Media Home
UN Web TV
UN PhotoUnifeed
UN / KHARE SEA
STORY: UN / KHARE SEA
TRT: 02.03
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 26 MAY 2016, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
26 MAY 2016, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, dais
3. Med shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Atul Khare, Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Department of Field Support:
"Countries are coming forward. South Africa has promised to us that it will indeed do court martials on-site, should they be required. And in fact in a non-sexual exploitation and abuse case, that was a case that was relate d to internal discipline of their contingent, they did do a court martial in situ in the Democratic Republic of Congo. So we are seeing changes happen, and we hope more and more countries will come forward to do on-site court martial because that will not only allow justice to be done, but it will also allow justice to be seen to be done.”
5. Med shot, journalist
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Atul Khare, Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Department of Field Support:
"I have been a peacekeeper, I have been in the field, I’ve been an SRSG in Timor Leste from 2006 to 2009, and there are days when I feel ashamed to call myself a peacekeeper; because that is not the job of peacekeepers. I will never accept and I cannot accept a protector turning into a predator. And I do believe that the morale, to some extent, is affected, but I think it is affected in the right attitude of peacekeepers. We are all committed to getting the bad sheep out of our midst. We are all committed to taking action against this scourge.”
7. Med shot, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Atul Khare, Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Department of Field Support:
"I pray for the day that will come when we don’t have to award any Dag Hammarskjöld medal at all. Because we should recall that any attack on a peacekeeper is a war crime by definition. And I hope that we can take action on it, the member states and the United Nations together.”
9. Med shot, journalists
10. Wide shot, end of presser
The Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Atul Khare, today (26 May) reported progress in the fight against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SAE) by UN peacekeepers, and announced that South Africa will begin conducting court-martials on-site, should they be required.
Khare said that in fact “in a non-sexual exploitation and abuse case, that was a case that was related to internal discipline of their contingent,” South Africa “did do a court martial in situ in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
The UN official said “ we are seeing changes happen, and we hope more and more countries will come forward to do on-site court martial because that will not only allow justice to be done, but it will also allow justice to be seen to be done.”
Last year, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon requested troop contributing countries to institute on-site court martial proceedings to preserve chains of evidence and allow justice to be done and witnessed by the victims and their communities.
Khare said “there are days when I feel ashamed to call myself a peacekeeper; because that is not the job of peacekeepers. I will never accept and I cannot accept a protector turning into a predator.”
He said “we are all committed to getting the bad sheep out of our midst.”
Turning to attacks on peacekeepers, Khare said "I pray for the day that will come when we don’t have to award any Dag Hammarskjöld medal at all. Because we should recall that any attack on a peacekeeper is a war crime by definition. And I hope that we can take action on it, the member states and the United Nations together.”
The Dag Hammarskjöld Medal is given by the United Nations to the families of peacekeepers who lose their lives on duty.
In 2015, at least 129 peacekeepers who died on mission.
Download
There is no media available to download.
