29 May 2008

On 27 May 2008, Save the Children UK released its report entitled "No One to Turn To: The under-reporting of child sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers and peacekeepers." Most of the recommendations in the report are reasonable and the report stresses that the UN has undertaken a number of actions in recent years to confront this issue from establishing Conduct and Discipline Units in all of UN missions to strengthening the UN’s training regimes for all categories of UN personnel. UNV is briefly mentioned in the report based on information supplied by UNV.  The abuse of children by those sent to help is a significant and painful issue, and UNV cooperates with the continuing efforts by the UN and UN peacekeeping to address this candidly, comprehensively and robustly. Even one incident is one incident too many.