The New Humanitarian features BAI and IJDH’s UN peacekeeper paternity cases, which demonstrate the lack of accountability, justice, and reparations facing survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel:

“Paternity claims against UN personnel are also difficult to enforce, and enforcement is even harder when the suspected father has moved or returned to his home country. 

Although a Haitian judge ordered a UN peacekeeper from Uruguay to make child support payments for a child he fathered, the order has been difficult to enforce. The UN often leaves national authorities to deal with such cases. In the case of UN peacekeepers, this often falls to the countries that contributed the troops.

Several other paternity cases involving UN personnel are being litigated by the Haiti-based Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) and their partner organisation, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH).

‘If the UN was serious about living up to its own stated standards of accountability and victim-focused response, it would create a system that takes direct responsibility for ensuring that victims have access to restitution and support,’ said Sasha Filippova, senior staff attorney with IJDH. 

‘Our cases in Haiti illustrate that in practice, it means there is none,’ Filippova said, adding that in crisis-wracked countries like Haiti, survival needs often become the priority over accountability and restitution.”

Read the full article here.