Stung by a scandal at the United Nations
over its failure to promptly protect child victims of sexual abuse by
peacekeepers, the organization’s top human rights official said Tuesday
that he had ordered subordinates to inform him immediately when
allegations of such abuse first arise.
The
official, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the high commissioner for Human
Rights, said his order applied to everyone down to the lowest-ranking
field officers in his branch of the United Nations. It obliges them to
jump the customary chain of command and communicate directly with him
concerning instances of possible sexual abuse, even before all the facts
are known.