On April 29, 2015, the world learned of disturbing accounts of sexual abuse of young boys by French, Chadian, and Equatorial Guinean peacekeepers at a displaced persons camp in the Central African Republic (CAR). These shocking reports of sexual violence carried out by UN mandated peacekeepers have also resulted in questions being asked around how senior officials at the UN mishandled the case and how attempts were made to keep it out of the public domain.
These revelations were only made public after the interviews with the abused children conducted by staff from the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNICEF were leaked to the Guardian newspaper by AIDS-Free World. Anders Kompass, a career human rights official from Sweden was subsequently suspended and investigated by the UN for his role in passing details of the abuse to the French government.
Anders Kompass had to remain silent on his role in this affair due to the internal investigation, even as the UN publicly blamed him for ‘leaking’ the report. AIDS-Free World has since obtained and has released a series of incriminating internal UN documents, memos and email correspondence - including Kompass’ own account of the events - that expose the UN’s inaction. They point to efforts by several senior UN officials to silence a staff member who could expose their failure to sound the alarm or protect children from imminent harm.