This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Australian international aid groups reported 76 incidents of alleged sexual misconduct over the past three years, including one case in which a humanitarian worker impregnated a local woman.

The peak body for the aid sector – the Australian Council for International Development (Acfid) – commissioned an independent review into sexual misconduct earlier this year following revelations that Oxfam UK staff had hired prostitutes in Haiti after a major earthquake in 2010.

The Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine’s 213-page report, released by Acfid on Wednesday, surveyed close to 120 aid groups online.

The report said there were 31 substantiated sexual misconduct cases involving aid workers at 20 organisations.

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However, in some cases it had been difficult to substantiate allegations because the victim didn’t want an investigation, or the perpetrator had failed to respond or had resigned during the process.

Sixty-six organisations reported no incidents and 33 did not respond.

The most common international locations of incidents were Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, East Timor, Cambodia and Zambia.

Of the substantiated cases, there were 17 allegations of sexual harassment, six cases of sexual abuse and eight other sexual misconduct incidents.

The report said head office staff perpetrated most incidents of sexual misconduct between aid workers. But most incidents where the victim was a beneficiary of aid projects were carried out by local employees of a partner organisation.

The report said incidents involving an aid worker and individuals from the local population generally involved children or teenagers.

The majority of victims had experienced psychological trauma as a result of incidents and in one case there was a pregnancy but no further details were given.

The Acfid chief executive, Marc Purcell, said any case of sexual misconduct was absolutely unacceptable.

“One case is a failure,” he said.

The report made 31 recommendations including the Australian charities watchdog setting up a mandatory sexual misconduct reporting scheme for all not-for-profit organisations undertaking international work.

It also recommended ensuring incidents were reported to local authorities.

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There was a reluctance to report serious sexual misconduct to police in foreign jurisdictions because of concerns about the capability of local authorities, the report co-author Maaike Moller said.

Moller said the needs of the victims and survivors must be the primary concern in response to sexual misconduct incidents.