Accountability and sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Smith
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Peace Operations

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 134-163
Author(s):  
Jasmine-Kim Westendorf
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Sexual Misconduct ◽  
International Community ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Discipline Policies ◽  
Global Peace ◽  
Policy Shifts ◽  
Recent Policy ◽  
Robust Response

This concluding chapter discusses how intervener cultures interact with the broad range of factors that challenge and undermine the effectiveness of peace operations, including by giving rise to the perpetration of sexual misconduct against local communities. In light of this, it details the key insights this book has revealed about the nature and impacts of sexual misconduct by interveners in peace operations and suggests how the international community might better address this issue and its complex, interlinked implications in the future. The chapter also reflects on the major shortcomings of policy on sexual exploitation and abuse to date, including the individualization of sexual exploitation and abuse, which relegates responses primarily to conduct and discipline policies rather than addressing the broader and systemic issues at play. It then considers the extent to which recent policy shifts might avoid replicating past mistakes in terms of sexual exploitation and abuse policy. Ultimately, recognizing the mutually reinforcing ways in which sexual exploitation and abuse by interveners undermines peacekeeping and peacebuilding outcomes and developing an effective and robust response to such misconduct and other interlinked peacekeeping challenges based on that understanding is crucial to the pursuit of global peace, order, and justice.

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.

WPS and SEA in Peacekeeping Operations

2018 ◽  
pp. 221-236
Author(s):  
Jasmine-Kim Westendorf
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Aid Workers ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security

In the past fifteen years, despite the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security and the Secretary-General’s Bulletin on Zero Tolerance of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeepers, abuse by interveners remains prevalent in peace operations. SEA is not only perpetrated by peacekeepers, but also aid workers, diplomats, private contractors, and others associated with interventions. This chapter maps the extent and main characteristics of SEA in peace operations, and investigates the ways the international community has attempted to prevent and hold individuals accountable for SEA. It provides an assessment of the weaknesses in the existing WPS framework regarding SEA, particularly in terms of its engagement with masculinities, capital, and other permissive factors that make SEA such a central feature of peacekeeping operations.

Making Matters Worse

2020 ◽  
pp. 72-102
Author(s):  
Jasmine-Kim Westendorf
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Power Imbalance ◽  
Structural Level ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
Operational Level ◽  
The Individual

This chapter investigates the micro- and mission-level impacts of sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated by interveners in peace operations on the international community's capacity to fulfill its goals related to security, stability, and peacebuilding in postconflict contexts. These impacts operate on three levels: the individual and community level, the structural level, and the operational level. One fairly obvious conclusion arising from this analysis is that, in perpetrating sexual exploitation and abuse, interveners commit human rights violations, consolidate structures and processes that facilitate further exploitation and abuse, and spark conflict with actors who object to such behaviors. Thus, these outcomes are not in line with general expectations of the impacts peacekeepers should have on local populations and host states. Sexual exploitation and abuse is a significant source of mistrust between local communities and the international intervention, particularly as it intersected with other behaviors that amplified and exploited the power imbalance between international interveners and local communities.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jasmine-Kim Westendorf
Keyword(s):  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Aid Workers ◽  
Effective Prevention ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions

This introductory chapter provides an overview of sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping operations. These behaviors are diverse and have ranged from opportunistic sexual assault and rape to planned, sadistic sexual violence; from networked exploitation such as sex trafficking and the production of pornography to transactional sex, which is often also referred to as “survival sex.” The perpetrators are not just soldiers deployed into peacekeeping operations; they include the full range of uniformed and civilian UN peacekeepers as well as private contractors, aid workers, and others associated with peace operations. The chapter then considers the relatively small body of scholarly work on sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping missions. Understanding the patterns of sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations, the factors that give rise to it, and its impacts on the capacity and credibility of the international community is crucial to developing effective prevention and response policies globally.

Should we Prosecute the Protectors? Holding Peacekeepers Accountable in Cases of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Hunter
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
International Conflict ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Criminal Behaviour ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations

United Nations (UN) peace operations have come under increased strain in recent years due to numerous factors, including donor fatigue and the changing nature of international conflict. Serious accusations of crimes of sexual exploitation and abuse being committed by peacekeepers have further jeopardized the sustainability of UN-mandated missions and have raised the question of whether or not peacekeepers should be held accountable for their actions. The paper first explores the scope of the problem by highlighting the type of crimes that have been committed, the actors and stakeholders involved, and a few of the root causes that help to explain why crimes of sexual exploitation and abuse are being committed by UN peacekeepers. Following this is a brief discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the current measures that have been undertaken by the UN and, more specifically, by the Office of the Secretary-General and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The paper culminates in an evaluation of the advantages, disadvantages and consequences of increased accountability, and eventually argues that increased accountability is necessary in order to protect already-vulnerable populations from further harm at the hands of the very people sent to guard over them. In concluding, the author offers a few possible solutions that could be enacted by the UN to ensure that there are adequate measures for prevention and response to such criminal behaviour.

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.

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.

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