UN Principles and Resources on Preventing and Reporting Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Addressing and preventing sexual exploitation and abuse is a top priority of the United Nations.

Sexual exploitation and abuse violate universally recognized international standards, harm the victim(s), and have always been unacceptable behaviour and prohibited conduct for UN staff, as per the Secretary-General’s Bulletin (2003) on Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.

In February 2018, the United Nations endorsed the UN Protocol on Allegations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Involving Implementing Partners. The UN Protocol sets forth requirements for all the UN entities when implementing programmes with partners in the field, including government, civil society and other partners, to ensure adequate safeguards and appropriate action related to sexual exploitation and abuse.

The UN in BiH adheres to the Six Core Principles on standards of conduct outlined in the Secretary-General’s Bulletin on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (2003) and has zero tolerance policy for sexual exploitation and abuse. The UN in BiH operationalizes the UN Protocol on Allegations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Involving Implementing Partners and its requirements by, inter alia, incorporating prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse standards in all partnership agreements. The UN looks forward to working with all partners to jointly strengthen prevention of and response to sexual exploitation and abuse in order to create a safer and more protective environment for every individual.

The UN takes all reports of wrongdoing by its staff or affiliated personnel seriously. You are strongly encouraged to report in good faith any instances of sexual exploitation and abuse of which you become aware. Reports may be submitted anonymously, and information provided will be treated confidentially.

For reporting procedures, follow the link: https://www.un.org/preventing-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse/content/how-report

UN-system wide policies and protocols can be found here: https://www.un.org/preventing-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse/