A particularly ugly side to UN peacekeeping missions is the number of situations where troops under the UN banner have sexually assaulted and abused the very people they are assigned to protect. Since 2004, nearly 180 soldiers, police and civilian employees have faced disciplinary action for sexual abuse, according to a UN spokesman. The UN has investigated 319 peacekeeping personnel during that span.

Compounding the problem is the fact that the UN cannot discipline some 80 percent of the 100,000 personnel serving in peacekeeping operations—they can only be disciplined by their home countries.

A recent BBC investigation found that in Haiti and Liberia, children had been raped and forced into prostitution by UN peacekeeping troops. Another investigation found that in Congo, soldiers had sex with women and girls for food or money. (Source: Associated Press.)