A high-level UN meeting on eliminating sexual exploitation and abuse concluded on Monday after participants issued a statement reiterating a commitment to prevent such acts from happening in the future.

The conference, which brought together some 100 representatives from the world body's Department of Peacekeeping Operations, UN agencies, funds and programs, member states, troop contributing countries and non-governmental organizations, was aimed at formulating new strategies for addressing what the UN chief called¡¡"an egregious problem."

The document, entitled the Statement of Commitment on Eliminating Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN and Non-UN Personnel, contains 10 commitments to facilitate rapid implementation of existing UN and non-UN standards relating to the offences.

These include developing "organization-specific strategies to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse," ensuring the accessibility of complaint mechanisms for reporting sexual abuses, protecting victims of sexual abuses and taking swift action against offenders.

In a speech opening the event, Secretary-General Kofi Annan reiterated his "zero-tolerance" attitude toward acts of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by UN peacekeeping personnel.

"All of this is utterly immoral, and completely at odds with our mission," Annan said. "Our behavior should be something that others can emulate, and be judged against. We are here today to chart a way for achieving that."

The secretary-general noted that a group of legal experts that he established has issued a report that proposes an international convention on strengthening the accountability of UN staff and related personnel.

He urged discussions and early action from member states in response to the report.

Since the beginning of 2004, the UN has investigated 319 peacekeeping personnel in all UN missions. These resulted in the summary dismissal of 18 civilians and the repatriation on disciplinary grounds of 17 police and 144 military personnel.

During the first 10 months of 2006, 63 percent of all misconduct allegations involving peacekeeping personnel related to sexual exploitation and abuse, of which a third were prostitution related, according to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

Editor: Donald