JISB interview: Immunity, sexual scandals and peacekeeping

Abstract

Dr Nicolas Lemay-Hébert interviewed Paula Donovan, the co-founder and codirector with Stephen Lewis of AIDS-Free World, on 25 June 2015. AIDS-Free World is currently leading a campaign (named ‘Code Blue’) aiming at eliminating immunity for sexual violence committed by UN personnel. The organization is behind the leak to the Guardian newspaper of interviews by staff from the UN’s Office of the High Commission of Human Rights and UNICEF with alleged victims of sexual abuse by French, Chadian and Equatorial Guinean peacekeepers in the Central African Republic. Subsequently, the UN’s Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, decided to appoint an External Independent Review panel to look at the UN system’s failure to address sexual exploitation and abuse.