[JURIST] UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon [official website] on Monday announced [press release] the appointment of an independent panel to review the organization’s handling of allegations that French and African soldiers sexually abused children in the Central African Republic from December 2013 to June 2014. The panel will be led by Marie Deschamps [official profile], a former justice on the Supreme Court of Canada [official website], and will include Yasmin Sooka [official profile], executive director of the Foundation of Human Rights in South Africa [official website] and Hassan Jallow [official profile] of Gambia, a prosecutor of the UN tribunal for Rwanda [official website]. The sexual abuse was first reported [Guardian report] in April at the conclusion of a UN investigation into at least 14 French soldiers who allegedly forced children to perform sexual acts in exchange for food. The panel will begin investigations next month and aim to report on their findings in around 10 weeks.

The UN has repeatedly expressed concern for the treatment of children in conflict areas over the years. Last week, the UN Secretary-General addressed the challenges [JURIST report] of upholding the fundamental rights of children in war zones, stating that protecting children is a “moral imperative and legal obligation.” In February the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child released a report [JURIST report] stating that members of the Islamic State are abducting Iraqi children and engaging in serious human rights abuses. In December the UN Children’s Fund issued a press release [JURIST report] declaring 2014 “a devastating year for children,” citing the 15 million children affected by violent conflicts in the Central Africal Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, Palestine, Syria and Ukraine. In July a UN issued report said [JURIST report] that children continued to be victims of violence and military recruitment in 23 conflict zones around the world in 2013, with Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict Leila Zerrougui calling Syria “one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a child.” Last June Human Rights Watch claimed [JURIST report] that teenagers as young as 15 have been recruited by armed groups in Syria with some becoming suicide bombers.