Penny Mordaunt set to announce global crackdown on charity sex predators
2 min read
Penny Mordaunt is gearing up to announce a global crackdown on sexual predators working in charities.
The International Development Secretary is set to pledge £2m to create a worldwide register of suspected sexual offenders working in the aid sector as part of a “concerted global effort” to crackdown on predators.
The database, named Soteria after the Greek goddess of protection, will use Interpol’s green-notice system to issue international alerts about individuals suspected to be sexual offenders and will give charities a “one-stop shop” to conduct international criminal record checks on potential employees.
The system will also provide a secure online profile to upload concerns about employees - who could be hit with travel restrictions if placed under investigation.
Ms Mordaunt is expected to announce the new scheme at an international safeguarding meeting in London later today, where she will also set out plans to establish a new independent ombudsman to investigate abuse cases.
“This is a landmark initiative to tackle predatory individuals who are moving from organisation to organisation below the radar,” she told The Times.
The announcement comes after the sector was rocked by a Times investigation into a number of Oxfam aid workers who were found to be sexually exploiting victims in the wake of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Ms Mordaunt added: “The most shocking thing [about the Oxfam scandal] was the inadequacy of that organisation’s response — the utter lack of moral compass as to what the right course of action was towards the victims and in allowing someone who shouldn’t have been in a position of authority to transfer to other organisations.”
She added: “What we have been doing since The Times’s reports is asking, how do we clean up the sector? How do we ensure that predatory individuals who think this sector is a soft touch are found, held to account and prosecuted? The summit this week is about consolidating that work.”
It comes as a new report from the Charity Commission found that there was “significant and systemic” under-reporting of abuse by charities working in the UK and abroad.
Ms Mordaunt added: “I have been very clear that when organisations report and their numbers go up, we don’t beat them up. Had Oxfam done the things that you would have expected — report properly, honour obligations to their donors, the Charity Commission and the beneficiaries, ensure that individuals of concern were not able to move on to other organisations — then it would not have had the crisis that ensued."
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