Unintended Consequences of Peace Operations/Sexual Abuse and Exploitation by Peacekeepers

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Natalia Rayol Fontoura
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Peace Operations

Legitimacy in Crisis

2020 ◽  
pp. 103-133
Author(s):  
Jasmine-Kim Westendorf
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Central African Republic ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Sexual Misconduct ◽  
International Community ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Institutional Level ◽  
Political Implications

This chapter focuses on the macro- and institutional-level impacts of sexual exploitation and abuse. It shows that sexual misconduct in individual missions has far-reaching impacts that reduce international capacities to engage effectively in peace operations and diminish the perceived legitimacy of the international community engaged in peacekeeping and peacebuilding, thereby undermining the international community's capacity to pursue the broader aspirational goals that animate peacekeeping. Sexual misconduct also seeds conflict between different organizational or peacekeeping units as a result of perceived misbehaviors and undermines the morale of peacekeepers and humanitarians. This can result in reduced financial and other support for peace operations and related work and provide fodder for anti-intervention campaigners. Tracking the international responses to the 2015 peacekeeper sexual abuse scandal in the Central African Republic and the 2018 Oxfam sexual exploitation scandal in Haiti, the chapter also explores the global political implications of such scandals.

scholarly journals Unintended Consequences: Reconsidering the Effects of UN Peacekeeping on State-sponsored Violence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William George Nomikos
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Vicious Cycle ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Strategic Resources ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Armed Violence

This essay challenges theoretical and empirical arguments about peacebuilding effectiveness that put the state at the center of United Nations peace operations. We argue that state-centric UN peacebuilding operations inadvertently incentivize local-level violence in post-conflict zones. We demonstrate that when the UN supports central governments it unintentionally empowers non-professionalized militaries, paramilitaries, and warlords to settle local scores. Armed violence against civilians in turn triggers a vicious cycle of reprisals and counter-reprisals. As an alternative to state-centric peacebuilding operations that incentivize local violence, we suggest that the UN should shift strategic resources away from central governments and toward UN policing, support of traditional and religious authorities, and the training of local security institutions.

When Do-Gooders Do Harm: Accountability of the United Nations toward Third Parties in Peace Operations

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 86-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin C. Chang
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Human Rights Standards

The United Nations’ mandate in a peace operation can be multi-dimensional, ranging from ceasefire monitoring to investigating human rights abuses to post-conflict stabilisation and recovery. The exercise of wide-ranging powers comes with risks of failure and unintended consequences. Like any organisation, the un is subject to flaws in decision-making that may result in harmful impact to the local population. Until recent times, international lawyers have paid scant attention to the un’s potential to inflict harm in the pursuit of its noble aims. The expansion of the un’s role over the decades has given rise to greater awareness of its accountability gap under international and municipal laws. The organisation’s response to recent claims from third parties illustrates the challenges that lie before victims in attaining accountability in a manner consistent with international human rights standards. This article examines the multifarious questions of accountability of the un toward third parties in peace operations. It argues that greater accountability is most practically achieved not through attempts to close gaps in international law, but through giving effect to existing mechanisms by applying a balancing approach to immunity and strengthening internal oversight and redress mechanisms.

scholarly journals Due Diligence and UN Support for African Union Security Forces

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-61
Author(s):  
Róisín Burke
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Peace Operation ◽  
And Control

Complicity by UN military peacekeepers in sexual abuse and sexual exploitation (‘SEA’) has been in the lime light in academic, practice and policy circles for many years now. Recent scandals involving sexual violence and abuse by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic and failures to respond are proving the catalyst for major reforms being discussed and implemented currently at UN level. There are numerous legal complexities, difficulties and flaws with the legal framework, policies and systems presently in place. Less considered are the parallel regulatory frameworks operative, or not operative, in the context of peacekeeping done beyond the remit of the United Nations or by those not deployed under its command and control. The fact remains that SEA is also prevalent across these peace operations but very little focus has been placed on these by academics or practitioners alike. Increasingly the UN is likely to rely on regional bodies in conducting peace operations falling outside its SEA regulatory framework. This may leave local populations vulnerable to unregulated or poorly regulated acts of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers. This paper seeks to address a gap in the literature in examining this regulatory space, focusing on the African Union’s (‘AU’s’) policy and regulatory frameworks governing its personnel deployed to peace operation environments in so far as they appear to exist. In doing so, it will reflect on the relationship this has to the UN’s Human Rights Due Diligence Policy on United Nations Support to Non-United Nations Security Forces, and the increasing reliance on AU regional peace operations, and re-hatting of forces.

Child Sexual Abuse Imagery

2021 ◽  
pp. 166-178
Author(s):  
Emily F. Rothman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Child Pornography ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Public Health Professionals ◽  
Wide Range

Child pornography, also called “child sexual abuse imagery” and “child exploitation material,” is a serious public health problem. This chapter reviews what qualifies as child pornography in the United States, its prevalence, how it is made and disseminated, who views it, and whether seeing it is associated with child sexual abuse perpetration. The topic of self-produced child pornography is also addressed. The chapter explains the historical link between anti-child pornography activism and anti-gay rights activism, and cautions public health professionals that, historically, outrage about child pornography has been used to galvanize people and further repressive agendas. The chapter argues that child pornography prevention strategies need to be carefully devised, in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders, and should be studied for effectiveness and unintended consequences.

The History and Nature of Sexual Misconduct in Peace Operations

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-54
Author(s):  
Jasmine-Kim Westendorf
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Sexual Misconduct ◽  
Transactional Sex ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
History Of ◽  
The United Nations

This chapter traces the history of sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations globally, including the various forms it takes (only some of which are criminal) and the range of international interveners who perpetrate it. Sexual exploitation and abuse first emerged as an issue in peace operations during the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) in 1993, when the number of prostitutes in the country grew from six thousand before the United Nations arrived to more than twenty-five thousand in 1993. The data available on sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated by interveners suggests that the range of misconduct is diverse, encompassing opportunistic sexual abuse, transactional sex, networked sexual exploitation, and extremely violent or sadistic attacks. The chapter presents an account of how and why these behaviors occur in peace operations by investigating the local, international, normative, systemic, and structural factors that give rise to them. It also addresses the connections between sexual misconduct by interveners, conflict-related sexual violence perpetrated during wars, and the sexual harassment and abuse that is perpetrated by interveners against their colleagues in peace operations.

The Production of Legitimacy: Race and Gender in Peacebuilding Praxis

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 705-715
Author(s):  
Sarah Smith
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Peace Operation ◽  
The Face ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Relations Of Power

Abstract Peace operations have increasingly sought to demonstrate their legitimacy in the face of critiques that characterize them as top-down impositions with limited impact and which entail a host of unintended consequences. Each book under review explores in depth the institutional consignment and attribution of legitimacy to certain spaces, actors, and bodies, which can serve to confirm and embed hierarchical relations of power. Von Billerbeck delineates the ambivalence with which “local ownership” is deployed in peace operations, closing down knowledge exchange rather than presenting opportunity. Shepherd builds on similar insights and argues that gendered logics and power inform the conceptualization and deployment of “local” and “civil society” and thus the (relative) lack of legitimacy afforded to these spaces. This essay seeks to develop from these insights further, drawing especially on postcolonial and critical race theory to demonstrate how race and racism structure the production and use of such categories, in both peace operation practice and international relations more broadly.

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