Because of paternity suits Blue helmets targeted - but the UN is powerless
An inglorious record for UN peacekeepers: Never have more soldiers been the target of paternity suits than in 2023. Secretary-General Guterres is not the only one sounding the alarm about this. But the UN lacks an important tool.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The UN's blue helmets are supposed to protect people on their peace missions around the world.
- But a minority of soldiers exploit their privileged situation to exploit women. As a UN investigation shows, they are often left behind with their children.
- Compensation mechanisms work poorly and complaints rarely have a chance of success. But the UN simply lacks the means to act.
29 out of 750: The fact that this is a vanishingly small proportion does not require any great mathematical skills - just 3.9 percent. This percentage includes the successful paternity suits against UN blue helmet soldiers. The figures have been recorded by the United Nations since 2006. They have recently been compiled in a publicly accessible dashboard.
This not only shows that women are particularly affected in African countries - especially South Africa. It also reveals that almost 69% of cases are still pending, in some cases for more than a decade.
Another finding: since records began, there have never been as many cases recorded as in 2023, when 109 women sought legal assistance.
"Disaster victim" laments her tale of woe
"I lost everything and became a disaster victim," one of the women told the blog "Passblue" about her ordeal. In a UN peace camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo, she was impregnated by a peacekeeper. That was 20 years ago.
As "compensation", Agnès (anonymized) received just 100 US dollars from the UN, which she used to open a restaurant. The child, who suffers from fatherlessness, also works there today: "The lack of this affection causes me pain."
Cases like Agnès's are exemplary of a sick system that has been exploiting a minority for years. The problem has been identified by the UN's top decision-makers. "It is inexcusable for UN representatives to abuse their role in order to take advantage of those they are supposed to protect," UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on SRF. "Children from such relationships are often stigmatized and live in insecurity and poverty."
Guterres complains: "The UN can do too little on its own"
Christine Besong from the UN Blue Helmets mission in South Sudan agrees without objection: "Potential sexual offenders need to know that the UN will take tough action against them." However, the subjunctive mood of her statement already anticipates the real problem: as alarmist as the statements may sound, the UN lacks any concrete means of action.
Even zero-tolerance regulations, which the institution has long been committed to, are only of limited use. The UN itself cannot initiate legal proceedings. This is the responsibility of the sending countries. The same applies to the often-requested DNA tests of all blue helmets prior to their deployment.
"The UN cannot do enough on its own. Governments must cooperate," says Guterres, urging states to help. The problem is that very few of them are impressed by his words, however forceful they may be. On the one hand, coercion is not possible, and on the other, it would probably have a negative impact on the willingness of states to send blue helmets at all.
"Meagrely endowed" UN fund cannot solve the problem
Nevertheless, the UN has announced the creation of a fund to financially support the women and their children affected. However, this alone is not enough, as UN Deputy Secretary-General Catherine Pollard emphasizes: "The fund is too meagrely endowed to help in all cases."
Alexandra Filiippova agrees and holds the UN accountable. The lawyer heads the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti and is repeatedly confronted with paternity suits there. "The aid is provided under the guise of charity," she criticized to "Bluepass".
"It is very limited and does not treat these women as rights holders or as people who are entitled to parental contributions and support." The small amount of financial aid provided by the UN is nothing more than "paternalistic handouts" that do not address the root of the problem.
