Background note on the film, The Whistleblower Prepared by the UN Department of Public Information 20 July 2011 While the

soon to be released film The Whistleblower, may be a fictionalized account of events that occurred more than a decade ago, it does highlight issues that are high on the agenda of the United Nations including human trafficking, violence against woman and cross-border organized crime. We welcome all efforts to draw attention to such human rights violations and wish to state the following facts for the record: Ms. Kathryn Bolkovacs service with the United Nations Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina Ms. Bolkovac, the central character in the film, served with the UN Mission in BosniaHerzegovina (UNMIBH) from 1999-2000 as a member of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) contributed by a Member State of the UN. As part of her job responsibilities, she worked with UN officials working for UNMIBH and for the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights in helping combat human trafficking and forced prostitution. Ms. Bolkovac was not directly employed by the United Nations, but rather by DynCorp, an international contractor hired by the US Government to contribute civilian personnel, such as police officers, on behalf of the United States of America for service with UN peacekeeping missions. DynCorp dismissed her in 2000. Ms. Bolkovac successfully brought suit for wrongful dismissal against DynCorp in a court in the United Kingdom. The United Nations fully cooperated with the court and the Secretary-General waived the immunity of several UN officials so that they could testify on behalf of Ms. Bolkovac in those proceedings. UN efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina to combat human trafficking The United Nations Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1995-2002) was the first UN peace operation to work with a host country to address the issue of trafficking in human beings and forced prostitution. As part of its multi-faceted approach to combating human trafficking, the missions police and civilian components joined with the local police authorities in conducting an extensive series of raids of facilities where prostitution was believed to be occurring. The mission worked with other international organizations to provide safe houses for trafficking victims, as well as to repatriate them to their home countries. Furthermore, United Nations personnel worked with appropriate bodies in the Host Country to strengthen domestic legislation on the issue and monitored local criminal trials of those accused of this abhorrent act. Misconduct by UN personnel in Bosnia-Herzegovina Despite its strong record in combating human trafficking, there were also clear cases of misconduct by individual personnel serving in the UN mission, including persons who frequented establishments where prostitution, including forced prostitution, occurred. These instances were in clear breach of the UN peacekeepers code of conduct and were illegal in some cases. The mission initiated actions to see that those personnel were held accountable including having those who were serving as civilian or military personnel contributed by Member States to the mission being relieved from service in the mission (the strongest measure the UN itself could take at that time) and repatriated to their own country for any appropriate action by their national authorities. Continuing efforts to address misconduct by UN personnel As a result of this case and others, the United Nations undertook a series of actions to look into and address allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by all UN peacekeeping personnel, whether UN officials or civilian or military personnel contributed by Member States. In 2003, the Secretary-General issued his Bulletin, ST/SGB/2003/13, of 9 October 2003, prescribing measures

for the purpose of preventing and addressing sexual exploitation and abuse. In 2005, SecretaryGeneral Annan conducted a comprehensive review into the matter, which was led by Prince Zeid of Jordan. Since then, the Secretariat has been working with UN Member States to strengthen the SecretaryGenerals zero tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and abuse. Among the steps taken in recent years has been the establishment of a Conduct and Discipline Unit within the Department of Field Support, and Conduct and Discipline Teams in peacekeeping operations. Training on the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse is mandatory for all peacekeeping personnel, including for senior leaders. The Secretariat has also worked with Member States to ensure that they take appropriate administrative and/or legal action against wrongdoers under their own national processes. Of note are the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly to reinforce the message of zero tolerance, notably A/RES/61/267 B, which reaffirms the standard of conduct of military contingent personnel and clarifies the roles of the Member States and of the UN Secretariat in the handling of allegations of misconduct. Other ground-breaking General Assembly resolutions relate to the criminal accountability of UN officials and experts on mission (A/RES/62/63 and A/RES/63/119), which request the Secretary-General to bring credible allegations revealing that a crime may have been committed by UN officials or experts on mission to the attention of the States against whose nationals such allegations are made. Furthermore, the UN Secretariat and Member States have worked together to define for the first time a comprehensive strategy of assistance and support to victims of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN staff and related personnel (A/RES/62/214). The resolution defines the concept of victim and recognizes the importance of establishing a UN System mechanism of assistance to such victims. To ensure transparency, regularly updated statistics on allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse and misconduct in general are available on the UNs peacekeeping website (www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/issues/cdu.shtml or http://cdu.unlb.org). The UN has also worked with Member States to improve the recruitment of police personnel to ensure that they meet the highest professional and ethical standards. The UN is committed to increase the number of female police officers in national and international services, which it believes is essential to ensure that womens security priorities are reflected and police services are accessible to all victims. "The Whistleblower" takes us back to the tragic events in the Balkans during the nineties and the unedifying role played by many, including some representatives of the international community. We all need to draw the proper lessons from it. At the UN we have taken and continue to take these lessons seriously. ##### For further information, please contact: Douglas Coffman (coffmand@un.org; +1-212-9634481) or Michel Bonnardeaux (bonnardeaux@un.org, +1-917-367-4569)