Thread by @BuzzFeedNews

UN peacekeepers were sent to Haiti to help a country in crisis. But some of them exploited local women and fathered children they would go on to abandon.

Years later, the families they left behind are desperate for support. buzzfeednews.com/article/karlaz…

Peacekeepers were deployed to Haiti in 2004 following a coup attempt. Their numbers grew after the 2010 earthquake.

But as aftershocks traumatized the nation, some peacekeepers began trading food for sex in the tent cities housing displaced families.

For years, these abandoned mothers have struggled to receive any financial support: From the fathers, Haiti’s government, or the UN. One woman says she can’t remember the last time a UN victims’ rights officer picked up her calls. buzzfeednews.com/article/karlaz…

The hurdles go beyond the UN. A Haitian lawyer who advocates for these victims believes that judges are reluctant to rule against the UN because of connections to the organization or hopes to one day get a job there.

That said, a court ruling last year gave these mothers some hope. A judge ordered a Uruguayan ex-peacekeeper to pay $3,590 a month to a woman he had a child with, a landmark decision that could impact similar cases.

But this verdict didn't come easy.

The case took nearly four years to move through Haiti’s courts, and it came more than two years after the UN confirmed the father’s identity through a DNA test.

And even now, eight months after the ruling, that man has yet to pay a single dollar.
buzzfeednews.com/article/karlaz…

When asked about our reporting, a UN spokesperson said the organization has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual exploitation and abuse and cited that it had distributed 6,000 flyers in Port-au-Prince encouraging victims to come forward.

And last year, over a decade after the abuses were first reported, the UN approved a trust fund for survivors of sexual exploitation by its staff in Haiti.

But one victims' advocate called the trust fund "so poorly funded that it is an embarrassment to the UN."

Calls to dispatch peacekeepers to Haiti have renewed after its president was assassinated and an earthquake killed more than 2,200 people.

But for the women seeking support from peacekeepers a decade ago, the possibility of a new influx is hard to bear. buzzfeednews.com/article/karlaz…