La Strada Documentation Center

To Complain or Not to Complain: Still the Question. Consultations with humanitarian aid beneficiaries on their perceptions of efforts to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse

Document number
2116
Date
2008
Title
To Complain or Not to Complain: Still the Question. Consultations with humanitarian aid beneficiaries on their perceptions of efforts to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse
Author/publisher
Kirsti Lattu, Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP)
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Sexual exploitation, post-conflict situation; Human rights law
Summary
"To complain or not to complain" is still a conundrum for most of the benefi ciaries with whom we spoke. Benefi ciaries felt they had few channels through which to complain. Options of complaints mechanisms are limited to dropping a note in a complaints box or reporting to an individual or chain of people, each of whom will have to choose to take the complaint seriously and pass it "up" for action. Benefi ciaries worry particularly about the lack both of confi dentiality and of security assurances should they complain. Many do not want to make problems for fellow refugees and actually see the complainant as the troublemaker who risks creating confl ict within their community by complaining. Others stated they feared losing aid if they complained about humanitarian agencies' actions. Humanitarian staff (volunteer, incentive and salaried) expressed reluctance to report on fellow aid workers. Fear of retaliation is pervasive and prohibits most would-be complainants. Some, although very few, participants were willing and ready to report alleged sexual exploitation and abuse related misconduct by humanitarian workers (local, national or international).
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