New Humanitarian: Why the U.N. must set up an independent body to tackle sexual abuse
Anders Kompass, Swedish diplomat and civil servant

“Six years ago, I became a U.N. whistleblower, intervening to stop the sexual abuse of children by soldiers in Central African Republic. The revelation led to an independent investigation into how the U.N. had handled the affair and, in 2015, to a damning report that identified severe structural and systemic weaknesses within the U.N. system. At the end of it, in 2016, I resigned from the United Nations, making a final call for structural change in the ethical standards of the organization. Since then, I have looked from a distance as Sweden’s ambassador in Central America, still hoping that the U.N. would learn from what had happened, and change. Last week, though, The New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation published a one-year investigation into (yet another) sex abuse scandal involving the United Nations. I read the details with a bone-chilling feeling of déjà-vu coursing through me — the abuse, the denial, the internal closing of the ranks, the excuses, the passing of the buck: It had all happened before. … So, allow me to make a few suggestions for consideration by the United Nations…” (10/8).