Emma Watson, the star of Disney's new Beauty and the Beast remake, recently got up in front of the United Nations in New York. "I am reaching out to you because I need your help," she told the audience. "We want to end gender inequality—and to do that we need everyone to be involved. This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN: we want to try and galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality."
Which is a laudable goal, indeed. However, since April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, one man -- conservative writer Robert Stacey McCain -- decided to join her efforts for gender equality and speak out against the United Nations, the organization for which the Hollywood starlet is an ambassador. McCain quotes an AP article that demonstrates the extensive rape problem the U.N. has:
A Wednesday report by the Associated Press sheds further light on the extensive child rape problem that exists within the United Nations peacekeeping forces.
The expose focuses on U.N. peacekeepers operating in Haiti, where nearly 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse have occurred since 2004, with more than 300 cases involving children. A large number of the victims included boys and girls as young as 12 years old, many of whom were raped by peacekeepers on a regular basis. “I did not even have breasts,” one girl, known as V01, or Victim No.1, told the AP. She said she was consistently raped by as many as 50 U.N. peacekeepers from ages 12 to 15.
And, McCain further quotes the piece:
The UN report eventually concludes the number of sexual assaults is too numerous to describe in detail and involved 134 Sri Lankan peacekeepers. . . .
The AP found 2,000 complaints of sexual abuse over the past 12 years, with over 300 of those involving children. In very few cases are the soldiers involved ever punished. . . .
A woman who was raped by a peacekeeper tells the AP, “As far as the U.N. goes, they came here to protect us, but all they’ve brought is destruction.”
These damning statistics were noted on Twitter, along with Watson's association with the United Nations:
McCain doesn't believe that Watson will do anything about the rape crisis at the United Nations, however, even though this is one of her main issues and causes. "You are a big phony, Emma Watson. You’re just a rich girl who postures as feminist because you want to be admired and praised. You are never going to spend a cent of your own money to do anything to help real people with real problems," he wrote. "Children raped by U.N. peacekeepers? No, we can’t expect Emma Watson to notice such trivial events. You’re far too important to be bothered about such things, you lying hypocrite."
h/t Instapundit
Photo Credit: Flickr
