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Must Boys Be Boys? Changing Attitudes of Senior Management

Peacekeeping & Sexual Exploitation Report

Changing Attitudes of Senior Management in UN Peacekeping Missions

Senior managers must send an unequivocal statement to their staff that they will not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse by ensuring that their actions reflect their statements.

Refugees International (RI) noticed a marked difference between the attitudes of UN personnel serving in Haiti and in Liberia towards sexual exploitation and abuse, largely due to the attitudes of senior management in UN peacekeeping missions. Their behavior and activities often influence the culture of the organization and the ability of the organization to effectively address problems.

In Liberia, former SRSG Jacques Paul Klein spoke forcefully publicly about the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse, but his actions appeared to contradict his words. UNMIL was very slow to put the proper mechanisms in place to report, investigate, and prevent sexual exploitation and abuse. One telling example was Klein’s handling of the issue of trafficking of women in Liberia.

Prior to serving as the SRSG for the UN Mission in Liberia, Klein served as the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina (UNMIBH) where he was criticized for his handling of the problem of UN peacekeepers and trafficking of women and overlooking the role of UN personnel in it. One of the programs initiated in UNMIBH was called The Special Trafficking Operations Programme or STOP. This program was notorious for conducting media-laden highprofile raids of brothels that were frequented by UN peacekeepers in Bosnia. While STOP initially drew support because it drew attention to the issue of trafficking, the program eventually ended up driving trafficking underground making it more difficult to stop. Women’s groups were highly critical of the media driven approach which did not take into account the safety and protection of victims of trafficking. Against the protests of many women’s organizations who worked on the issue of trafficking in the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, Klein appointed a former reporter with no experience as his focal point on trafficking of women and sexual exploitation and abuse in Bosnia. While those who have worked with her agree that she cares passionately about traffi cking and trafficking victims she lacks formal training in the complex criminal investigations that human trafficking requires. She was criticized roundly in Bosnia for exacerbating the problem of trafficking and overlooking the role of the UN in it. “She led the STOP raids on brothels in Bosnia with cameras in tow,” stated one expert on trafficking, “The women were terrified. Sometimes the police officers who were involved in the raids were the very clients of the brothel.”

The Zeid Report addresses this problem specifically, urging the UN to “have access to professionals who have experience in investigating sex crimes.” It warns that “complex and sensitive investigations into allegations not be undertaken by ‘enthusiastic amateurs.’” Yet, RI found that some of the same problems that plagued the mission in Bosnia were occurring again in Liberia. Rather than listening to and learning from the criticism, Klein side-stepped DPKO and appointed the same woman to head up his trafficking unit in Liberia.²⁸ When this came to light, Klein defended his colleague’s work against the protests of different UN agencies and NGOs working in Liberia and in Bosnia. When RI visited Liberia in December 2004, UNMIL personnel told us that, as in Bosnia, the brothels had gone underground. “The women are still there but thanks to the aggressive actions taken by UNMIL, it’s a lot harder to find them now.” Again, rather than responding to this problem and removing her from the position, Klein then appointed her to be the focal point for sexual exploitation and abuse allegations.

While Klein said he was aggressively addressing sexual exploitation and abuse, he also complained vociferously that he has no ability to punish perpetrators except to repatriate those found in violation. He is right. However, there were other actions that could have been taken to show he took the problem seriously. Advocates for the victims complain that they never heard about the results of any investigations that were reported directly to the SRSG. The lack of concern for reporting back to the local population was echoed by his employees. “There is no accountability in this mission,” one UNMIL employee said to RI. “The SRSG sweeps it all under the carpet. No one will talk about this openly.” A member of an international NGO who works closely with women’s groups in Liberia also complained to RI, “They just don’t take [sexual exploitation] very seriously. I’ve had UNMIL people tell me that some prostitution is not exploitative and that the Liberian women choose to be prostitutes. This attitude is unacceptable.”

In general, UNMIL employees did not evidence the same knowledge about the consequences of sexual exploitation and abuse as MINUSTAH employees did. In March 2004, RI reported that UNMIL lacked a clear and transparent process for reporting sexual exploitation incidents.²⁹ RI interviewed representatives of local NGOs and women’s groups, international NGOs, and other UN agencies, as well as many different members of UNMIL’s staff. At that time there was no individual formally assigned to be the sexual exploitation focal point. No two people that RI interviewed could identify the correct focal person to report allegations or cases of sexual exploitation. There was also confusion between the United Nations Development Program and UNMIL Human Rights officers about who had the lead on this issue. “There is no formal process for addressing problems with UNMIL. All violations should be reported to the Human Rights section of UNMIL,” a UN Development Program (UNDP) official told RI. At a separate meeting, an UNMIL official said, “I am not the focal point for [these] complaints. That’s [UNDP].”

While this situation had improved in December 2004 when RI re-visited Liberia, many of the people that RI interviewed were still unclear about how to report violations. Now that SRSG Klein has left UNMIL and a new SRSG, Alan Doss, has been appointed, the UN has the opportunity to address the problem of trafficking of women and bring an end to sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers and UN staff in Liberia.

In Haiti, while there were reports of peacekeepers soliciting prostitutes and of MINUSTAH staff frequenting restaurants and bars where prostitutes hung out, there was a marked difference in attitude towards the issue. While this may be due to the increased media scrutiny and the relative sophistication of the Haitian civil society and media in contrast to the Liberian media, the attitudes of the senior management of the mission were markedly different. Every senior manager that RI interviewed spoke positively of the work of the gender advisor/sexual exploitation focal point and acknowledged the difficult task in front of her. “I am very concerned about sexual exploitation,” stated a high level military commander, “We cannot do our jobs if the population does not trust us.” “The concept that sexual exploitation is wrong needs to be drummed into people. It has to be reinforced all the time,” added a senior police official. “Everyone needs to know that there is zero tolerance for this in this mission.” Almost every person that RI interviewed could explain what would happen to them if they were accused of sexual exploitation and abuse. RI talked with peacekeepers who told us, “I would not have sex with a woman in Haiti. It is not allowed.”

Like other missions, MINUSTAH faces obstacles to punishing perpetrators. The most severe sanction is repatriation of the perpetrator to his home country. The Zeid Report has urged that suspension of pay be used as a punishment to ensure individual disciplinary accountability. RI’s findings in Haiti reinforce the significance of this recommendation. One CIVPOL officer interviewed by RI said, “I know that I would be sent back in disgrace. My country is counting on me, my family is counting on me, and frankly I need the extra money that the UN is paying me.”

The difference in attitude towards sexual exploitation in Haiti is not enough to eliminate the problem. While we were in Haiti, two Pakistani peacekeepers were charged with paying a Haitian woman to have sex with them. While local media reports claimed that she was raped, the investigation showed that she may have unwittingly entered into an agreement to have sex that was brokered by an older Haitian woman. Most troubling about this case was that it was presented at a UN press conference as “only a case of prostitution” and not a case of rape. While the distinction is large—rape is a felony crime and solicitation of prostitution is a misdemeanor—MINUSTAH has specifically forbidden all of its members to engage in sex with prostitutes. SRSG Juan Gabriel Valdez has issued frequent bulletins with this message to UN personnel. Almost every MINUSTAH member from the commander of the CIVPOL to enlisted men in the Brazilian army were able to tell RI that prostitution was illegal and that they were likely to be sent home if found consorting with a prostitute.

Nonetheless, expecting full compliance with the zero tolerance/zero contact policy in Haiti is unrealistic. Until there is a better understanding of why the UN is so opposed to peacekeeper involvement with prostitutes or local women, peacekeepers will continue to think of it as a rule that makes no sense. Fear of punishment is not enough to ensure compliance. While military peacekeepers are kept in walled compounds, they are still pursued by local women. “Women bang on the gate all night,” said a member of the Peruvian contingent. The Chileans had been frightened away from the local women by dire threats of HIV and sexually transmitted infections. “Our men are so afraid, they won’t even take the condoms that the UN passes out,” claimed a Chilean officer in Cap Haitian. The Chilean troops are taken under supervision for visits to local beaches and none of the military peacekeepers are allowed to bring civilian clothes with them to Haiti, ensuring that they are always in uniform. These measures, however, do not address the fundamental problem of exploitative behavior by peacekeepers while in post-conflict countries.

Refugees International therefore recommends that:

The UN make measures to eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse part of the performance goals for all managers and commanders and rate managerial performance in accordance with the actual implementation of these goals;
An independent watchdog organization be set up by humanitarian agencies and donors to monitor actual implementation of UN policies in the field;
Any SRSG or senior UN employee who fails to implement measures to eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse be removed from his or her position.