The Code Blue Campaign works to end impunity for sexual abuse by un personnel
THE PROBLEM
For over three decades, allegations of sexual abuse have been levelled against UN personnel around the world. The UN has a zero tolerance policy in place, so why does impunity persist?
the campaign
We launched the Code Blue Campaign in May 2015 to end impunity for sexual abuse by UN personnel. Read more about the campaign, the changes we're seeking, and how we do our advocacy.
media & news
Get the latest news, press releases, and updates from the Code Blue Campaign on sexual abuse by UN personnel.
spotlight
Code Blue shines a spotlight on cases that highlight the UN’s failed responses to sexual abuse by its personnel.
Code Blue: The latest
Must-read updates, statements and press releases from the Code Blue Campaign.
January 20, 2020: Izzy Tod looks back on the UN’s internal gender politics on the 100th anniversary of the League of Nations' founding, in a guest post that first appeared in Cherwell, Oxford’s independent student newspaper. (UN Photo / Mark Garten)
December 20, 2019: Unresolved paternity claims stemming from sexual exploitation and abuse committed by UN peacekeepers are an endemic problem. (UN Photo / Marie Frechon)
December 19, 2019: Code Blue Legal and Policy Advisor Sharanya Kanikkannan calls out UNAIDS’ retaliatory behavior against Martina Brostrom—behavior aimed at silencing victims of sexual assault. (Photo: CNN)
December 13, 2019: Martina Brostrom was fired today from UNAIDS in what she described as a blatant act of retaliation. (Photo credit: Mark Henley)
December 2, 2019: The Code Blue Campaign's Emma Schwartz writes a blog post on the implications of a new academic piece published in International Studies Quarterly. The study’s findings underscore Code Blue’s stance that Burundi has no place in peacekeeping. (UN Photo / Marco Dormino)
October 9, 2019: Yet another United Nations entity—this time the World Food Programme (WFP)—is engulfed in a sexual abuse scandal. An independent survey found WFP to be a cesspool of harassment, discrimination against women and minorities, abuse of authority, and retaliation. The Code Blue Campaign issues a call—once again—for independent oversight. (UN Photo / Logan Abassi)
September 9, 2019: The newly released UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi report shows that Burundi government forces continue to commit sexual violence against women and girls with a shocking degree of impunity. The UN should end it complicity with an odious regime and cease deploying Burundian soldiers as UN peacekeepers. (UN Photo / Stuart Price)
August 14, 2019: AIDS-Free World extends congratulations to Winnie Byanyima on her appointment as Executive Director of UNAIDS, and wishes her luck as she tackles considerable internal and external challenges at the UN entity. (UN Photo / Amanda Voisard)
August 1, 2019: In a new statement, the Code Blue Campaign criticizes the UN for its failure to address the crisis at UNRWA and calls on Member States to intervene by creating an independent oversight panel. (UN Photo / Shareef Sarhan)
July 16, 2019: In a new letter to the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, the Code Blue Campaign calls on the UN to repatriate Burundian peacekeepers serving in the Central African Republic, ending a deployment that earns the brutal and autocratic regime millions of dollars and puts innocent civilians at risk. (UN Photo / Marco Dormino)
May 31, 2019: The UN’s Victims’ Rights Advocate convened an expert workshop to discuss a proposed statement of victims’ rights, but excluded experts with specialized knowledge of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel. (UN Photo / Nektarios Markogiannis)
May 3, 2019: Paula Donovan questions why António Guterres is paying Burundi for the use of its soldiers as UN peacekeepers, providing crucial sustenance to an autocratic regime under investigation by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. (UN Photo / Mark Garten)
March 19, 2019: The UN pays more than $13 million a year to Burundi for 767 peacekeepers, giving a government under investigation for crimes against humanity vital support for its campaign of mass rape and murder. (UN Photo / Martine Perret)
March 18, 2019: The Code Blue Campaign delivers a stinging denunciation of the UN Secretary-General's new Special Measures Report on sexual exploitation and abuse committed by UN personnel. (UN Photo / Eskinder Debebe)
February 25, 2019: The Code Blue Campaign responds to the UN Secretary-General’s announcement of a new Civil Society Advisory Board. (UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré)
January 16, 2019: The Code Blue Campaign delivers its initial reaction to the results of the UN’s sexual harassment survey. (UN Photo)
December 7, 2018: The Code Blue Campaign blasts the UN Secretary-General for failing to take decisive action in response to the recommendations of the Independent Expert Panel, which called for a change in leadership at UNAIDS. (UN Photo / Eskinder Debebe)
December 3, 2018: AIDS-Free World has learned that the leadership of UNAIDS is actively working to suppress a report produced by an Independent Expert Panel (IEP) appointed to look into sexual harassment, bullying, and abuse of power at the UN agency. (Photo: Wikipedia Commons)
October 2018: The latest news and updates from the Code Blue Campaign. (Photo: Screenshot of DFID Safeguarding Summit)
October 17, 2018: In an open letter addressed to the UK’s Secretary of State for International Development on the eve of the "International Safeguarding Summit" in London, Code Blue’s Paula Donovan raises fundamental concerns about and objections to the organization of the conference. (Photo: UN WebTV)
September 26, 2018: In an Op-ed published in Inter Press Service, Code Blue’s Paula Donovan takes on the UN’s handling of an investigation into sexual harassment of a senior UN Women official—demonstrating the UN’s inability to remedy its sex abuse crisis from within. (UN Photo / Cia Pak)
August 16, 2018: After Prashanti Tiwari filed a criminal complaint against UNFPA’s Representative in India and Bhutan, Diego Palacios, the UN asserted immunity, falsely claiming that the accused is immune from legal process. A report detailing the findings of the internal UN investigation provides incontrovertible evidence that UNFPA is in the throes of a concerted effort to block criminal justice. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
July 31, 2018: Read the Code Blue Campaign’s statement on the UK Parliament’s International Development Committee’s new report, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the Aid Sector. (UN Photo/Staton Winter)
July 31, 2018: Read our open letter to Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA, on an ongoing case of sexual assault and sexual harassment by a UNFPA official in India. (UN Photo/Manuel Elias)
July 2018: In the inaugural issue of the Code Blue Bulletin, we provide updates on our multi-faceted advocacy. Read about Paula Donovan's appearance before the UK Parliament, our "community consultation" in Sierra Leone, a troubling case of UN immunity in India, problems with the UN's Victims' Rights Advocate, the latest on the ongoing UNAIDS scandal, and Saramba Kandeh's appearance at a Nairobi conference. (Photo: UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office)
July 9, 2018: In May 2018, Code Blue held its first “Community Consultation” in Sierra Leone, hearing from over 100 residents of Mile 91, a town in the country’s Northern Province. (Photo: ©AIDS-Free World)
June 5, 2018: Paula Donovan delivers an urgent message to the UK Parliament’s Inquiry on sexual exploitation and abuse. (Photo: ©AIDS-Free World)
May 4, 2018: This week the UN announced that it would “reopen” the case against Loures, this time with the UN’s New York-based Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) as investigators and the Director-General of the World Health Organization as the judge. In a new statement, Code Blue cries foul. We believe WHO’s Internal Oversight Service must become the subject of a new investigation, UNAIDS management must also be investigated, and, most important, Member States must monitor the investigations in real-time. (UN Photo / Manuel Elias)
April 27, 2018: Code Blue’s Paula Donovan and Stephen Lewis react to UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ decision to open a new OIOS investigation into sexual assault and sexual harassment claims against UNAIDS Assistant-Secretary-General Luiz Loures. (UN Photo / JC McIlwaine)
March 16, 2018: The Code Blue Campaign writes an open letter to Atul Khare, UN Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, detailing our concerns about the case of an international staff member in the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) who was accused of multiple rapes of a child. (UN Photo / Ryan Brown)
Spotlight on: UNAIDS
Relevant documents, news articles, and Code Blue statements related to sexual assault allegations at UNAIDS.
A Proposal
for Change
The Code Blue Campaign's game-changing proposal to address sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeeping personnel.
Read our proposal →