Children's Legal Rights Journal

22 Children’s Legal Rights Journal [Vol. 38: 1 2018]
The child victims’ right to more fully participate in the accountability process regarding
international peacekeeper SEA generally has not been acknowledged as a fundamental universal
human right to equal recognition before the law and part and parcel of the right to a judicial
criminal and/or civil law remedy.101 Nor has child participation in accountability mechanisms
generally been properly understood and appreciated as a potential avenue contributing to the
possibility of some modicum of psychological healing for child peacekeeper SEA victims and their
families. For instance, as discussed, since the first CAR SEA allegations implicating international
peacekeepers became publicly known in 2014, large numbers of additional alleged victims, mostly
children, have come forward in the CAR region with such allegations. Accountability has been
slow and infrequent. Three such alleged perpetrators of SEA in CAR from various States finally
faced a hearing before a criminal tribunal. Specifically, three Congolese were tried before a
military tribunal in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and all three pled not guilty.102 The
charges included rape or attempted rape for certain of the accused before the tribunal in the DRC,
and for eighteen others accused in the DRC who were international peacekeepers.103 Eight-
hundred Congolese troops were repatriated by the UN due to SEA allegations, suggesting a
systemic problem within this particular State international peacekeeping military contingent.104 It
is an open question as to how many remaining of those individual peacekeepers alleged to have
committed SEA against children and/or others while participating in UN peacekeeping operations
will face criminal prosecution in their home country. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that to date,
not uncommonly, there are no child participants in the criminal prosecution hearings concerning
UN peacekeeper perpetrators of SEA while on mission.105 For instance, this was the case in regards
to the hearings for several of the accused Congolese peacekeepers who were alleged to have
committed sexual violence, including against children, while on a UN mission in CAR.106 That is;
the children were not heard as witnesses giving oral testimony or as victim participants in the DRC
hearings being held before a military tribunal:
Venance Kalenga, who attended the hearing as an observer for Congolese
human rights charity ACAJ, said "the absence of victims constitutes a major
obstacle in the demonstration of truth (emphasis added)."107

101 G.A. Res. 217A (III), Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at 8 (Dec. 10, 1948) (stating that “everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law”). Where such is not possible through a national legal forum, it may be possible, as here discussed, to pursue the matter through supranational legal mechanisms.

102 UN peacekeepers go on trial for CAR sex abuse, AL JAZEERA (Apr. 5, 2016), http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/04/peacekeepers-trial-sex-abuse-car-160405040318812.html.

103 Id.

104 Louis Charbonneau, U.N. chief ‘inept’ on peacekeeper sex abuse: key U.S. senator, REUTERS (Apr. 14, 2016, 4: 59 PM), http://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-peacekeepers-usa/u-n-chief-inept-on-peacekeeper-sex-abuse-key-u-s- senator-idUSKCN0XA2MK.

105 UN peacekeepers go on trial for CAR sex abuse: Three Congolese peacekeepers appear before tribunal in first prosecutions for sex abuse crimes in the CAR, AL JAZEERA (Apr. 5, 2016), http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/04/peacekeepers-trial-sex-abuse-car-160405040318812.html.