Mandela’s widow launches campaign to end immunity for sexual exploitation in UN peacekeeping
NEW YORK(AP) _ Nelson Mandela‘s widow and prominent activists have launched a campaign to end immunity for sexual exploitation by civilians and police in U.N. peacekeeping missions.
Graca Machel challenged world leaders at a news conference Wednesday to take the lead and demand an end to immunity and to sexual abuse in U.N. missions which has tarnished the U.N.’s reputation.
U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Anthony Banbury stressed that civilians and police in peacekeeping missions have immunity only for their work _ not for acts of sexual abuse and rapes. “We have no interest in protecting them,” he said.
Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World, countered that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has to determine whether immunity is lifted for a civilian or police officer. That gap of time often results in evidence being destroyed, she said.
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Alwin Marshall-Squire is the Editor-in-Chief of S-Q Publications Inc., overseeing editorial strategy for GTA Weekly, GTA Today, and Vision Newspaper. He leads the publications’ mission to deliver bold, original journalism focused on the people and communities of the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, and the global Caribbean diaspora.
Also writes for GTA Weekly and GTA Today.
