LONDON: British aid organisation Oxfam said on Friday that it would create an independent commission to review the charity’s practices and culture after accusations of sexual misconduct in Haiti.

Britain’s The Times newspaper reported last week that some Oxfam staff had paid for sex with prostitutes in Haiti after the country’s 2010 earthquake.

Oxfam, one of the world’s biggest disaster relief charities, has neither confirmed nor denied that specific acc­ount but has said an internal investigation in 2011 confir­med sexual misconduct oc­cu­rred, and it has apologised.

Oxfam said that its High-Level Commis­sion on Sex­ual Misconduct, Account­ability and Culture Change would be comprised of women’s rights experts who would have access to Oxfam records and staff, partners and communities it supports.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2018