Special Measures for Protection From Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

A/RES/71/297View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 149 Administrative and budgetary aspects of the financing of the United Nations peacekeeping operations, published in 2016.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

2 entities

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Subprogramme 3	Advisory services, technical cooperation and field activities	79
	Section 1	Overall policymaking, direction and coordination	20

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

2 entities

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Subprogramme 3	Advisory services, technical cooperation and field activities	79	—
	Section 1	Overall policymaking, direction and coordination	20	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

11 reports · 2017–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2026	A/80/644	Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/71/297
2024	A/78/774	Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/71/297
2024	A/79/789	Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/71/297
2023	A/77/748	Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/71/297
2022	A/76/702	Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/71/297

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 subjects

Crime Prevention Crime Victims Gender-Based Violence Peacekeeping Operations Sex Crimes

What’s in this document?

26 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General entitled “Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse: a new approach”,1 the report of the Secretary-General on combating sexual exploitation and abuse2 and the note by the Secretary-General transmitting the report of an independent review on sexual exploitation and abuse by international peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic;4

Endorses the conclusions and recommendations contained in the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions;⁵

⁵A/71/867.

Notes with appreciation the report of the Secretary-General on special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse;

Reaffirms the collective and unanimous position that one substantiated case of sexual exploitation and abuse is one case too many;

Welcomes the determination of the Secretary-General to fully implement the United Nations policy of zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, and requests the Secretary-General to report on the results achieved and challenges encountered in his next report on special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse;

Expresses serious concern over the allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse reported in 2016, in particular the number of allegations involving the most egregious forms of sexual abuse;

Notes that proposals of the Secretary-General on promoting protection from sexual exploitation and abuse require further consultations with Member States, in particular with troop- and police-contributing countries, in order to accommodate their views and concerns, and requests the Secretary-General to hold such consultations and to report on the outcomes at the second part of the resumed seventy-second session of the General Assembly;

Notes with appreciation the work of the Special Coordinator on Improving the United Nations Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to harmonize system-wide the United Nations approach to addressing sexual exploitation and abuse;

Also requests the Secretary-General, in his next report, to outline specific measures for increasing cooperation within the United Nations system, including between the Secretariat and its separately administered funds and programmes, to address identified gaps in screening and investigative capacity and in the case management and reporting of allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse;

Welcomes the steps taken to introduce victims’ assistance support functions at Headquarters and in the field, looks forward to future proposals from the Secretary-General in this regard, and emphasizes the importance of providing expeditious support to victims;

Requests the Secretary-General to include in his next report on special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse a holistic analysis of United Nations inter-agency cooperation at the country level for the provision of assistance and support to victims of sexual exploitation and abuse, including identified gaps, lessons learned, the responsibilities of the respective agencies and recommendations, as appropriate;

Welcomes the determination of the Secretary-General to fully enforce the newly promulgated policy on the protection of whistle-blowers in order to empower and encourage staff to report wrongdoing, including in cases of sexual exploitation and abuse;

Also welcomes the determination of the Secretary-General to strengthen investigative capacity in cases of sexual exploitation and abuse, of the Secretariat and its separately administered funds and programmes system-wide, in consultation with relevant offices, and looks forward to receiving information in the next report;

Commends the intention of the Secretary-General to instruct senior leadership to develop and submit an annual plan of action to combat sexual exploitation and abuse, with specific actions and timelines, and requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly thereon in the context of his next report;

Requests the Secretary-General to immediately inform the Member States concerned about allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, of which United Nations entities may become aware, in missions operating under a Security Council mandate, and also requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the Member States concerned receive all available information to allow for appropriate follow-up by their national authorities;

Reaffirms that all personnel across the United Nations system must be held to the same standard of conduct so as to preserve the image, credibility, impartiality and integrity of the United Nations, and remains committed to further consideration of ways of ensuring managerial, command and individual accountability;

Welcomes the strong commitment of troop- and police-contributing countries to the United Nations policy of zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, and commends their efforts in this regard;

Encourages the Secretary-General to foster capacity-building and learning, including by facilitating the cooperation of troop- and police-contributing countries on best practices;

Calls upon Member States, including those deploying non-United Nations forces authorized under a Security Council mandate, to take appropriate steps to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, hold perpetrators accountable and repatriate units when there is credible evidence of widespread or systemic sexual exploitation and abuse by those units;

Urges all non-United Nations forces authorized under a Security Council mandate to take adequate measures to prevent and combat impunity for sexual exploitation and abuse by their personnel;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to include in future reports information on allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by non-United Nations forces operating under a Security Council mandate;

Recalls paragraph 80 of its resolution 70/286 of 17 June 2016, notes that the report of the Secretary-General on special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse did not contain recommendations on mitigating risk factors linked to recent allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, and requests the Secretary-General to include in his next report recommendations on comprehensively mitigating those risk factors;

Also recalls paragraphs 16 and 21 of the report of the Advisory Committee,5 and requests the Secretary-General to provide full justification for any proposed requirements in the context of his proposals for the regular budget for the biennium 2018–2019 and the proposed budgets of the relevant peacekeeping missions for the period from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure transparency and cost-efficiency in budgeting for the Office of the Victims’ Rights Advocate and its staff and to include detailed information on related costs, functions, duties, workload, expected accomplishments and indicators of achievement, in accordance with relevant rules and regulations, in the context of future budget proposals;

Also requests the Secretary-General, in future budget requests for peacekeeping operations, to report on the findings of risk assessments conducted by missions regarding sexual exploitation and abuse and actions under way to address those risks and to include an assessment on the implementation by missions of the zero-tolerance policy for all United Nations uniformed and civilian personnel.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents

Who cites this mandate in the budget?