The United Nations (UN) Victims’ Rights Advocate is calling for stronger and more sustained action to support survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel, warning that despite progress, significant gaps remain in how victims receive protection, justice, and long-term assistance, according to a UN News. Speaking after the release of her 2024–2025 annual report, she said her mandate is built around ensuring that victims are “not invisible” and that they are guaranteed “a voice, assistance and justice.” Established by Secretary-General António Guterres in 2017, her office works across the UN system to advance a victim-centred approach and ensure survivors shape the policies and processes that affect them.
Over the past two years, Nassif Palma has visited more than ten countries and met survivors directly — describing their courage as a driving force behind her work. Her office coordinates with Victims’ Rights Officers and Focal Points deployed in the field, who help connect survivors with medical care, psychosocial support, legal assistance, education, and livelihood opportunities. Progress has been made: more UN entities and peacekeeping missions — including MINUSCA in the Central African Republic, MONUSCO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and UNMISS in South Sudan — are now allocating dedicated resources to victim assistance, and the report highlights expanded access to school fee support, skills training, and income-generating activities for survivors and children born of abuse.
But Nassif Palma is clear that commitments are not being matched by action fast enough. Survivors must be fully informed about their cases, protected from retaliation, and free to decide whether to participate in investigations — rights that are still not consistently guaranteed. Progress on paternity and child support claims has been slow, with only some member states providing interim financial support while legal proceedings continue. She is calling for more specialized personnel on the ground, more predictable funding, and stronger political will from both the UN and member states.
Her message to survivors is direct: “Come forward. We are here to support you. My voice is here to advocate for your rights.” And her message to governments and UN entities is equally plain — promises must translate into real change in people’s lives, and victims’ rights must stop being treated as a secondary concern within accountability processes that were built, too often, with institutions rather than people in mind.
