UN Peacekeeper's Roles in Sexual Violence
By Tom Inouye
This section touches on particularly sensitive material including non-graphic discussions of rape and sexual violence against women and minors by UN peacekeepers.
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The United Nations Statements and Actions on Sexual Violence
On November 24th, 2022, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, issued a statement about sexual violence across the globe: “Violence against women and girls is the most pervasive human rights violation in the world.” He continued that “now is the time for transformative action that ends violence against women and girls.”[1] The United Nations, which has the international community listening, should be the first to draft, pass, and help implement resolutions to alleviate this ever-growing issue.
Unfortunately, the UN’s response to sexual violence against gender minorities has drawn criticism from women’s rights advocates for being ineffective and lackluster. Sexual violence has increased rapidly in nations across the world, including Ethiopia, Ukraine, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[2] With the outlined goals of “mainstreaming Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) within missions, monitoring and reporting, physical protection, negotiation with parties, awareness raising, capacity building, ending impunity, and training,”[3] the United Nations has its eye on the right issues and solutions to slow the disturbing trend of sexual abuse in conflict areas. But how have these solutions been implemented?
The UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict “STOP RAPE NOW” initiative was created in 2007 and has aimed to “improve coordination and accountability” and “respond to the needs of survivors in nations in conflict.”[4] Luckily, the program has produced multifaceted and focused solutions to the latter. In Somalia, the commission has supplied Mental Health and Psychological Support (MHPSS) to 100 women victimized by the violent terrorist group, Al-Shabaab, who are widely known as mass perpetrators of sexual violence against women and girls.[5] South Sudan received similar assistance from STOP RAPE NOW with 102 women receiving legal assistance services and 14 cases brought to justice.[6] While it is good that so many women received legal assistance, such a low success rate of success for cases brought against peacekeepers gives the impression that the STOP RAPE NOW legal services might not be effective for holding the vast majority of perpetrators accountable. Overall, STOP RAPE NOW works in 17 countries across Africa, Asia, and Europe with varying involvement, but with most services focusing on post-assault assistance. While these services are invaluable to women that have been raped in conflict zones, the United Nations does not have as many services, programs, or initiatives to prevent sexual abuse and violence from occurring in the first place.
The UN has also established international tribunals for certain countries with a history of violence and massacre like Rwanda, nations formerly a part of Yugoslavia, and Sierra Leone in which victims of assault can provide testimony and receive trauma counseling.[7]
The UN has identified a massive rise in conflict-related sexual violence starting in 2022 with the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. But between the Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict “STOP RAPE NOW” initiative and international tribunals in a handful of post-conflict countries, the UN has scarcely stopped rape and sexual violence, leaving women and girls in conflict zones– like Ukraine[8]– with few protections. But while the UN may not have control over sexual violence in conflict in general, it certainly could have more control over sexual violence in conflict perpetrated by its own personnel. And yet, peacekeepers themselves are all too often implicated in rape, transactional sex, and other forms of sexual exploitation and abuse.
Introduction to Peacekeepers as Perpetrators
The United Nations defines the role of peacekeepers as “to maintain peace and security, but also to facilitate the political process, protect civilians, assist in the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of former combatants.”[9] Peacekeepers are sent by the United Nations Security Council to intervene in a conflict when the committee has decided that an international force is needed to resolve it. These forces, sent from various contributing UN nations, are meant to enter conflict zones “with the consent of the parties,” “impartiality,” and “non-use of force except in self-defence.”[10] Ultimately, the mandate and goal of peacekeepers are enshrined in the name: to keep peace.[11]
However, the Associated Press, with the help of reporters on the ground and inside tips, has identified multiple conflicts over the years in which peacekeepers have become perpetrators of sexual violence against already vulnerable women and girls.[12] Notably, troops that intervened in Haiti, Somalia, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo saw multiple accusations of sexual abuse at the hands of UN peacekeepers.[13] Many women not only must survive the physical, psychological, and social effects of the rapes themselves, but then are forced to carry the resulting pregnancies to term, leaving the child without a father and the mother without a co-parent.[14]
"They put a few coins in your hand to drop a baby in you," one young man was quoted as saying in the study, while one woman said peacekeepers impregnated girls of 12 and 13 and then "left them in misery with babies in their hands."[15]
In the following sections, we will examine the cases of the Central African Republic and Haiti, which are clear examples of UN peacekeepers committing sexual violence against civilians they were ostensibly there to protect.
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Central African Republic
The Central African Republic first received UN peacekeeping troops in the year 2000 to respond to the violent war in the Congo, which had killed almost four million individuals by 1998.[16] In the mid-2000s, after tensions eased in the small nation, the UN slowly pulled peacekeepers out of the CAR. However, in 2013, the UN sent peacekeeping troops into the Central African Republic again, this time because of intercommunal fighting in the CAR itself, when Seleka rebels forced President Francois Bozize from office, increasing ethnic tensions and escalating violence.[17] In both cases, fifteen years apart, peacekeeping troops were accused of committing systematic sexual violence against women and children.
In 2014, eleven French peacekeepers were accused of sexually exploiting local populations after nearly 17,500 troops were sent to the Central African Republic.[18] To make matters worse, claims indicate that the systemic rape by peacekeepers took place at a displaced persons’ camp where refugees from the conflict sought asylum from violence.[19] Unfortunately, the peacekeepers who were accused have not been brought to justice. After writing a comprehensive investigative report on the abuses, Anders Kompass, a UN employee, submitted the document to French authorities, as the UN had failed to properly respond to and punish the perpetrators. Almost immediately, he was suspended from his post in the UN and placed “under investigation by the Office for Internal Oversight Service (OIOS),” facing dismissal.[20]
To this day, justice has not been brought to the victims of the violence and those responsible have not been held accountable. While Secretary-General Guterres claims that violence against women and girls is a pervasive issue that the international community must take seriously, the United Nations has repeatedly failed to carry out promises to reduce its own peacekeepers’ violence against women and girls.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4k0m64
Haiti
In 2007, the United Nations Security Council sent peacekeeping troops to quell internal violence against civilians by Haitian gangs and corrupt Haitian police forces.[21] Unfortunately, a report released in 2019 detailed testimonies from more than 2,000 Haitian residents claiming that girls as young as eleven years old were sexually abused at the hands of Sri Lankan peacekeepers. After being assaulted, dozens of young girls were abandoned and left to raise their children without the help of a co-parent.[22] Professor Sabine Lee, at Britain’s University of Birmingham, explains: “It is quite clear that girls that could clearly be understood and seen as underage were taken advantage of.”[23] It is largely understood that the rape of girls was systematic by Sri Lankan peacekeepers in Haiti, and the statistics agree. Around 134 peacekeepers were accused of sexually abusing nine young boys and girls for the vast duration of the mission.[24]
The horrific nature of the sex crimes committed by peacekeepers in Haiti is alarming, as is the near total impunity they experienced: “Three Pakistanis attached to the U.N.’s police units in Haiti were accused of raping a developmentally disabled 13-year-old boy in the Haitian city of Gonaïves. In 2012, they were brought before a Pakistani court martial, but only one was sentenced—to a single year in prison.”[25] Similarly, Uruguayan troops who systematically committed rape against children in Haiti, a crime that would be punished severely in Uruguay if it happened domestically, received a sentence of only three months in prison for “private violence.”[26]
While the UN did not have policies or institutions in place to prevent the rapes, nor to hold the peacekeepers responsible, it has claimed that it is “actively engaged” to ensure that women and girls get child support if raped and impregnated by a peacekeeper. Yet, details of this assistance are hard to find.[27] Further, a statement issued by a UN spokesperson in 2022 explained that peacekeepers who are accused of sexual violence are “held accountable… through repatriation.”[28] In other words, the UN’s capacity to deter sexual violence and punish assaulters in their peacekeeping forces for raping and impregnating women and girls is limited to sending them back to their country of origin.
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Permissive Structures
It is important to note that the goal of this section is not to allow peacekeepers who have been perpetrators of sexual violence to abdicate responsibility for their human rights violations. Instead, we seek to emphasize that the UN’s nearly non-existent deterrent systems, punishment structures, and accountability mechanisms to stop peacekeepers from committing rape and to punish them if they do create a culture that is tolerant of sexual violence. This tolerance empowers male peacekeepers to perpetuate a cycle of human rights violations and lets UN soldiers who have participated escape detainment, restorative justice, imprisonment, and responsibility.
Peacekeepers were first deployed by the UN in 1948, but expert Fiona Tate explains that “the UN… didn’t consider the rights of women and children in the militarised environments in which peacekeepers would be operating.”[29] Peacekeepers were instructed to help diffuse conflicts and deter violent action by members of either party in a war, but specific guidelines involving the protection of women were disregarded and forgotten. This baseline framework that failed to address the issues of women and girls set the stage for a negligent and oppressive peacekeeping order.[30]
The permissive structures that do not properly punish men for their sex crimes have not been adequately reformed. When peacekeepers are accused of rape, they have total immunity from the jurisdiction of the country where the mission takes place.[31] In other words, if a French peacekeeper were to enter a mission in Haiti and commit sexual violence against an individual there, the Haitian government could not take action to punish that person. Aside from the fact that this policy strips nations of judicial power within their own bounds, it also means that perpetrators don’t adequately get justice.
Why can’t the UN prosecute peacekeepers who commit sexual violence? The contracts that the UN signs with partner nations do not allow it: “The United Nations… is constrained by Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs) and Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), which give troop contributing countries—the providers of U.N. peacekeepers—exclusive jurisdiction over its own military personnel and sole responsibility for redressing their troops’ misconduct.” In order for the United Nations Security Council to use peacekeepers, the UN must sign away its rights to prosecute, punish, or properly address sexual violence they commit.
However, the nation that sent the peacekeepers can prosecute them for crimes committed on duty. However, these prosecutions are extremely rare.[32] Why? First, peacekeeper-providing countries do not want to prosecute their peacekeepers as perpetrators of sex crimes because, ironically, doing so might draw attention to the rapes and create the perception that they don’t stand up for the rights of women.
Second, the UN itself does not want word getting out. Reports about abuse cases by peacekeepers are covered up. In 1999, Kathryn Bolkovac was hired to investigate reports of sexual assault and forced prostitution at the hands of peacekeepers from multiple countries when intervening in Bosnia. However, when she completed her research and submitted her findings accusing Ukrainian, Pakistani, Romanian, German, and American peacekeepers of sex trafficking, she was fired.[33] The UN systematically silences voices that call out the violence committed by its forces to preserve its image as a global forum where all countries can work towards good.
Third, acknowleding the problem would require more resources and effort. Currently, training on sexual violence prevention is virtually non-existent. Professor Lee explains that “many of the peacekeepers do not see themselves as abusing women… if they don’t understand how powerful a position they are in, they will never understand what they do is actually wrong.”[34] She explains that “the training needs to go beyond, ‘You cannot go and rape women.’” Peacekeepers are trained by UN officers in the Civilian Pre-deployment Training (CPT), but it is inadequate in this regard, allowing for a cycle of violence and tolerance for that violence to continue.[35]
These three factors have led to a concerning pattern of sexual violence against already vulnerable populations. When peacekeepers are accused of committing sexual violence, they are “just moved out of their mission, deployed somewhere else or sent home.”[36] When simply sent to another mission, rapist peacekeepers are allowed to continue their crimes in a new country with new women. Again, while peacekeepers absolutely have autonomy over their choices and should be condemned heavily for their violence, the UN should play a role in deterring it instead of systematically covering abuses up and allowing sex offenders to walk free.
Conclusions
The UN says the right things about preventing sexual abuse and providing services to those who experience it, but even its own peacekeepers are a problem in this regard. Peacekeepers, who are meant to be purely defensive forces to protect the lives of vulnerable populations in zones experiencing conflict, have consistently over decades violated the bodily autonomy and consent of hundreds of women across decades, continents, and wars. Regardless of investigative reports and international pressure, the UN has not reformed its peacekeeping system to reduce sexual violence committed against women and girls. Only in 2015 did the UN begin to publish the national origins of soldiers who had committed sex crimes while on peacekeeping missions, which, while seemingly helpful, has not prevented the sexual exploitation of women in a measurable capacity.
The international community must continue to focus on a few key issues and objectives:
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First, the United Nations must negotiate SOFA and MOU contracts with nations that send peacekeeping personnel to establish agreements and standards that would heavily encourage nations to investigate and prosecute peacekeepers who have been accused of rape or assault. While nations will likely want to hold control over peacekeepers sent from their own countries through SOFA and MOU contracts, these contracts should not include total immunity from UN punishment for individuals found guilty of rape.
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Second, the United Nations’ reforms must reflect the claim that completing a peacekeeping mission should not come at the expense of women’s sexual autonomy and right to consent. Instead of covering up reports of abuse on peacekeeping missions, the UN should emphasize the protection of women and take proper steps to hold assaulters accountable in conjunction with their home nations.
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Third, the training provided to peacekeepers regarding sexual abuse and women’s rights must be more comprehensive and placed at the forefront of the training regimen. More rigorous instruction would reduce the chances that a culture of rape develops among peacekeeping personnel.
With the thousands of women and children affected by rape and sexual violence from peacekeepers, finding ways to successfully protect marginalized groups is of utmost importance
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References
[1] “Eliminate Violence against Women, Most Widespread, Pervasive Human Rights Violation | UN News.” United Nations, 2022. https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/11/1131047.
[2] Kuehnast, Kathleen. “Sexual Violence Is Not an Inevitable Cost of War.” United States Institute of Peace, December 8, 2023. https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/12/sexual-violence-not-inevitable-cost-war#:~:text=Thursday%2C%20December%207%2C%202023%20%2F,D.&text=The%20ever%2Dgrowing%20list%20of,persistent%20horror%20of%20this%20scourge.
[3] “UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict – United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict.” United Nations. Accessed November 29, 2023. https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/about-us/un-action/.
[4] “United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict.” Inventory of United Nations activities to end violence against women. Accessed November 29, 2023. https://evaw-un-inventory.unwomen.org/en.
[5] “Somalia - Stop Rape Now.” Stop Rape Now - Un action, June 11, 2021. https://www.stoprapenow.org/our_projects/somalia/.
[6] “South Sudan - Stop Rape Now.” Stop Rape Now - Un action, November 10, 2020. https://www.stoprapenow.org/field_updates/south-sudan/.
[7] “United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict.” Inventory of United Nations activities to end violence against women. Accessed November 29, 2023. https://evaw-un-inventory.unwomen.org/en.
[8] Guterres, Antionio. “CONFLICT-RELATED SEXUAL VIOLENCE.” office of the special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, July 6, 2023. https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/SG-REPORT-2023SPREAD-1.pdf.
[9] “UN Peacekeeping - Peacekeeping 101.” Better World Campaign, September 26, 2023. https://betterworldcampaign.org/un-peacekeeping#:~:text=Peacekeeping%20101&text=Today’s%20peacekeepers%20are%20called%20upon,and%20reintegration%20of%20former%20combatants.
[10] Matamis, Joaquin. “Host-Country Consent in UN Peacekeeping • Stimson Center.” Stimson Center, October 12, 2023. https://www.stimson.org/2023/host-country-consent-in-un-peacekeeping/#:~:text=Consent%20of%20the%20parties%20is,and%20defense%20of%20the%20mandate.%E2%80%9D&text=These%20three%20principles%20%E2%80%94%20often%20referred,for%20more%20than%2070%20years.
[11] Peltier, Elian. “U.N. Peacekeepers in Haiti Said to Have Fathered Hundreds of Children.” The New York Times, December 18, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/world/americas/haiti-un-peacekeepers.html.
[12] Wheeler, Skye. “UN Peacekeeping Has a Sexual Abuse Problem.” Human Rights Watch, August 2, 2023. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/11/un-peacekeeping-has-sexual-abuse-problem.
[13] Wheeler.
[14] Elks, Sonia. “Haitians Say Underaged Girls Were Abused by U.N. Peacekeepers.” Reuters, December 18, 2019. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-haiti-women-peacekeepers-idUSKBN1YM27W/.
[15] Elks.
[16] Center for Preventative Action, “Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo | Global Conflict Tracker.” Council on Foreign Relations, 2023. https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo.
[17] Center for Preventative Action.
[18] Koena, Jean Fernand. “11 UN Peacekeepers Accused of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse in Central African Republic.” AP News, June 9, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/central-african-republic-un-peacekeepers-sexual-abuse-6e8cd39ee241eff68176d3aedf755485.
[19] Bowcott, Owen. “Un Accused of ‘gross Failure’ over Alleged Sexual Abuse by French Troops.” The Guardian, December 17, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/17/un-gross-failure-sexual-abuse-french-troops-central-african-republic.
[20] Code Blue. “The UN’s Dirty Secret: The Untold Story of Anders Kompass and Peacekeeper Sex Abuse in the Central African Republic.” Aids-Free World, January 22, 2018. https://www.codebluecampaign.com/press-releases/2015/5/29-1#:~:text=In%20total%2C%20the%20interviews%20document,implicates%2023%20soldiers%20in%20all.
[21] Elks.
[22] Elks.
[23] Breaking News Turkey. “UN Soldiers Sexually Abuse Underaged Girls in Haiti - Breaking News Türkiye.” Breaking News Türkiye -, December 19, 2019. https://www.breakingnewsturkey.com/world/un-soldiers-sexually-abuse-underaged-girls-in-haiti.
[24] “Another Peacekeeping Mission for Haiti? Let’s Remember the Last One.” 2021. AIDS-Free World. July 19, 2021. https://aidsfreeworld.org/statements/2021/7/19/another-peacekeeping-mission-for-haiti-lets-remember-the-last-one.
[25] AIDS-Free World.
[26] Essa.
[27] Wheeler.
[28] Wagner, Kirstin. “Sexual Exploitation by UN Peacekeepers in DRC: Fatherless Children Speak for First Time about the Pain of Being Abandoned.” The Conversation, November 2, 2023. https://theconversation.com/sexual-exploitation-by-un-peacekeepers-in-drc-fatherless-children-speak-for-first-time-about-the-pain-of-being-abandoned-188248#:~:text=A%20UN%20peacekeeping%20spokesperson%20said,them%20accountable%20including%20through%20repatriation.
[29] Essa, Azad. “Why Do Some Peacekeepers Rape? The Full Report.” Al Jazeera, August 10, 2017. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/8/10/why-do-some-peacekeepers-rape-the-full-report#:~:text=When%20the%20UN%20first%20started,largely%20unrecorded%2C%E2%80%9D%20explains%20Tate.
[30] Essa.
[31] Jennings, Kathleen. “The Immunity Dilemma: Peacekeepers’ Crimes and the UN’s Response.” E-International Relations, September 25, 2017. https://www.e-ir.info/2017/09/18/the-immunity-dilemma-peacekeepers-crimes-and-the-uns-response/.
[32] Jennings.
[33] Bolkovac, Kathryn. “Bolkovac: ‘Un Tries to Cover up Peacekeeper Sex Abuse Scandal.’” PeaceWomen, May 23, 2017. https://www.peacewomen.org/resource/bolkovac-un-tries-cover-peacekeeper-sex-abuse-scandal.
[34] Breaking News Turkey.
[35] Breaking News Turkey.
[36] Essa.
