Washington Post
Michael Brice-Saddler, The Washington Post
We have known anecdotally and from existing research efforts this a pervasive problem in Haiti, but this is some of the first data that points to how pervasive it is’
U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti allegedly fathered children with women and girls before abandoning them, according to a new report, building on previous accusations of sexual misconduct carried out by peacekeepers on the vulnerable populations they are ordered to protect.
As part of the report, published Tuesday in The Conversation, researchers surveyed 2,500 Haitians about the experiences of local women and girls in areas that hosted the United Nations’s 13-year Stabilization Mission in Haiti, also known as Minustah. Of that group, about 265 people told stories featuring children fathered by U.N. personnel — stitching together a troubling stream of coercion and abuse that left girls as young as 11 to raise children by themselves in conditions of extreme poverty.
Some participants alluded to instances of rape or sexual violence, but more often, the Haitians surveyed relayed stories describing a “common pattern” in which women received small amounts of money or food in exchange for sex.
The research team, led by Sabine Lee, a professor at the University of Birmingham, and Susan Bartels, a clinician-scientist at Queen’s University in Ontario, did not directly ask the people they interviewed about sexual relations with peacekeepers or children born through those relations. The interviewees brought those issues up on their own, the researchers said.
One woman is quoted describing “a series of females 12- and 13-years-old” who were impregnated by Minustah personnel, leaving them “in misery with babies in their hands.”
Another simply said: “They put a few coins in your hands and drop a baby in you.”
The report implicates U.N. personnel from 13 countries, the majority of which were from Brazil and Uruguay, according to the report. Canada ranked seventh. It suggests the soldiers were typically repatriated to their countries of origin when the pregnancy became known, leaving the mothers with no assistance afterward. The findings have renewed cries from advocacy organizations who have previously said the United Nations should do more to help the Haitian victims.
In response to the report, the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations said it took the allegations seriously. Combating the sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated by peacekeepers is one of the group’s top priorities, it said in a statement.
“We have unfortunately seen cases involving MINUSTAH peacekeepers over the past years, although allegations have been generally declining since 2013,” the statement said. “Our approach puts the rights and dignity of victims at the forefront of its efforts to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse.”