[2008.05.31] Who will watch the watchmen? 维和人员性虐丑闻

A report this week by the British branch of Save the Children, an aid organisation, underlines the problem. In a study carried out last year in three places with a strong international presence—southern Sudan, Haiti and Côte d’Ivoire—the charity said it had found widespread sexual abuse of children, some as young as six, by aid workers and, above all, by UN peacekeepers. More than half the 250 boys and girls aged 10-17 it interviewed said they knew of such cases. But the abuse remained “widely underreported”, it said, because most children were too frightened to come forward.
救助组织“拯救儿童”在英国的分支机构本周出台的一份报告使得这个问题进入视野。该组织 针对去年国际救助人员较为集中的三个地点——苏丹南部、海地、科特迪瓦——进行了一项研究，发现某些救助人员甚至联合国维和人员对儿童实施性侵的现象十分 普遍，某些受害儿童仅有六岁。接受调查的250名10到17岁的儿童中，超过一半都表示听说过此种案例。该报告同时指出，由于多数受害儿童因害怕而不愿透 露，性侵犯现象被“普遍低估”。

Sadly, the report tells a familiar tale. The UN in particular has been plagued by sex scandals among its peacekeepers in recent years. After a particularly shocking series of rapes by Nepalese blue-helmets in Congo in 2003, Kofi Annan, then UN secretary-general, set up a committee of inquiry. Its damning findings of “repeated patterns” of rape and other sexual abuse by peacekeepers prompted Mr Annan to announce three years ago a policy of “zero tolerance” for such crimes for all the 200,000 or so personnel, civilian and military, who are employed by the UN and its agencies around the world.
此份报告揭露的现象其实早已存在。联合国近年来已深陷维和人员性丑闻之中。2003年在刚果发生了尼泊尔籍维 和人员连续强奸案件，时任秘书长安南下令成立调查委员会，并揭露了维和人员强奸及性侵犯的“固定模式”。这一结果促使安南颁布了“零容忍”政策，该政策适 用于联合国及其在各国的分支机构所属约20万军地人员。

The world body has always banned its staff in the field from having sex with prostitutes or anyone under the age of 18. It also “strongly discourages” sexual relations even with consenting adults in the host population. “Conduct and discipline” teams have now been set up in each of the UN’s 17 peacekeeping missions, along with an overarching special unit at its headquarters in New York, to help eradicate the scourge. In addition, since 2005 all new peacekeepers have been required to undergo training to prevent sexual exploitation before being sent to the field.
联合国一直严禁维和人员狎妓或与未成 年人发生性关系。在对方同意的情况下与驻在国成年人发生性关系也被联合国列为“强烈不建议”的行为。为根除丑闻，目前已有17个联合国维和任务区建立了 “纪检部”，在联合国总部也成立了一个跨部门的特别机构。此外，自2005年起，所有新进维和人员在派驻之前都必须接受预防实施性侵犯的特别培训。

But the abuse continues, seemingly unabated. Following the scandal in Congo, there have been serious incidents of alleged rape of civilians by blue-helmets every single year—in Burundi (2004), Sudan (2005), Haiti (2006), Liberia (2006) and Côte d’Ivoire (2007). Last year the UN received 748 allegations of misconduct by its peacekeepers, 127 of which involved sexual exploitation and abuse. Most, if not all, will be investigated. But few are likely to lead to convictions or sanctions.
但 势头似乎并未得到遏制。刚果丑闻之后，每年都会爆出维和部队强奸平民的案件——布隆迪（2004）、苏丹（2005）、海地（2006）、利比里亚 （2006）和科特迪瓦（2007）。去年，联合国共接到关于维和部队行为不端的指控748起，其中127起都涉及性侵犯或性虐待。几乎针对每起都进行了 调查，但定罪或惩处的却寥寥无几。

For when it comes to its blue-helmets, the UN finds itself in a bind. Although it can, and does, investigate any serious complaints against them, it has no jurisdiction over the alleged culprits. Only their home states have the authority to try and punish them. Most peacekeeping troops come from the developing world—Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Jordan, Nigeria, Nepal and Ghana are the biggest contributors—and many prefer to sweep such incidents under the carpet. All the UN can do is to dismiss them and recommend their repatriation. As all peacekeeping troops enjoy absolute legal immunity, the host country cannot do anything either.
因为在涉及到维和部队的事务上，联合国一直处于尴尬境 地。虽然它可以调查每一起针对维和部队的指控（它也的确是这么做的），但对于嫌疑人，裁决权却不在联合国，而是派出国手里。多数维和部队来自发展中国家， 主要有孟加拉、巴基斯坦、印度、约旦、尼日利亚、尼泊尔和加纳等。这些国家很多都倾向于隐瞒此类事件。联合国只能将嫌疑人开除出维和队伍，交还其母国惩 处。此外，所有维和官兵均享有司法豁免权，驻在国往往鞭长莫及。

Civilian police attached to such missions are a different matter. Like other non-local UN civilian staff in the field, they enjoy only qualified immunity—for actions committed in the course of their official functions. Rape and the abuse of minors would not fall into that category, of course. So such crimes could, in theory, be prosecuted locally. In practice, however, this is unlikely, as the kind of countries to which blue-helmets are sent have either appalling justice systems, or non-existent ones. Besides, finding witnesses willing to speak and assembling sufficient evidence are often virtually impossible in such chaos.
任务区的维和民事警察却是另一种情况。和其它外籍地方维和人员一样，他 们仅在执行官方职责时享有特定豁免权，而对未成年实施强奸或是虐待是不受豁免的，因此此类案件可以在驻在国审理。但实际操作中却是难以实行，因为被派驻维 和人员国家的司法体制往往不健全，甚至形同虚设。而且，在被派驻国混乱的局势里，几乎不可能找到愿意出庭的证人或是搜集到充分证据定罪。

Aid agencies and other NGOs are subject to different laws again. Their foreign-based workers have no immunity in the host country. If they come from civil-law countries, like France, they may be prosecuted—though with great difficulty—back home. Citizens of common-law states, like Britain and most old Commonwealth states, cannot usually be prosecuted at home for crimes committed abroad, but they can be for sex offences.
其它援助机构或非政府组织所适用的法律又有区别。它们派出国外的人员没有任何豁免权。如果是来自法国等民法法系国家，控告会在国内进行，当然往往也是困难重重。而在普通法系国家，如英国及其它曾经的英联邦国家，境外罪行往往不能在国内审判，不过性犯罪则不在此列。

Most NGOs have codes of conduct, under which the purchase of sexual favours, let alone actual abuse, is strictly banned. But the toughest penalty they can impose is dismissal. Save the Children UK recently sacked three workers for having sex with girls of 17, which, though not illegal, breached its code.
多数非政府组织都有自己的行为准则。性虐，甚至购买性服务都是严格禁止的。但最严厉的惩罚只不过是开除。最近，“拯救儿童”组织英国分支机构的三名工作人员与17岁的女孩发生性行为。该行为虽未违法，却违反了组织的规定，最终他们被开除。

The charity now wants an international watchdog to tackle abuse. How it can succeed where the UN has failed is unclear. One of the biggest problems is not just the unwillingness of victims to complain, but their ignorance of their basic rights. What is needed, suggests Françoise Hampson, a professor of international law, is a campaign to inform the locals of their rights, along with an easily accessible complaints procedure. But in a huge, chaotic place like Congo, that’s a tall order.
该 机构最近建议成立一个国际机构以遏制此类案件发生。如何能避免联合国类似机构的覆辙还是个问题。最大的问题不光是受害者不愿申诉，而且她们对于自身基本权 益毫无所知。国际法教授Françoise Hampson认为应在被派驻国开展知识普及，告知当地百姓他们的基本权益以及可行的申诉程序。但在像刚果这样的混乱国度，这也是天方夜谭。

Another way to improve the present system, she says, would be to require heads of mission to investigate any allegations of wrongdoing at the first whisper, rather than waiting for a formal complaint. She also proposes that the agreements drawn up between the UN and troop-contributing nations be modified to oblige the state at least to tell the UN what it has done to punish wrongdoers.
Hampson教授的第二条建议，是要求各任务区司令一听到消息立即开展调查，而非等到正式申诉之后。她还建议修订联合国与部队派出国直接的协议，要求派出国至少告知对于违法者是如何惩处的。

The UN has been trying to strengthen its procedures. Under a revised “model memorandum of understanding” adopted last year, governments are now explicitly required “to bring the full force of their legal sanctions to bear” to enforce the UN’s standards of conduct. What that will mean in practice has yet to be seen. But at least investigation procedures have improved. Upon notification of a case of serious misconduct, the UN now not only informs the country concerned, but also invites it to investigate the incident in co-operation with its own Office of Internal Oversight Services. The new arrangement was applied for the first time to alleged abuse by Sri Lankan peacekeepers in Haiti last year. Over 100 soldiers now face court-martial.
联合国一直在修订执法程序。去年修订的“谅解 备忘录模板”中明确要求派出国政府“应充分利用其执法手段”以维护联合国的行为规范。这一修订的实际效果我们拭目以待。但至少调查程序有了改善。如今接到 严重违规事件通知后，联合国不但通知相关派出国家，而且邀请该国与“内部监查事务处”共同开展调查。去年在海地发生斯里兰卡维和人员性虐丑闻之后，该程序 首度使用。目前，一百多名违法士兵将面临军事审判。

Deeming the new report “deeply disturbing”, Nick Birnback, the UN’s spokesman for peacekeeping, said it was impossible to ensure “zero incidents” in such a big organisation. “What we can do is to get across a message of zero tolerance, which for us means zero complacency when credible allegations are raised, and zero impunity when we find that there has been malfeasance,” he said. That would indeed be a useful start.
联合国维 和事务发言人Nick Bimback一方面认为这份报告“令人震惊”，另一方面表示在联合国这样的庞大机构中，“零犯罪”的目标难以实现。他表示，“我们所能做的，就是宣告我 们‘零容忍’的政策，这也要求一旦接到可靠申诉，我们将做到‘零耽误’；一旦证据确凿，我们将做到‘零赦免’”。如果确能实现，这将是一个良好的开端。