sexual abuse and exploitation allegations continue to haunt the United Nations. A 2010 U.S. diplomatic cable, released by WikiLeaks one year after it was written, indicated that Beninese U.N. troops in the Ivory Coast had offered food to minors before coercing them to perform sexual acts.

Since then, similar allegations have been made in other countries. In 2012, two U.N. peacekeepers were sentenced to one year in prison each by a Pakistani military court. The soldiers had been found guilty of raping a 14-year-old boy during the U.N. mission following a devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010.

Although the prison terms might seem short given the gravity of the charges, the mere fact that the two offenders were sentenced appears to have been an exception.

This post has been updated to reflect the latest U.N. statements and to clarify that the U.N. backed but did not operate the French mission.