Some of the world's most vulnerable children are being victimized by the very people sent to help them, according to a new report from a major humanitarian aid organization.

"No One To Turn To," a report from the U.K.-based aid organization Save The Children, says sexual exploitation against children as young as six by aid workers and peace keepers, is becoming a major crisis.

Almost as shocking as the abuse itself, says a news release from the group, is the general silence surrounding the violations of trust.

"Children and their families are not speaking out because of fear and powerlessness. And international organizations are failing to respond effectively to allegations of abuse levelled against them," the release says.

Save The Children convened 38 discussion groups that consisted of 341 people living in chronic emergencies in Cote d'Ivoire, Haiti and southern Sudan.

More than 30 per cent of the participants reported incidents of forced sex

• 55 per cent reported coerced sex
• 40 per cent said they were aware of incidents of kissing
• 55 per cent reported incidents of touching
• 65 per cent had witnessed incidents of verbal abuse from aid workers or peacekeepers.

"Participants identified coerced sex as more common than forced sex," the report states.

"Children as young as six are trading sex with aid workers and peacekeepers in exchange for food, money, soap and, in a very few cases, luxury items such as mobile phones."

Troops with the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations were identified as a particular source of abuse, particularly in Haiti and Côte d'Ivoire, the report states.

Of the four UN agencies that reported allegations of sex with minors in 2005, DPKO staff were implicated in the vast majority of cases.

• UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations: 60
• UN High Commission for Refugees: 2
• UN World Food Program: 1
• United Nations Volunteers: 4

"While this may be a true indication of conduct associated with military actors, it may also reflect the particular efforts invested by DPKO to monitor and report on abuses associated with its own staff. Indeed, Save the Children welcomes the managerial courage and transparency DPKO has shown in making these allegations publicly available," the report states.

The data was reinforced with a number of anecdotal reports of abuse from people living in crisis zones -- including verbatim accounts of sexual abuse from the victims themselves.

"A broad spectrum of different types of aid workers and peacekeepers were implicated in the abuse," the report states.

"For example, staff at every level, from guards and drivers to senior managers, were identified as having been involved.

Participants also implicated a mix of local, national and international personnel, including staff described as 'black,' 'white,' 'foreign' and 'local' people."

In addition to meeting with aid recipients, Save The Children met with 30 humanitarian, peace and security professionals working at national, regional and international levels and conducted a broad spectrum of research.

The report acknowledges that Save The Children itself is not immune to the problem.

In 2007, 15 allegations of misconduct towards children were made against Save The Children staff and its partners organizations.

Seven of the allegations were made against partners, while eight were made against staff.

Three of the allegations against staff were proven and led to dismissals. The three men were all fired for having had sex with girls aged 17, which is not illegal but contravenes the organization's policy.

In 2006, four allegations were made against partners and seven were made against staff.

"Save the Children does not claim to have all the answers, or to be immune to this problem. Indeed, awareness of the difficulty of stamping this out in our own organization is a driving force behind this report," the document states.

"We do believe, however, that eliminating this abuse is a key responsibility of every international actor."

The report identifies three areas where key problems exist:

• Community members, especially children and young people, are not receiving the support they need to speak out about abuse against them.
• Strong leadership is lacking to ensure good practices and procedures are adopted up and implemented.
• A lack of investment in tackling the root causes of sexual exploitation and abuse.

It sets out the following recommendations to deal with the shortfalls:

• The establishment of effective local complaints mechanisms to allow people to report abuses.
• The establishment of a global watchdog to monitor and evaluate international agencies and their track record on sexual abuse.
• Governments and donors should put more emphasis on tackling the root causes of sexual abuse.