SOB's Collected Ramblings 

Link to Petition

The United Nations is the outstretched arm of the global, International Community, and each UN Peacekeeper is, in reality, a representative for each individual member of that global community.

UN Peacekeepers and Personnel, when deployed, agree to be subject to an accepted mandate, to protect, serve, alleviate suffering, and establish peace in regions torn by war and conflict. Tacitly included in this mandate is the responsibility of each UN Peacekeeper/Personnel to represent to the civilian population of such regions, a beacon of hope, safety and trust, both for the immediate need and for the future.

UN Personnel are easily recognizable through their use of uniquely colored blue berets and helmets. When UN Personnel, both military and civilian, commit crimes against the local population in regions they are bound to protect, that trust and hope is betrayed and that blue color becomes tainted. If the crime committed is not dealt with quickly, is glossed over or is marginalized and not prosecuted, there can be no safety for those they are charged to watch over and safeguard.

When UN Personnel commit crimes of abuse against children in such regions, the betrayal is doubled, because those crimes not only smear the good name of the UN and its Personnel, past and present, throughout the globe, but the children who are the victims of such abusive crimes suffer the long-term effects that are the natural consequences of such horror, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, an inability to trust, fear, and a whole host of psychological disorders and physical damage. Coupled with the fact that they are already in conflict situations that cause fear, the fact that those entrusted to care for them and make them safe have betrayed them, easily causes damage that will stay with them for life, and will engender fear and psychological problems they may pass on to their own children.

Internationally, the United Nations represents us all - the population of the World - and we, the undersigned, refuse to have our good names tainted by the despicable conduct of a few UN Personnel, who through their abusive actions against children in war zones, betray those children, their nation, and by proxy, the entire International Community.

We therefore, as part of the International Community, appeal to the UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-Moon the Presidency of the International Criminal Court: Judge Philippe Kirsch (Canada) President, Judge Akua Kuenyehia (Ghana) as First Vice-President, Judge René Blattman (Bolivia) as Second Vice-President, the other two judiciary organs, the Security Council as presently constituted, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court: Mr. Louis Moreno-Ocampo, the Deputy Prosecutor Mrs. Fatou Bensouda and what agents the office of the UN Secretary General may use to implement change and establish procedures for change, that measures be taken to put a stop to the abuse - sexual and otherwise - of children at the hands of UN Personnel in war zones. That criminal investigation begins immediately, the offending parties arrested in an expeditious manner and that a Tribunal is immediately seated to hear the case. To accomplish the above we urgently request the following be immediately implemented:

· Make all UN Personnel accountable to the International Crimes Court at in The Hague, alternatively establishing a permanent Tribunal for the Investigation and Prosecution of Crimes committed against children in war zones and make UN Personnel accountable to such a Tribunal.

· Make immediate superior officers accountable for the conduct of their troops on pain of loosing their commission and being given a dishonorable discharge as well as prosecuted in an UN based Court of Criminal Justice such as the ICC and not in their home country.

· Create a screening process for all UN Personnel going into the field to determine their suitability for the work, with focus on their attitudes towards children and sex with children.

· Together with an independent children’s organization, such as Save The Children, create a mandatory educational program that focuses on the harm done to child victims of abuse (sexual and otherwise) both short-term and long-term, and stresses the importance of UN personnel protecting children in war-zones from such abuse and how to prevent such abuse from being committed by UN Personnel.

· Allow independent NGO’s such as Save the Children, The Red Cross, and Doctors without Borders to conduct regular and frequent independent investigations and bring to justice such UN Personnel that have been found to be engaging in crimes (sexual and otherwise) in relation to children in War Zones.

· Make it mandatory for Superior officers to investigate rumors and reports from the local population of this kind of abuse, and make sure that such UN personnel that have been found to be engaging in crimes (sexual and otherwise) in relation to Children in War Zones are brought to answer to those charges before an International Court of Criminal Justice.

· For the purpose of expediency and to make International Criminal Justice available to the victims of crimes committed by UN Personnel in war zones, establish an independent International Office of Justice in each Region in which UN Personnel are stationed, so that the victims themselves can easily and safely bring their charges for investigation.

· If feasible, given the circumstances in each region, provide UN personnel a rotation duty cycle that allows them a safe period to seek out legal forms of relaxation conducive to their religion, country of origin or region of service. Any lack in facilities for such recreation to be provided for under UN supervision in direct connection to UN Posts.

From our hearts and our strong sense of responsibility to the children who, through no fault of their own, are forced to struggle on a daily basis with the horror of the conflicts created by adults in their regions for power, greed and politics, we, the undersigned, demand that you make such changes to protect those rights established by your own body in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We thank you for your time and efforts for human rights world-wide.

Link to Petition

How do we, the People, do something about the abuse and exploitation of children being committed by UN Personnel around the world?

One thing we can do is petition the UN to put some safety-guards into their recruiting process, take some legal action and give their personnel "safe sex"

Here are 7 points that I would put in a petition:

1. Make UN Personnel accountable to the International War crimes Tribunal in Hague.

2. Make Superior officers accountable for the conduct of their Troops on pain of loosing their commission and being dishonorable discharged.

3. Create a screening process that all UN Personnel going into the Field has to undergo, to determine their suitability for the work, with focus on their attitudes towards children.

4. Allow independent NGO's such as Save the Children, The Red Cross, Doctors without Borders to conduct yearly investigations.

5. Make it mandatory for Superior officers to investigate rumors and reports from the locals of this kind of abuse, and don't just trust their sense of honor to do this.

6. Exclude from deployment troops from countries where sex with children is part of the culture - such as Thailand, Indonesia etc.

This last point is controversial - but it addresses part of the reason why this happens.

7. Provide UN personnel with "safe sex" through the creation of UN supervised and UN controlled brothels in direct connection to UN Deployments. There's nothing wrong with prostitution as long as we are talking about consenting adults, and those consenting adults are given health-care and decent (and controlled) pay for the services rendered.

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Some may balk at the last one - especially those feminists that consider any kind of sex-work to be abuse of women.

However, not all prostitution is bad or demeaning to women. In fact many sex-workers will tell you that to them it's like any other work, and they will also tell you that if there were Unions for sex-workers they would join.

Others may think that excluding people from some countries is discriminatory, and it might be, but Thailand and Indonesia are well known for a big child-prostitution sector that the government is not doing much about, so it's safe to say that there is a culture of acceptance towards sex with children.

Yet other may feel that it's a bad idea to make UN Personnel accountable to the War Crimes Tribunal - but if you think about it, it's logical.

UN Peacekeepers serve the International Community, it is only fitting that should they commit crimes they should answer for those crimes in front of an International Court.

There have always been a tradition that the Superior Officers are responsible for the conduct of the troops under their command - so making the Superior Officers face real consequences if their troops misbehave, should make them a little more likely to protect civilians.

Imported from external blog

Save the Children - UK News

World (tags: Children, Save the Children UK, UN Peacekeepers, Abuse, exploitation ) Despite recent political commitments by governments and international organisations to tackle this problem, the report exposes the chronic under-reporting of such abuse, which leaves many children around the world suffering in silence.

World (tags: sexual, sexually, abuse, abusing, aid, workers, children, child, welfare, war, disaster, sudan, ivory coast, save the children, organization, charity )

Companion Articles:

BBC NEWS | Americas | UN troops face child abuse claims

BBC NEWS | Americas | UN to discuss child abuse claims

The U.N. Sex Scandal

UN to hold inquiry into Sudan child abuse - Telegraph

I read the above and I am speechless with anger - How dare they!? How dare they put on that Blue Beret and do THAT to children?

The UN represent all that is good, decent and hope inspiring in the world, and they dare defile this with their perverted, cruel, sadistic and inhumane practices...!

Those children...That Blue Beret stands for the help those kids have a right to expect from its bearers, and they have their trust crushed by vile desires and unbridled immorality. Those children, the weakest of the weak, the smallest of the small, with the inborn right to protection and support that the Blue Beret guarantees, are being abused and exploited - in MY name, in my father's name, in the name of the world...of all the vile things humans can do, THAT is the vilest.

My father was a UN Peacekeeper and those vile humans desecrate his memory, his good heart and his willingness to serve humanity in that Blue Beret.

This is one of those instances when I believe a good Company Punishment would be just fine.

Let the perpetrators run a gauntlet among their peers, put them in jail and throw away the key. They are not only a disgrace to every decent soldier in the world, they are a disgrace to the entire human race. Break their sabers and exile them from humanity for the remainder of their lives.

May G-d have Mercy on their souls, because they are going to need it.

Imported from external blog

...because it's fun..." (ten year old girl on the topic of this image on a T-shirt:

Think about this: a picture of a fat, hairy woman, sleeping in a bed. A group of men start making fun of her, saying things like "think about waking up with THAT in your bed!" "disgusting!" "Think about having THOSE legs around you while making love!"

 

Pretty upsetting, huh? This is nevertheless the style a picture of a hairy man sleeping was commented in a women's group in a debate forum, and when a couple of men got offended and sad by it, they were driven out of the group with insults and mockery... to this day those women don't understand that it is just as insulting towards a man as it is towards a woman.

That same women chased me out of a Group for posting a post which said: "All Women are Stupid" and didn't get why I would say such a thing - they didn't get that I said that exactly to show how they would react if indeed the tables were turned. Their reaction was exactly what I had imagined it would be. They had absolutely no problem badmouthing men in general, mock and belittle their own husbands and boyfriends, but when I said "All women are stupid" all hell broke loose.

Not only are they misandrists and chauvinist sows, they are hypocrites as well.

Imported from external blog

"...I'm more troubled that boys who fall victim to abuse by female teachers are treated as lucky little Lotharios or junior Don Juans. As you might remember, Details declared a few months back that "we ought to be happy for these pubescent pioneers ... any one of those little Miss Crabtree-bagging twerps is probably being carried atop the shoulders of his classmates like some conquering hero." In other words: Break out the beer -- these pubescent boys are culturally sanctioned men!" From Article by Tracy Clark-Flory

This is a perfect example of societal gender bias and how gender stereotypes are being used to both excuse the perpetrators and ignore the victims. Ms Clark-Flory seem to be condoning this, but I do wonder what she means by calling these abuse boys "little twerps"? Wouldn't that be like calling the female counter-parts "little tarts"?

"But a mainstream media outlet -- the Associated Press, no less -- has finally tackled this cultural double standard. The article gives voice to 54-year-old Jeff Pickthorn, who was sexually abused at age 12 by his seventh-grade teacher, a 24-year-old woman: "Hollywood, they think it's such a hot thing when a guy gets laid at a young age. I tell you, it's not a hot thing." The abuse left him "with no boundaries" as an adult, and the AP summarizes his life as "marred by affairs, gambling, and ruined marriages." Same article.

It is good to see that also mainstream media is catching up to what men and boys have known for as long as sexual abuse have existed - that your gender doesn't protect you against the painful consequences of being victims of sexual abuse, and that women too are perps.

Boys who suffer from sex abuse "are seen as studs," the article notes, while girls are viewed as vulnerable victims, not by virtue of their age but their gender. As a result, male sex abuse victims have to process their feelings about the abuse while receiving a congratulatory pat on the back and frat-boy punch to the shoulder. Psychologist Richard Gartner, author of "Beyond Betrayal: Taking Charge of Your Life After Boyhood Sexual Abuse," said: "A boy is likely, with a female teacher, to claim that it wasn't a problem, it wasn't molestation, it wasn't abuse, he wasn't hurt by it." It can be several decades before he comes to terms with the abuse. "In our society, we're socialized to think that men aren't victims, that that's the province of women," Gartner added. "To say that you are a victim and particularly a sexual victim, for many boys and men, is to say that you're not entirely a man."

The ultimate betrayal of boys and men who are victims of sexual abuse is exactly that they are not allowed to view and name the abuse for what it is: ABUSE. That which you are not allowed to name, you cannot properly heal from. This means that not only are we ignoring and diminishing what those boys and men have been through, we actively condone the abuse as something they should be grateful for, because it proves they are men.

Now, that is just sick.

Imported from external blog