The systematic exploitation of women by employees of organizations partnering with the United Nations and several NGOs in Syria has been revealed in a recent report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
However, the BBC reported Tuesday that the U.N. and other NGOs, who responded that they have zero tolerance on the abuse, either failed to take action or were unable to prevent it despite warnings three years ago.
The UNFPA report titled "Voices from Syria 2018" noted that some workers even marry women and girls for short periods to give them meals, along with numerous types of abuses documented in the report. It said that widows, divorcees and female internally-displaced persons (IDPs) are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation, in a country where 50 percent of its 30 million-strong population have been displaced during the course of the seven-year-long civil war, in addition to more than 500,000 civilian who have been killed.
Aid workers speaking to the BBC said that employees of partner groups – sometimes the only option in conflict-ridden parts of the country closed to international workers – exchange basic food and other supplies for sexual favors from the women. As a result, women have started to avoid going to distribution centers, as the community began to label those who went.
One humanitarian advisor, Danielle Spencer, told the BBC a group of Syrian women from Daraa and Quneitra, whom she came across in a refugee camp in Jordan in March 2015, told her that men from local councils offered them aid for sex. Spencer added that the issue has been ignored for the last seven years, perpetuating the sacrifice of women that ensures that aid reaches locals in southern Syria.
The article went on to report that a survey by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in June 2015 in Daraa and Quneitra of 190 women and girls found that 40 percent experienced sexual violence while accessing services and aid.
Both reports were presented by UNFPA to other U.N. agencies and relief groups at a meeting in Amman in July 2015. Some groups responded by tightening up their procedures, the article said, noting that Unicef, UNHCR and Oxfam confirmed the meeting.
Oxfam, which had faced similar accusations on its operations in Haiti, stated that they had not been working with local groups to deliver aid to southern Syria, and they continue this policy.
