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Join our workshop to learn about safeguarding practices and preventing sexual misconduct in leadership roles. Explore policies, procedures, and accountability in creating a safe environment for children and vulnerable adults.
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Safeguarding, Sexual misconduct and Leadership workshopCOUNCIL FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT NZ
Safeguarding • Safeguarding is commonly considered to be the responsibility of organisations to make sure their staff, operations and programmes do no harm to children and vulnerable adults or expose them to abuse or exploitation. • It is, however, increasingly becoming best practice to think about how we safeguard everyone in our organisations at all times, including protecting staff from inappropriate behaviour such as bullying and harassment. (Bond UK)
Safeguarding • It is recognised that our work places our personnel in positions of authority and trust in relation to the communities we work with, especially vulnerable adults and children. • Safeguarding includes the obligation to prevent the sexual exploitation and abuse of all who have contact with our agencies, including beneficiary communities, staff, volunteers and partner organisations. • Safeguarding is to ensure everything that lies within an organisation’s control is done to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the children and adults it works with.
Safeguarding • Translate policy into relevant and everyday practice across all functions of an organisation • Not rely on one standard or measure to safeguard children and adults against harm • Must be a system approach where each standard in fully implemented to ensure a safe organisational environment is constantly strengthened and maintained • Ensuring a positive and preventative safeguarding culture is promoted and embedded at all levels of the organisation
Child Safeguarding • Refers to the set of policies, procedures and practice employed by an organisation to ensure it is a child safe organisation. • It is the responsibility agencies have to make sure staff, operations and programs do no harm to children that come into contact (directly or indirectly) with their work. • All children who come into contact with an organisation as a result of its programs and activities must be safeguarded from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of all forms of child abuse (physical, sexual, emotional/psychological), exploitation, injury and other harm.
Child Safeguarding Organisations must therefore do everything it can within its control to safeguard children by: • creating awareness and accountability, • putting in place preventative child safeguarding policies and procedures, • supporting staff and partners to implement these and • immediately responding to and reporting issues that pose a risk to the safety and/or wellbeing of a child.
Child Safeguarding • An understanding of child abuse and exploitation is important in the International Development context due to the fact that organisations work with many vulnerable children and communities. • Children living in circumstances such as poverty, emergency or disaster situations, displaced communities or populations affected by conflict have a higher risk of being abused or exploited. • Most children will not speak up if someone is abusing or harming them so it is the responsibility of adults to make a report if they suspect or observe a child is being harmed. Most child survivors of sexual abuse say that they wished that an adult had acted and reported the abuse.
Child Safeguarding • Children have the right to participate in decisions that will affect them. • If a decision is taken on behalf of a child, the best interests of the child shall be the overriding guide. • Referrals should be done in consultation with child focused agencies specialising in the special needs of child survivors of sexual abuse, and who are familiar with local procedures relating to the protection of children
Child Safeguarding Sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers and peacekeepers is also a real and concerning phenomenon as well as those travelling to disaster affected areas: • After the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, over 60 convicted child sex offenders left Queensland, and over 50 left New Zealand, to visit the affected areas • In Liberia in 2006, Save the Children reported high levels of abuse of girls by humanitarian agencies, some as young as eight • A 2008 study by Save the Children in Côte D’Ivoire, Sudan and Haiti, revealed that 23 humanitarian, peacekeeping and security organisations were associated with cases of child abuse (these include civil humanitarian agencies, such as those delivering food and nutritional assistance; care, education and health services; reconstruction, shelter, training and livelihood support, as well as military actors providing peace and security services)
Child Safeguarding • Child abuse and exploitation traumatises children and adversely affects their development and wellbeing. At its core, child abuse and exploitation undermines a child’s right to grow up safely. • Research clearly indicates that children who have been abused or neglected often have poorer outcomes on many indicators of health and wellbeing, including social, emotional, physical and psychological functioning. This can include: • Permanent physical damage • Developmental trauma • Anxiety • Depression • Developmental delays • Low academic achievement • Self-harming and suicidal behaviour • Aggression and acting out behaviour • Difficulties making and maintaining positive relationships These consequences can last a lifetime and the impact on boys and girls can sometimes be different.
Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) SEA, or sexual misconduct, occurs against a child or an adult and can occur between people of the same or different genders. It includes situations such as: • Sexual exploitation and abuse; • Sexual harassment; • Child sexual abuse and exploitation; • Women and men sexually exploited through sex work; • Possessing, controlling, producing, distributing, obtaining or transmitting sexually exploitative images of adults or children.
IASC Six Core Principles Relating to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse • Sexual exploitation and abuse by humanitarian workers constitute acts of gross misconduct and are therefore grounds for termination of employment. • Sexual activity with children (persons under the age of 18) is prohibited regardless of the age of majority or age of consent locally. Mistaken belief regarding the age of a child is not a defence. • Exchange of money, employment, goods, or services for sex, including sexual favours or other forms of humiliating, degrading or exploitative behaviour is prohibited. This includes exchange of assistance that is due to beneficiaries.
IASC Six Core Principles Relating to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse • Sexual relationships between humanitarian workers and beneficiaries are strongly discouraged since they are based on inherently unequal power dynamics. Such relationships undermine the credibility and integrity of humanitarian aid work. • Where a humanitarian worker develops concerns or suspicions regarding sexual abuse or exploitation by a fellow worker, whether in the same agency or not, he or she must report such concerns via established agency reporting mechanisms. • Humanitarian workers are obliged to create and maintain an environment which prevents sexual exploitation and abuse and promotes the implementation of their code of conduct. Managers at all levels have particular responsibilities to support and develop systems which maintain this environment. See Report of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Task Force on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Humanitarian Crises of 13 June 2002, Plan of Action, Section I.A.
Sexual exploitation & abuse • Issues of SEA are fundamentally about abuses of power • Situations of poverty, vulnerability and discrimination as well as power inequities between genders, between aid workers and beneficiary communities, and within organisations, create unequal power dynamics • Given differing local contexts, personnel may also be faced with a range of unfamiliar social, cultural, financial or personal settings when working or volunteering overseas • These factors result in environments where SEA can exist
Sexual exploitation & abuse • Victims in these situations are less likely to report SEA given power imbalances and reliance on aid workers to provide life supporting services • The impact of SEA on an individual’s health and wellbeing, and in particular that negative physical, mental health and social outcomes that are likely to be compounded when perpetrated by a person in authority.
Victim/Survivor centred approach • A failure to listen to and consider the needs of victims and survivors of SEA, will engender a response that is not only ineffective, but potentially harmful. • Ensure that all responses are developed in a manner that balances respect for due process with a survivor-centred approach in which the survivor’s wishes, safety and wellbeing remain a priority in all matters and procedures. Furthermore, all actions taken should be guided by respect for choices, wishes rights and dignity of the survivor. • Victims and survivors should demonstrably be front and centre of all efforts to tackle SEA and this means the inclusion of victim and survivor voices in policy-making processes on an ongoing basis. • In order to be meaningful, however, the victim-centred approach needs to be fully integrated across all aspects of the sector’s SEA response.
Sexual exploitation & abuse • Communities trust that the people representing INGOs will conduct themselves in a professional manner at all times and not engage in behaviour contrary to the safety or wellbeing of the children and adults they come into contact with. • Organisations need to make clear – behavior by personnel that results in SEA of a child or adult, helps facilitate SEA or where allegations of SEA are ignored by an organisation, will not be tolerated and the organisation will immediately respond and take seriously any concerns raised.
Sexual exploitation & abuse The victims and survivors • SEA is predominantly perpetrated against women and girls, although this is not exclusively the case. Steve Reeves, the Director of Child Safeguarding at Save the Children UK told us: Globally, it is pretty clear that girls and young women are most frequently the victims of sexual violence. We do see evidence of boys and young men being exploited sexually in the same way. • Asmita Naik, co-author of the 2002 UNHCR and Save the Children report that revealed SEA by UN and aid agency staff in West Africa, shared the findings of her research from refugee camps in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone in 2001. Victims were mainly girls aged 13 and 18 years, who reported far-reaching consequences of the abuse on their lives: pregnancies, abortions, teenage motherhood, exposure to sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, lost educational, skills-training and employment opportunities and social exclusion. A refugee child said, “An [Aid] worker made me pregnant but now he left me and is loving to another young girl”. She added that: Boys were sometimes victims of sexual exploitation by male and female aid workers, but more often exploited in other ways, for instance, forced to carry out personal chores in exchange for aid supplies. One adolescent boy said, “I have no father and no mother and there are jobs that I am being made to do like washing underpants in exchange for food which I do because I have no parents. I wish I had my parents because I do not have any support and I am exposed to so much abuse Sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector, International Development Committee, House of Commons UK
Sexual exploitation & abuse The perpetrators • The exploitation and abuse is mainly perpetrated by men. Steve Reeves said: As far as we can tell from the statistics available and the research available to us, this is abuse that is largely perpetrated by men. Although we should not discount the possibility that some women engage in sexually harmful behaviour, it is behaviour that is largely manifested by men. • This was corroborated by Helen Evans, the former Global Head of Safeguarding at Oxfam GB. The abuse that Asmita Naik documented in 2001 was also perpetrated by men: Exploiters were men in the community with power, money and influence and included mainly local humanitarian workers extorting sex in exchange for desperately needed aid supplies (biscuits, soap, medicines, plastic sheeting etc). • Corinna Csáky, author of Save the Children’s 2008 report, ‘No One to Turn To: the under-reporting of child sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers and peacekeepers’, told us that: It is also very important that you note that the abusers are both foreign and national staff. Some come from overseas, but many more are local people employed by international humanitarian organisations. With the exception of peacekeeping forces, local people make up the majority of humanitarian staff. It is no surprise therefore that they make up the highest proportion of abusers. From the perspective of victims and survivors, there is no difference between the two.
Case Study Voices from Syria, 2018 (Whole of Syria GBV Focal Point, UNFPA) • Within this annual report on gender-based violence (GBV) in Syria it was clear that sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers, amongst others, is an entrenched feature of the life experience of women and girls in Syria in the eighth year of the conflict there. • The report also sheds light on the wider context for such abuse, for example: “With men absent, injured, killed, or unable to find employment the burden of responsibility often falls heavier on the shoulders of women and girls to maintain households. However, these additional responsibilities do not necessarily lead to greater empowerment or freedom for women. Invariably, it leads to an increase in workload and sometimes to additional abuse as men resist a perceived threat to their dominance. From aid distribution to gaining documentation, to attending school, guarding against exploitation and abuse is a constant challenge.” • More specifically, the report states that: “sexual exploitation by humanitarian workers at distributions was commonly cited by participants as a risk faced by women and girls when trying to access aid”
Definitions • Child – any person under the age of eighteen (18) years as defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child irrespective of local country definitions of when a child reaches adulthood. • Vulnerable adults - those aged over 18 years and who identify themselves as unable to take care of themselves/ protect themselves from harm or exploitation; or who, due to their gender, mental or physical health, disability, ethnicity, religious identity, sexual orientation, economic or social status, or as a result of disasters and conflicts, are deemed to be at risk. • Survivor - A person who has SEA perpetrated against him/her or an attempt to perpetrate SEA against him/her.
Definitions • Beneficiary The revelations about Oxfam staff using prostitutes in Haiti, highlighted that the exploitation of beneficiaries could extend beyond those who are directly receiving aid. Mark Goldring, the now outgoing Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam GB, told the inquiry: Oxfam used “beneficiary” to mean those in direct receipt of Oxfam assistance. In fact, the whole population of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas, and indeed much of Haiti, were beneficiaries in the wider sense, of which they were affected by the earthquake or were living in poverty whether or not they were affected by the earthquake. Sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector, International Development Committee, House of Commons UK
Definitions • Sexual Exploitation - any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another. • Sexual Abuse - the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions. The definitions for both Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse are contained in the United Nations Secretary-General’s Bulletin, “Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse” ST/SGB/2003/13 (9 October 2003) [hereinafter Secretary-General’s Bulletin on SEA (2003)].
Definitions • Sexual misconduct is defined as: to describe behaviour of a sexual nature which is unacceptable. • Sexual misconduct is a broad term, encompassing various types of conduct. Sexual misconduct can involve behaviour by a person of any gender, and it can occur between people of the same or different genders.
Definitions Sexual harassment - includes all conduct of a sexual or gender-determined nature at the workplace or connected to the workplace that is intended to violate the dignity of a person, or which has this effect. Sexual harassment is understood as behaviour that is unwanted in the eyes of the persons directly or indirectly affected. This shall include in particular: • physical approaches or physical contact of a sexual nature, or sexual assault; • gestures and other nonverbal communication with sexual undertones; • comments of a sexual nature about individuals and/or their body, conduct, sex life or sexual identity; • sexually discriminatory language and humiliating remarks, including sexually explicit jokes; • requests to perform sexual activities; • showing or displaying pornographic or sexist images; • sexually motivated stalking. GIZ policy banning sexual harassment at the workplace
Definitions • Child Physical abuse - When a person purposefully injures, or threatens to injure, a child. Physically abusive behaviour includes shoving, hitting, slapping, shaking, throwing, punching, kicking, biting, burning, strangling and poisoning. • Child Emotional abuse - A persistent attack on a child’s self-esteem. Examples include, but are not limited to - name-calling, threatening, ridiculing, shaming, intimidating or isolating the child. • Neglect - The persistent failure, where there are means, or the deliberate denial to provide a child with clean water, food, shelter, sanitation or supervision or care to the extent that the child’s health and development are placed at risk.
Definitions • Child Sexual Abuse - When a child is used by another child, adolescent or adult, for his or her own sexual stimulation or gratification. Sexual abuse involves contact and non contact activities which encompasses all forms of sexual activity involving children, including exposing children to pornographic images, or taking pornographic photographs of children. • Online Child Sexual Exploitation - Includes all acts of a sexually exploitative nature carried out against a child that have, at some stage, connection to the online environment. It includes any use of ICT that results in sexual exploitation or causes a child to be sexually exploited or results in or causes images or other material documenting such sexual exploitation to be produced, bought, sold, possessed, distributed or transmitted. In accordance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ‘child pornography’ means ‘any representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child for primarily sexual purposes.
Definitions • Child Exploitation - one or more of the following: • Committing or coercing another person to commit an act or acts of abuse against a child • Possessing, controlling, producing, distributing, obtaining or transmitting child exploitation material • Committing or coercing another person to commit an act or acts of grooming or online grooming • Using a minor for profit, labour, sexual gratification, or some other personal or financial advantage
Definitions • Online-Facilitated Child Sexual Abuse - The act of sending an electronic message to a recipient who the sender believes to be under 18 years of age, with the intention of procuring the recipient to engage in or submit to sexual activity with another person, including but not necessarily the sender; or of sending an electronic message with indecent content to a recipient who the sender believes to be under 18 years of age. • Child labour - Often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and interferes with their schooling an recreation. In its most extreme forms, child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families and exposed to serious hazards and illnesses.
International Conventions Child rights and women’s rights as core values These conventions promote the right of adults and children to be protected from all forms of violence including sexual exploitation and abuse • International Bill of Human Rights, • The UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and • The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child • Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography
Council for International Development Code of Conduct Principle B.3.2 Rights of vulnerable and marginalised people • Signatory organisations are committed to including and addressing the needs and rights of vulnerable and marginalised people and their representatives in all aspects of their aid and development activities. These groups may include women, children, people with a disability, Indigenous Peoples, minorities, refugees and displaced people, HIV positive people and those most at risk of HIV. Principle B.3.4 Protection of children • Signatory organisations are committed to the safety and best interests of all children accessing their services and programmes or involved in campaigns, voluntary support, fundraising, work experience or employment, and in particular, to working towards the elimination of abuse.
Obligation 1. Appropriate to their circumstances and the extent of their contact with children, signatory organisations will have a documented Child Protection Policy and procedures for dealing with children which are regularly reviewed. The Policy will be appropriate to the risk and address: a) Development programme planning and implementation; b) use of images and personal information for fundraising and promotion purposes; c) personnel recruitment including staff, volunteers, consultants and suppliers – in both New Zealand and overseas; d) all applicable legal obligations including mandatory police checks where available and appropriate for all personnel who have regular contact with children; e) behaviour protocols or codes; f) education and training of personnel and communication of the policy to all stakeholders; and g) reporting procedures. 2. Signatory organisations that work with children will seek ways to incorporate the voices of children in shaping the development programmes that affect them. 3. Signatory organisations that work with children will ensure that their complaints handling processes are child friendly.
Safeguarding organisational standards • Governance and Leadership • Policy, Code of Conduct and visibility • Specific safeguarding roles – SG focal points, SG working groups • Safe recruitment and screening procedures • Safeguarding reporting & whistleblower processes • Training and Induction • Safeguarding risk assessment • Use of images and communications & fundraising • ICT and social media • Partners • Monitoring and Review
Discussion –what does a safe organisation look like? • You are applying for a position in an International NGO in New Zealand. • What would you expect this NGO to have in place to be a safe organisation for children, vulnerable adults (beneficiary community) and its own staff and volunteers? • What questions would you ask about the NGO’s approach to safeguarding? What would you hope to find?
Oxfam GB Investigation Report - Lessons 1. Organisational Culture • Need more embedding of Oxfam’s values and behaviours across the organsiation • Need more embedding of women’s rights at the heart of all we do • Code of Conduct need stronger emphasis • Humanitarian Department culture needs particular focus- are we too tolerant of weak controls in emergency situations? • Need to refresh and increase awareness training on PSEA particularly in high risk countries
Oxfam GB Investigation Report - Lessons 2. Human Resources • Need better mechanisms for informing other Regions/affiliates/agencies of behavioural issues with staff when they move and to avoid “recycling” poor performers/problem staff • Need to ensure basic HR practices/standards are followed in all countries • While there must be clear, effective follow up and action in cases of inappropriate behavior, it is important to avoid a wider “blame culture”, but keep the emphasis on openness to learning
Oxfam GB Investigation Report - Lessons 3. Line/Regional Management • Where weaknesses are recognised in Country Directors/country teams, need effective support and monitoring from Regional Centre (this relates to culture as well as skills/competencies) 4. Whistle Blowing • Better mechanisms needed to enable staff (especially national staff) to blow the whistle
Oxfam GB Investigation Report - Lessons 5. Audit/Investigation Process • Increase awareness across Oxfam of existence of an independent review/investigation team • Increase internal audit process to cover HR and culture more effectively • Take feedback from Haiti on investigational process/effectiveness and apply learning from this
Royal Commission – key findings The RC found that common child safe organisational risk factors included: • Unquestioning respect for authority • Lack of leadership and support for reporters • No reporting structure & mass underreporting • Environmental factors (online, closed and unsupervised spaces) • The need for a legal obligation to promote reporting • Mandatory reporter definition not extensive enough • Poor records prevents responding and identification • Must focus on whole of family approach • CALD and children with disabilities over-represented • Celibacy not direct cause but contributing factor Source: Moores & Institute of Company Directors Australia webinar March 2018
Royal Commission – key findings • Many institutions did not have a culture where the best interest of children were the priority • The prevailing culture that ‘children should be seen and not heard’ resonated throughout residential care, religious institutions, schools and some family homes • Children's complaints of abuse were ignored and rejected, many children lost faith in adults and society’s institutions
Royal Commission – key findings Institutional factors that facilitated or enabled perpetrators, whatever the context, to sexually abuse children included: • Unsupervised, one-to-one access to a child, such as travelling alone with a child • Provision of intimate care to a child or an expectation of a level of physical contact • The ability to influence or control aspects of a child’s life, such as academic grades • Authority over a child, particularly in situations with significant control such as a residential setting • Spiritual or moral authority over a child • Prestige of the perpetrator, resulting in the perpetrator being afforded a higher level of trust and credibility • Opportunities to become close with a child and/or their family • Responsibility for young children such as that held by preschool carers • Specialist expertise, as in the case of medical practitioners, that enabled perpetrators to disguise sexual abuse
Royal Commission – key findings From survivors heard in private sessions, the RC learned that: • The majority of survivors (64.3%) were male • More than half were aged between 10-14 years when they were first sexually abused • Female survivors generally reported being younger when they were first sexually abused than males • 14.3% were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people • 4.3% had a disability at the time of the abuse • 3.1% were from CALD background • 93.8% were abused by a male • 83.8% were abused by an adult • 10.4% were in prison at the time of the private session • The average duration of child sexual abuse experienced in institutions was 2.2 years • 36.3% were abused by multiple perpetrators
Royal Commission – key findings Research suggests that 4 pre-conditions must be met before an adult will sexually abuse a child. They are: • Motivation to sexually abuse • Overcoming internal inhibitions the perpetrator may have about sexually abusing a child • Overcoming external barriers to accessing a child • Overcoming the child’s resistance This helps us understand the role institutions play in facilitating or preventing abuse. To effectively prevent child sexual abuse, each of these pre-conditions must be addressed.
Royal Commission – key findings • Survivors with communication and cognitive impairments were particularly reliant on supportive adults noticing and understanding changes in their behavior after the abuse • Children without protective adults in their lives, including many who lived in residential care, said their attempts to disclose were disbelieved, ignored or punished • Adults within child focused institutions and the broader community need to better understand the dynamics of sexual abuse. They need to recognise grooming techniques and to notice emotional and behavioural changes in children and their attempts to disclose.
