UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon moved to ratchet up pressure on countries whose nationals are accused of sexual abuse while serving in peacekeeping missions.
Ban outlined a series of steps to the United Nations Security Council a day after firing the head of the UN force in the Central African Republic over a string of scandalous allegations of child sexual abuse by the peacekeepers, France24 reported.
Under UN rules, it is up to the troop-contributing country to investigate and prosecute soldiers accused of misconduct while serving under the UN flag.
“I am frustrated by what appear to be far too lenient sanctions for such grave acts affecting men, women and all too often children,” Ban told a two-hour closed-door meeting of the council.
He told the council he plans to name-and-shame countries whose troops face allegations of misconduct in his annual report and asked the council to follow up on all reported cases.
So far, there have been 57 claims of misconduct, 11 of which possibly involve child sex abuse.
