A recently released study reveals a litany of abuses that left hundreds of Haitian women and girls, some as young as 11, "in misery" after being impregnated and abandoned by United Nations peacekeepers. 

The Conversation, the academic site that conducted the research and published the findings, conducted interviews with 2,500 citizens centered on the experiences of local people whose communities hosted U.N. peacekeeping groups. Out of those, over 10% of accounts (265 stories) were of children fathered by U.N. workers dispatched to provide aid. The study did not specifically ask about relations with peacekeepers, instead allowing the subjects to discuss whatever they chose.  

In one story, a 14-year-old student named Marie discussed how she engaged with a Brazilian soldier working in Haiti as a U.N. peacekeeper. When she became pregnant, he promised to help her but instead returned to Brazil. Marie sent the solider a Facebook message, but he never responded. 

The study lists several community members that imply soldiers deployed by the U.N. and U.N. workers were purposely reassigned once it became known that they had violated a member of the population they were assigned to help. It was reported that boys were also included as victims of sexual assault. 

One woman recounted her sister's experience, describing a love affair that ended abruptly.

"One of my sisters gave birth to a child of the MINUSTAH. My sister had a baby with him because she met him, fell in love with him, he took care of her, but you know, they were sent away. That is why he stopped sending her things," she said.

“She was pregnant from a soldier of the MINUSTAH … [He] was moved from his station and left his post and was never seen again,” said a male Hinche citizen. 

There were also stories of U.N. workers exploiting the extreme poverty of women by coercing sex for food.

“They had sex with the girls not even for money, it’s just for food, for one meal,” one male participant said. 

It wasn't just a trail of exploitation, child abuse and single mothers these workers left behind. It's internationally recognized that peacekeepers introduced cholera to the Haitian population, infecting at least 800,000 persons and killing about 10,000 of them. The outbreak was eventually traced to unsanitary conditions at a Nepalese peacekeepers base.

Though the U.N. apologized for the outbreak, the organization is also protected from being sued by human rights lawyers representing Haiti.

Sexual exploitation of a host population, unfortunately, isn't rare. Similar incidents of misconduct have been reported in peacekeeping missions to Mozambique, Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, among others. In one such extreme case, international peacekeepers in Liberia were reported to have fathered 6,000 children between 1990 and 1998.

The study concluded with three recommendations: A cultural awareness program to educate on power deficits and the "perceived desirability of having a child fathered by a peacekeeper," discontinuing the practice of sending peacekeepers home after they are implicated in sexual crimes — instead making them face prosecution and provide child support, and policy that supports the recent appointment of a Victims’ Rights Advocate for those affected. 

In response, the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operation released a statement saying that it took issues raised in the study seriously and that combating sexual exploitation committed by peacekeepers is a top priority. 

“We have unfortunately seen cases involving Minustah peacekeepers over the past years, although allegations have been generally declining since 2013,” the statement said.

Sexual-ExploitationU.N.-Peacekeepersunited nations