A new study on the sexual behavior of peacekeepers of the UN mission for stabilization in Haiti (Minustah) carried out by university researchers Sabine Lee, history professor at the University of Birmingham and Susan Bartels, a clinical scientist at Queen's University in Canada was published this week in "The Conversation" magazine

According to these two academics, who interviewed 2,500 people who lived near the Minustah bases, "peacekeepers, soldiers and civilian employees of the United Nations mission fathered hundreds of children in Haiti between 2004 and 2017, leaving mothers, women and daughters alone to face poverty and social stigma. The authors point out that the UN did not assist these women and girls, leaving them alone in misery to raise their child...

Although the study authors do not assess the number of women and girls who are fertilized, it does describe a widespread phenomenon of sexual abuse and exploitation. 265 of those interviewed by the team spoke of children fathered by members of the Minustah. The soldiers accused of having fathered children in Haiti came from 13 different countries, but mainly from Uruguay and Brazil.

While some Haitian women have reported acts of sexual violence by United Nations personnel, most accounts point to "more subtle forms of coercion," writes the New York Times, which echoes the study. The soldiers offered money or food for sex to extremely poor women. Still others have reported consensual relationships that ended when soldiers left Haiti.

For Sabine Lee, the UN must stop repatriating staff involved in sexual abuse to their homes and hand them over to the local authorities of the country victim of these acts.

Asked by the New York Times, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations said it took the study seriously and that the fight against sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers was an priority of Secretary General António Guterres...

SL/ HaitiLibre