[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 67 (Thursday, May 19, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1026-E1027]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




U.N. PEACEKEEPING REFORM: SEEKING GREATER ACCOUNTABILITY, INTEGRITY AND 
                             EFFECTIVENESS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 18, 2005

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, earlier today I chaired the 
third in a series of hearings of my Subcommittee on Africa, Global 
Human Rights, and International Operations, on the topic of reform at 
the United Nations, and the second hearing we are holding on 
peacekeeping reform.
  On March 1st, just 12 weeks ago, my committee met to examine credible 
evidence of gross sexual misconduct and exploitation of refugees and 
vulnerable people by U.N. peacekeepers and civilian personnel assigned 
to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 
Human rights groups and the U.N.'s own internal investigations had 
uncovered over 150 allegations against Mission personnel, typically 
involving peacekeepers' sexual contact with Congolese women and girls, 
some as young as 11-14, in exchange for food or small sums of money. 
Further, the U.N. had struggled to deal with similar sexual 
exploitation and abuse allegations in recent years in Sierra Leone, 
Liberia, and Guinea, as well as on the European continent in Kosovo and 
Bosnia. Yet despite many well-meaning gestures, there had not been one 
successful prosecution of U.N. civilian or military personnel, either 
in the Congo or elsewhere.
  At that hearing, the United Nations made available Assistant 
Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, Dr. Jane Holl Lute to 
brief the Subcommittee on steps the U.N. Secretariat and Department of 
Peacekeeping Operations were taking to address the problem. As Members 
of this Subcommittee may recall, Dr. Lute declared, ``. . . The Blue 
Helmet has become black and blue through self-inflicted wounds of some 
of our number and we will not sit still until the luster of that Blue

[[Page E1027]]

Helmet is restored. . . . It is unacceptable. It is simply 
unacceptable. The United Nations peacekeepers owe a duty of care to the 
people we serve. We owe this duty of care to the member states who 
place their trust in us when they send us to a mission. We owe this 
duty of care to the aspirations and hopes for the future that everyone 
has when they invest a peacekeeping mission in places like the Congo. 
It will be stamped out.''
  Since that time, I am pleased to report that I am seeing signs of 
real change in the way the United Nations goes about peacekeeping, 
certainly in the area of preventing human rights abuses. Investigations 
into allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse involving 96 
peacekeeping personnel have been completed, with 66 military personnel 
repatriated on disciplinary grounds. On the civilian side, 3 U.N. staff 
have been dismissed; 6 others are undergoing disciplinary process; and 
3 have been cleared. Missions have put into place a broad range of 
measures to prevent misconduct, from establishing focal points and 
telephone hotlines to requiring troops to wear uniforms at all times.
  Moreover, the Fourth Committee of the U.N. General Assembly on April 
18th unanimously endorsed the reform proposals of the Special Committee 
on Peacekeeping Operations, which include: training on standards of 
conduct; development of established units for peacekeeping rather than 
those assembled on an ad hoc basis; commitments by all troop 
contributing countries to pursue investigations and prosecutions of 
peacekeeping personnel for credible instances of sexual allegation and 
abuse; creation of a database to track allegations and ensure that 
prior offenders are not rehired; organization, management and command 
responsibility to create and maintain an environment that prevents 
against sexual exploitation and abuse; establishment of a professional 
and independent investigative capacity assistance to victims; and 
development of a model MOU for troop contributing countries to 
encompass these recommendations.
  The General Assembly must now act on these recommendations, providing 
the necessary financial and political support to fully and promptly 
implement them. It was my desire that the hearing stimulate the same 
sense of commitment and urgency at the U.N. to undertake broader 
reforms in peacekeeping.
  Peacekeeping has changed significantly since the creation of the 
United Nations and the first peacekeeping missions, which were largely 
limited to ``traditional'' nonmilitary functions, such as monitoring of 
cessation of hostilities agreements, deployment of observer missions, 
and the maintenance and patrol of borders. With the end of the Cold 
War, the number of peacekeeping missions ballooned, as the Security 
Council deployed 20 new missions between 1988 and 1994. Tasks of 
peacekeepers have also evolved and now include more complex assignments 
such as nation-building, protection of vulnerable populations, and 
establishment and maintenance of security in post-conflict 
environments.
  Our collective memories are still painfully sharp in recalling the 
peacekeeping fiascos of Bosnia, Rwanda and Somalia. Thankfully we have 
some notable successes to balance the picture out, in which stability 
was restored and substantial contributions made towards economic and 
political development, in U.N. missions in Kosovo, Sierre Leone and 
East Timor. What these examples illustrate is the importance of getting 
the mandate ``right,'' matching the mission to the mandate, ensuring 
adequate staffing and funding, and providing for a transition to a 
sustained peace.
  U.S. officials have endorsed Secretary General Annan's proposal for a 
Peacebuilding Commission and Support Office to undertake post-conflict 
transition and coordinate donor assistance and activities. But has a 
global audit of existing peacekeeping missions ever been conducted to 
review mandates and right-size missions? Has there been an examination 
of whether peacekeeping tasks could be outsourced to professional 
private security companies to perform tasks more cost-effectively or 
deploy into difficult situations where Member States have demonstrated 
a reluctance or inability to go? What are we doing to widen the donor 
support base for peacekeeping missions? And finally, what should the 
United States do if necessary reforms are not being implemented, either 
by the U.N. or by troop contributing nations?

  In this regard, I have introduced legislation, The Trafficking 
Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, H.R. 972, which 
contains several provisions specifically targeted at preventing 
trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, and abuse by military 
personnel and in peacekeeping operations. H.R. 972 would require the 
State Department to certify to Congress, before it contributes U.S. 
logistical or personnel support to a peacekeeping mission, that the 
international organization has taken appropriate measures to prevent 
the organization's employees, contractors, and peacekeeping forces from 
engaging in trafficking in persons or committing acts of illegal sexual 
exploitation. The provision builds on two prior laws I have authored to 
combat trafficking in persons and reduce sexual exploitation, the 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and the Trafficking Victims 
Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003.
  Other measures in this bill to combat sexual exploitation and 
trafficking in persons by military and peacekeepers are: Amending the 
U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice to prohibit the use or 
facilitation of persons trafficked for sex or labor; Establishing a 
Director of Anti-Trafficking Policies in the Office of the Secretary of 
Defense; Reporting of steps taken by the U.N., OSCE, NATO and other 
international organizations to eliminate involvement of its personnel 
in trafficking; Requiring certification that safeguards are in place to 
prevent military and civilian personnel from trafficking or committing 
acts of sexual exploitation before a U.S. contribution to a 
peacekeeping mission is made.
  In conclusion, the progress since our last hearing is encouraging, 
but we are only at the beginning of the necessary reform process. What 
comes out at the other end I hope will be a United Nations equipped for 
the unique challenges of this new century, with peacekeeping leading 
the way for reforms in other vital areas.