Back in 2002, the United Nations Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, and Save the Children UK published a joint report that rocked the aid world — at least, it seemed to.
Titled “Sexual Violence and Exploitation: The Experience of Refugee Children in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone,” the report detailed the massive degree to which aid workers across more than 40 organizations — including U.N. peacekeepers, international and local NGOs, and government agencies — were exchanging goods for sex from the populations they were meant to be serving. The majority of victims were girls between 13 and 18 years old. The perpetrators, meanwhile, were “often men in positions of relative power and influence who either control access to goods and services or who have wealth and/or income.”
Officials were quick to express their horror at the paper’s revelations. Then-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was “clearly shocked and disturbed at the news of the possible extensive abuse of children in refugee camps in West Africa,” and that the allegations should be investigated “as thoroughly and urgently as possible.” At a UNHCR executive committee meeting, dozens of delegations took the floor, calling the situation an “indictment of UNHCR's protection regime.” Working groups were established, codes of conduct were drawn up, and calls for an independent watchdog force were issued.