"Aid organizations do too little against sexual abuse"

Aid organizations do too little against sexual abuse by their own employees. The sector has been experiencing exploitation and sexual abuse for years, but has not been able to solve the problem. This is the conclusion of the International Development Committee, a parliamentary committee of the British House of Commons in a report released Tuesday.

Sexual violence, exploitation and abuse of women and girls by aid workers is widespread in many developing countries, especially when conflict and forced displacement occur, the committee writes. According to the committee, this is an under-exposed problem. The problems that have emerged lately are just the tip of the iceberg.

The sector's reactive, piecemeal and slow response has created an impression of "complacency that borders on complicity", and more. according to the report.

Oxfam Scandal

Earlier this year, the British newspaper The Times revealed that employees of the British humanitarian organization Oxfam were organizing sexual encounters in 2010 and 2011 with minor girls about violence and natural violence Haiti. Subsequently, a flood of messages appeared on the scandals of abuse in other aid organizations, such as Plan International and Médecins Sans Frontières. In total, abuses were detected in forty humanitarian organizations

The British House of Commons created a parliamentary committee after the Oxfam scandal. "As insurmountable as it may seem, solutions must be found," says Stephen Twigg, MP and Chair of the committee. "This horror must be resolved."

"Six months after the Times of exploitation exhibition in Haiti, the Committee released a first look at the worrying issue of sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector. Since, many things have changed, but one thing is not: the failure of the international aid sector to master this problem, so that the victims are delivered to those who want to use the power to abuse others This must be taken into account. "