Reporting sexual exploitation and abuse by humanitarian workers
Sexual exploitation and abuse are unacceptable behaviour and prohibited for all United Nations and NGO partners’ staff members.
What is sexual exploitation? It is any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes.
What is sexual abuse? It is any actual or threatened sexual activity carried out by force or under unequal or coercive conditions.
In line with the United Nations standards of conduct, the staff members of UNHCR and NGO partners must not:
- Have sexual activity with anyone in exchange for money, employment, preferential treatment, goods or services,
- Have sexual activity with anyone under the age of 18 years old,
- Engage in any other form of sexually humiliating, degrading or exploitative behaviour.
If you are aware of, or have concerns or suspicions about a possible case of sexual exploitation and abuse by a UNHCR, UN or NGO staff member, please report this directly to the Inspector General’s Office (IGO) at UNHCR Headquarters:
- Email: [email protected]
- Confidential fax: +41 22 739 7380
- Mail: UNHCR, 94 Rue de Montbrillant, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
In your report, you should include:
- What happened?
- Describe in detail what you know about the incident or incidents.
- Who committed the alleged wrongdoing?
- Do you know if anyone else was involved? Please provide full names, job titles and organization, if possible.
- When and where did the incident or incidents occur?
- Please include dates and times, if possible.
Your report will be treated with discretion and kept strictly confidential.
Misconduct (fraud, corruption, sexual exploitation and abuse) committed by UNHCR, United Nations or NGO staff member.
The United Nations defines misconduct as “any failure by a staff member to comply with his or her obligations under the Charter of the United Nations, the Staff Regulations and Staff Rules or other administrative issuances, or to observe the standards of conduct expected of an international civil servant.”
In particular, fraud, corruption and sexual exploitation and abuse are considered misconduct, whether by UNHCR personnel or partner staff.
Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) represent a fundamental failure of protection. It brings harm to those UNHCR is mandated to protect. It also violates universally recognized international legal norms and standards. Anyone having concerns or suspicions about a possible case of SEA, fraud and/ or corruption by a UNHCR, United Nations or NGO staff member, regardless of their position, should report such concerns directly to the UNHCR’s Inspector General’s Office (IGO).
The IGO’s contact details are as follows: (e-mail: [email protected], by using IGO online complaint form: IGO Online Complaint Form | UNHCR, by post: Rue de Montbrillant 94, 1201 Genève, Switzerland).
Fraud – Any act or omission, including misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact, that knowingly or intentionally misleads, or attempts to mislead, a party to obtain a benefit, whether directly or indirectly, whether for oneself or for a third party. Fraud could involve misappropriation of cash (such as fraudulent claims/disbursements) or other assets (such as fraudulent shipments, falsifying inventory records), or fraudulent statements (purposefully misreporting or omitting information).
Corruption – The offering, giving, receiving or soliciting, directly or indirectly, anything of value to improperly influence the actions of another party. Corruption may take the form of an undisclosed conflict of interest, unauthorized acceptance of honors, gifts or remuneration, bribery (including kickbacks), illegal gratuities or economic extortion.
All UNHCR services are free of charge.
Fraud committed by forcibly displaced and stateless persons:
It is important to ensure that protection, assistance and solutions interventions target those in genuine need and safeguard the integrity of UNHCR’s interventions.
Preventing, detecting and responding to fraud committed by forcibly displaced and stateless persons is essential to ensuring that forcibly displaced and stateless persons and the international community (including donor, resettlement and host states) continue to have confidence in the integrity of UNHCR’s interventions. This continued confidence is critical to safeguarding UNHCR’s ability to provide protection, assistance and solutions to forcibly displaced and stateless persons, in keeping with UNHCR’s international protection mandate and UNHCR’s operational delivery role in humanitarian situations.
UNHCR is committed to prevent, detect and respond to the fraud committed by forcibly displaced and stateless population in all UNHCR protection interventions. In case of suspected fraud committed by forcibly displaced and stateless population in Armenia, please report to:
You can email UNHCR Armenia at [email protected] and/or [email protected].
You can use a Complaint Box. Complaints Boxes are available at the gate of the UNHCR Office in Yerevan.
You can submit information in a sealed envelope to a UNHCR partner’s office in Yerevan, to be delivered to UNHCR by hand.
You can send it to UNHCR Armenia’s address: UN House, 14, Petros Adamyan St., Yerevan, Armenia.
You can report through the UNHCR hotline: 0 8000 0025.