Topic: 2025 – Criminal Accountability of UN Officials
Country: Central African Republic
Delegate Name: Haley Hansen
Crime is a universal problem for all countries, but it becomes a dire issue when the people put in charge of protecting countries from crime are the criminals. Countries count on the United Nations to help them at their weakest; they entrust the United Nations officials with the lives of their people. I ask my fellow delegates, what is a country left to do when the people sent to protect it take advantage of it and its citizens instead? Being sent to countries in their most fragile state gives United Nations workers, like peacekeepers, the opportunity to exploit a country and its people.
The Central African Republic affirms the need for United Nations officials to face accountability for their crimes, as it is no stranger to such abuse. For example, allegedly, on the third of August two thousand and fifteen, United Nations peacekeepers shot and killed a father and son, Balla and Souleimane Hadji, refusing to transport them to a medical center, and shooting at the daughter when she attempted to aid her dying family (theguardian.com). Or a day earlier, when a twelve-year-old girl reported that a United Nations peacekeeper allegedly took her out of her home and separated her from her family during a house-search and then proceeded to baterize and rape her behind a truck (theguardian.com). And that’s only one of 730 reports made as of two thousand and fifteen of United Nations peacekeepers’ sexual abuse in the Central African Republic (thenewhumanitarian.org).
As stated, the Central African Republic is familiar with the abuse put forward by United Nations officials. Many overseers of these officials were aware of the abuses, but ignored and or failed to penalize them accurately. Due to the economic state of the Central African Republic, it does not have enough funding or resources for functioning and or efficient courts to prosecute the violations made by United Nations officials and workers. It is important to the Central African Republic that justice is taken swiftly and efficiently, but that the delegates here consider the fragile and destitute state of the Central African Republic when making their decisions.
This is why the Central African Republic favors a solution with prosecution handled by the UN. The officials who committed such crimes were allowed to join and serve in the United Nations despite the numerous possible warning signs. The Central African Republic would support solutions that enact some form of further or improved psychological evaluation of United Nations officials to prevent exploitation and crime. Given the lackluster punishment of past violations made by United Nations officials, it is crucial that accurate punishments are served to the perpetrators. This relies on the United Nations to be transparent in the ways it manages crimes carried out by its officials. All in all, the Central African Republic is in high hopes to finally bring justice and peace to the victims of these crimes, and restore the integrity of the UN.
