14 . MOPAN 2017-18 ASSESSMENTS . UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY FOR PALESTINE REFUGEES IN THE NEAR EAST Box 1: Preventing sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment3 UNRWA is responsible for protecting and promoting the rights of Palestine refugees. UNRWA is a key provider of basic services to more than 5.5 million Palestine refugees registered with the Agency across its fields of operations and is currently educating more than half a million children each day, providing over 8.5 million medical consultations each year and delivering life-saving humanitarian aid to almost 1.5 million persons with urgent needs. As a key provider of public services, UNRWA’s capacity to help Palestine refugees achieve their full potential in human development depends on, among other things, the ability of its staff to uphold and promote the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct. The standards of conduct applicable to UNRWA personnel are grounded in the United Nations Charter, which provides that staff shall display the highest standards of integrity, and rooted in universal values of humanity and human rights including the fundamental principle of non-discrimination. UNRWA Rules and Regulations prohibit staff from engaging in sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (SEA) of beneficiaries and sexual harassment (SH) in the workplace (collectively “sexual misconduct”). All UNRWA personnel have the obligation to eliminate SEA.4 Moreover, all UNRWA personnel have a duty to report suspected misconduct, including concerns or suspicions that a beneficiary is experiencing or has experienced SEA by a fellow worker, as soon as possible after becoming aware of such suspected behaviour.5 The UNRWA staff handbook on ethics and the standards of conduct applicable to UNRWA personnel6 also outline the obligations of staff to safeguard against SEA and sexual harassment and the Agency’s standards on SEA for its staff. UNRWA has an accompanying SEA Complaints Referral Form; incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse of beneficiaries can be reported to designated ethics focal points and gender-based violence (GBV) focal points across the Agency and to Field Directors, the Director of the Department of Internal Oversight Services (DIOS) and the Director of Human Resources. The Agency participates in the UN working group on SEA, the UN Chief Executives Board Task Force on Sexual Harassment, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Task Force on Accountability to Affected Populations, and the Task Force on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. In February 2018, the Commissioner-General took the initiative to establish an UNRWA task force on SEA and SH (the UNRWA Task Force) to find innovative ways to ensure the Agency not only meets UN Secretary-General and Chief Executives Board initiatives, standards and reporting requirements, but also goes beyond these and tailors UN-wide efforts to prevent SEA and SH to UNRWA’s context and beneficiary community. UNRWA’s commitment to safeguarding the rights of refugees, as articulated in the Agency’s Medium Term Strategy 2016-21, includes a commitment to focusing on the needs of the most vulnerable refugees and a responsibility to safeguard and advance Palestine refugee rights. UNRWA’s Protection Policy (2012) sets out its commitment to protection. This policy includes the UNRWA protection framework and delineates the roles and responsibilities for protection within the Agency, with protection understood to be “what the Agency does to safeguard and advance the rights of Palestine refugees”. 3. The 2017-18 MOPAN assessment does not cover the organisation’s performance with regard to preventing sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment (SEAH). This topic may become an area of assessment in future cycles. In the meantime, the assessment team simply collected key facts related to safeguarding against SEAH as self-reported by the organisation but did not verify the actual implementation of the instruments outlined by UNRWA. 4. General Staff Circular No. 5/2007,“Allegations and complaints procedure and protection against retaliation for reporting misconduct and cooperating with audits or investigations”, and General Staff Circular No. 7/2010, “Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Complaints Procedure”, paragraph 4(e). 5. General Staff Circular No. 7/2010. 6. “Serving Ethically” handbook on ethics and the standards of conduct applicable to UNRWA personnel.