Oxfam employees are said to have sexually humiliated women in crisis areas – apparently this is not an isolated case. Doctors Without Borders and International Rescue Committee (IRC) also reported sexual assault by ir own employees.
Last year re were 24 reported cases of abuse or sexual harassment, Doctors Without Borders shared. Nineteen employees were dismissed in this context. The actual number of attacks could be even higher, as not all cases would be reported centrally.
Details of individual allegations were not known. Doctors Without Borders stressed that prevention of abuse is very serious. For example, re is a reporting system for victims to seek help quickly. The organization provides medical assistance in crisis areas and employs more than 40,000 people.
Cases of sexual misconduct were also known at US Refugee organization IRC, as a spokeswoman in New York confirmed. The cases would have occurred in Congo. It had been established that donors had been informed of accusations. Details did not call spokeswoman.
"That should never have happened"Last week it became known that Oxfam employees were partying with prostitutes and asked for sex in return for emergency relief. The abuse was supposed to have taken place in 2010 in Haiti and 2006 in Chad. In response to reports, British vice-president of Oxfam, Penny Lawrence, resigned. Shortly reafter, Oxfam admitted that an employee who had been denounced for sexual misconduct in Haiti was later hired as a consultant in Ethiopia. "That should never have happened," Oxfam shared. It will be examined how it could come about.
Several Oxfam ambassadors have now laid down ir offices. Among m are South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, British actress Minnie Driver and singer Baaba Maal from Senegal.
There are always accusations of abuse in aid organisations: 2002 came to light, for example, that aid workers and un-blue helmet soldiers had sexually abused refugee children in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The majority of accused were local employees – but re were also accusations against UN soldiers in peace operation. Also in Congo and Central African Republic, UN soldiers were accused of sexual abuse.
Date Of Update: 16 February 2018, 12:03
