Over the past 15 years, the United Nations (UN) has recorded more than 1,700 allegations of sexual abuse by its peacekeepers in conflict zones around the world — from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Kosovo, and from East Timor to Haiti.
Why has the problem persisted, despite the UN’s efforts to stamp out abuse?
Find out tonight in UN Sex Abuse Scandal — a new FRONTLINE investigation into how the UN is falling short in dealing with sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers.
“Though the UN’s new secretary-general has vowed to make combatting sexual abuse and exploitation a top priority, we’ve found that not only is it still happening — but that many victims hadn’t been contacted by the UN, and that criminal accountability for the perpetrators remains elusive,” says correspondent Ramita Navai.
In making tonight’s film, Navai, director Sam Collyns, and their team tracked down survivors who were as young as 11 when they say they were raped or sexually exploited by UN peacekeepers who were supposed to protect them. Many of them are sharing their stories for the first time — and several of them heard from the UN only after FRONTLINE brought their cases to the UN’s attention.
In a stunning development, Navai and the film team also found and interviewed Didier Bourguet — the only civilian peacekeeper to have been imprisoned for sexual abuse while working abroad for the UN. He was incarcerated for two rapes — but he tells FRONTLINE on-camera that he had sex with about 20 or 25 children while in the Congo. And, the film team tracked down a new alleged victim who says she was abused by Bourguet as a girl in 2004, and who hadn’t been contacted by the UN.
“My heart is not content,” the woman, Valerie, says in tonight’s documentary. “This person has ruined my life.”
