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INFO RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 2292

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 STATE 068780 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KPKO PHUM UN SE KCRM KWMN
SUBJECT: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF UN EFFORTS TO COMBAT SEXUAL 
EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE IN UN PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS 
 
¶1. This is an action request for response by July 8. Please 
see paragraph 8. 
 
¶2. The Department is preparing its Congressionally mandated 
semi-annual report to Congress on measures to prevent sexual 
exploitation and abuse (SEA) and trafficking in persons (TIP) 
involving UN peacekeeping personnel. IO prepares the report 
in collaboration with the Office to Monitor and Combat 
Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP). 
 
¶3. Background. Consistent with the Trafficking Victims 
Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 (TVPRA), the 
Department of State reports to the Congress information on 
measures to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and 
trafficking in persons (TIP) involving UN peacekeeping 
personnel. The TVPRA specifies that such reporting include an 
assessment of the effectiveness of UN efforts to prevent SEA 
and TIP, and that such reports be made at least fifteen days 
prior to a UN Security Council vote on the creation or 
continuation of a UN peacekeeping mission. 
 
Section 2, part 2 of the TVPRA specifies that reporting 
include: 
 
(A) A description of the measures taken by the organization 
to prevent the organization's employees, contractor 
personnel, and peacekeeping forces serving in the 
peacekeeping mission from trafficking in persons exploiting 
victims of trafficking, or committing acts of sexual 
exploitation or abuse, and the measures in place to hold 
accountable any such individuals who engage in any such acts 
while participating in the peacekeeping mission; and 
 
(B) An analysis of the effectiveness of each of the measures 
referred to in subparagraph (A). 
 
¶4. Definitions: 
 
¶A. Trafficking in persons (TIP) - As defined in the 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Section 103(8), 
the term 'severe forms of trafficking in persons' means: 
 
(A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced 
by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced 
to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or 
 
(B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or 
obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use 
of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to 
involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. 
 
Section 103(9) SEX TRAFFICKING. The term 'sex trafficking' 
means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, 
or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex 
act. 
 
¶B. Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) - As defined in the 
United Nations Secretary General's October 2003 Bulletin, 
sexual exploitation means 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. Sexual abuse means the actual or 
threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by 
force or under unequal or coercive conditions. 
 
¶5. The Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Office 
of Peacekeeping, Sanctions, and Counter-terrorism (IO/PSC) 
collects monthly updated information from the UN Department 
of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) on SEA enforcement actions 
and countermeasures taken by the UN in UN peacekeeping 
missions. This information is provided to congressional 
committees and has been well received, but it lacks the 
analysis of effectiveness specified by the TVPRA. 
 
¶6. In its most recent report, the UN's Office of Internal 
 
STATE 00068780  002 OF 002 
 
 
Oversight Services (OIOS) credits the UN's concerted efforts 
following Prince Zeid's report on a comprehensive strategy to 
eliminate future sexual exploitation and abuse in UN 
peacekeeping operations (A/59/710) with signs of improvement. 
However, the number of allegations of SEA in select missions, 
including MINUSTAH, UNMIL, and MONUC remains 
disproportionately high. In response, OIOS has expanded its 
presence in certain missions, including MONUC. As a result of 
allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of children by 
military personnel deployed in MINUSTAH, 114 members of Sri 
Lanka's contingent, including one Lieutenant-Colonel and two 
Majors, were repatriated on disciplinary grounds. Also in 
2007, OIOS began preparations for staffing a new office at 
MINURCAT headquarters. 
 
¶7. The UN DPKO report on countermeasures records whether 
there is SEA language in the mission mandate, a conduct and 
discipline team (CDT), an OIOS team, a point of contact for 
SEA allegations to be reported, if a senior UN representative 
has visited the mission regarding SEA, and whether there are 
designated off-limit areas for mission personnel in an effort 
to abate SEA cases. According to the report, all UN 
peacekeeping missions require their personnel to complete a 
course in preventing sexual exploitation and abuse prevention 
when they arrive at the mission, and all UN peacekeeping 
missions have a CDT in place. 
 
End Background. 
 
¶8. Action Request: The Department requests that posts with UN 
peacekeeping missions whose mandate will be renewed between 
September 1, 2008 and February 28, 2009, provide an 
assessment, no later than July 8, of the efficacy of UN 
efforts to prevent SEA and/or TIP. These peacekeeping 
missions are MINURCAT, UNMIL, MINUSTAH, UNOMIG, UNFICYP, 
UNDOF, MONUC, UNOCI, and UNMIT. Posts are requested to 
comment in detail on host government and popular perceptions 
(such as local human rights NGOs, the general public, and the 
media) of the scope of the SEA and TIP problem as it relates 
to UN peacekeeping personnel, the seriousness with which UN 
leadership approaches SEA and TIP, and the degree to which UN 
actions have been effective in preventing SEA and TIP. Please 
list government and non-governmental organizations that were 
interviewed. Posts are also requested to provide the 
reference number of your previous report in your cable. The 
congressional notification will include approximately one 
page of background and analysis per mission, so post input 
need not be more than three or four paragraphs long. Since 
nearly all peacekeeping mandates are extended by the Security 
Council in six-month increments, most posts will be asked to 
update their analysis twice a year. UNTSO will not be 
included in the report since it has an open-ended mandate; 
however, we would appreciate Tel Aviv's and Jerusalem's 
comments on UNDOF. 
 
¶9. The point of contact for this request is Elizabeth 
Renieris in IO/PSC (202-736-7737). 
RICE