UN seeks to eliminate peacekeeping sex scams

To eliminate sex abuse from UN peacekeeping missions, the first major review of operations in 15 years recommends that countries which flout children's rights be barred from blue helmet missions.

A panel headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta was tasked with rethinking peacekeeping at a time when UN missions are increasingly under threat and increasingly asked to manage conflicts.

Ramos-Horta was tapped to carry out the mission last year before recent allegations implicated UN peacekeepers in sexual abuse in Haiti and Liberia, and French troops in Central African Republic.

On Tuesday, he submitted his report to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

A summary of the report, obtained by AFP, recommends that troops from countries that flout the rights of children in armed conflict be excluded from UN peacekeeping missions.

The United Nations publishes annual lists to shame countries with questionable records on children and armed conflict, and on conflict related sexual violence.

The report also recommends that disciplinary action -- or the lack of it -- taken by troop contributing countries be disclosed.

Six-month deadlines should also be imposed on investigations, compared to an average 16 months, and "an effective and adequately resourced victim assistance program" set up.

Peacekeepers' immunity from prosecution must not mean impunity, and should not be extended to UN personnel alleged to have committed sexual exploitation and abuse, the summary recommended.

Ramos-Horta, a former president and resistance leader from East Timor, recommended that UN civilian staff could face local justice.

"No one should be above the law," he told reporters. But he recognized that no soldiers of any country would accept being subject to national law. Instead, they could face justice at home.

Ramos-Horta said the recent UN troop scandals were "the worst thing that can happen to the UN" that "undermines its credibility.

"It will take enormous efforts to overcome this dark chapter," he told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.