UN: Some sexual abuse charges against peacekeepers ignored

A new push against what the U.N. secretary-general calls the "cancer" of peacekeeper sexual misconduct, after the issue flared again last week, has a troubling weakness:

The girl does not blame a U.N. peacekeeper for her sexual assault — multiple peacekeeping forces have been in the country — but four other children the organization has treated in the country's capital, Bangui, do.

On Monday, the U.N. mission in Congo tweeted a series of warnings, including an image of a girl on a bed next to a peacekeeper uniform with the words, "No sex with children!" The tweet was later deleted.

The U.N. defines sexual abuse as "actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature," and it prohibits "exchange of money, employment, goods or services for sex."

In two instances of credible allegations of child sexual abuse, including the abuse of a half-dozen children in Haiti by multiple U.N. police officers, peacekeepers were sent home but no punishment was listed.

In Central African Republic, a dozen allegations of sexual misconduct have been received since the mission there was established in April 2014, the peacekeeping office in New York says.

Stretched for resources with a record number of peacekeepers in the field, the U.N. has hesitated to upset member states by announcing the countries whose troops or police are accused of wrongdoing, until now.

Even though member states, as part of signed agreements to contribute peacekeepers, now promise to give the U.N. chief regular updates on misconduct cases, "some do not respond at all."