(Human Rights Watch) – Thérèse, a 14-year-old in the Central African Republic, probably doesn’t know that defense ministers from around the globe will meet in London on Thursday this week to discuss United Nations peacekeeping. But she has a stake in what happens there. Thérèse was one of eight girls and women who told Human Rights Watch peacekeepers raped them in the eastern town of Bambari. Thérèse described how a peacekeeper grabbed her as she passed a UN base. “We walked for a while,” she said. “Then he ripped off my clothes and used them to tie my hands behind my back. He threw me on the ground, placed his gun to the side, and got on top of me to rape me. When he was done, he just left.”
