Sexual Exploitation In UN Peacekeeping MissionsAn influx of large numbers of unaccompanied foreign men into post-conflict societies is often associated with increased incidents of prostitution and gender-based violence.* While recent press reports focus on charges of sexual exploitation and abuse within UN peacekeeping missions, it is important to recognize that most national militaries around the world have had to address the problem of sexual exploitation and abuse. Even the best trained militaries must still work to eliminate this problem among its forces. According to the US Department of Defense Inspector General’s 2004 survey of three military academies, one in every seven female cadets reported they had been a victim of sexual abuse in the previous five years and 50% of the women at the three academies reported being sexually harassed. The victims only reported a third of the incidents of sexual misconduct. In 2004, the US Department of Defense had 1,275 allegations of assault of service members by fellow soldiers. Duke University Law Professor Madeline Morris noted that “the ratio of military rapes to civilian rapes is substantially larger than the ratio of military rates to civilian rates of other violent crime.”7 The U.S. Department of Defense drafted a new regulation in 2004 that would allow U.S. troops to be subject to courts martial for using prostitutes in response to concerns that US troops were contributing to human trafficking in areas near their overseas bases.8 Since UN peacekeeping missions are made up of troops contributed from militaries around the world, they are subject to the same problems as the individual militaries that contribute troops to them. While UN peacekeeping missions are not the only military organizations to face these issues, the charges made against peacekeeping troops are particularly disturbing because of the unique nature of peacekeeping. The UN Security Council deploys military troops in order to protect vulnerable populations from the violence of the warring parties. In the words of the Zeid report, the UN “should not in any way increase the suffering of vulnerable sectors of the population, which has often been devastated by war or civil conflict.”9 As one peacekeeping expert told Refugees International (RI) “the United Nation’s mission is not to undermine rule of law but rather to strengthen it. When they blatantly disregard local laws about prostitution and encourage the cover-up of violations within the mission, they are poisoning the mission and corrupting the mandate.” One of the most troubling aspects of the recent sexual exploitation scandal in the DRC was the accusation that members of the UN peacekeeping force in that country (MONUC) offered food to vulnerable displaced children and women as payment for having sex with them. Bunia, located in the Ituri region in war-torn eastern DRC, was under siege by warring rebel groups in 2003. Residents of nearby villages and of the town itself fled and set up shelters in MONUC’s headquarters and next to the UN peacekeeping troops’ camps, trusting that the UN troops would protect them from the violence. According to a report in the UK newspaper, The Independent, “Many of the girls and women had been raped by the warring factions and left with children to support. With no husbands to assist them and facing stigmatization from their families, they turned to the Uruguayan and Moroccan peacekeepers stationed directly across from the camp. One way for them to barter for food was to offer to have sex with the peacekeepers. ‘It is easy for us to get to the UN soldiers,’ explained one woman, ‘We climb through the fence when it is dark, sometimes once a night, sometimes more.’” One camp worker, who refused to give his name and worked for Atlas, the NGO in charge of charge of managing the camp, said: “Yes, we know that girls go and visit the UN soldiers every night. There is nothing to stop them, and the girls need food. ‘Going over to the camp is OK because the soldiers are kind to me and don’t point their guns like the other soldiers did,’ one girl says.”10 Sexual misconduct has long characterized UN peacekeeping missions. During the UN mission in Cambodia (UNTAC) from 1992 to 1993, the number of sex houses and “Thai-style” massage parlors multiplied and the number of prostitutes rose from 6,000 to 25,000, including an increased number of child prostitutes.11 Cambodia’s HIV rates rose and sexually transmitted infections spread among Cambodian prostitutes.+ Cambodians complained to the UN mission about UNTAC personnel’s disorderly behavior, drinking and association with prostitutes. The mission’s Special Representative to the Secretary-General (SRSG), Yasushi Akashi infamously replied, “Boys will be boys,” and no disciplinary action was taken. UNMEE, the UN peacekeeping mission which has been in Eritrea since 2000, also experienced numerous sex scandals involving UN peacekeepers and the local population. Italian, Danish and Slovak peacekeepers were expelled in separate incidents for having sex with minors. In 2001, three Danish soldiers were found guilty of having sex with a 13-year-old Eritrean girl. In 2002, an Irish soldier was caught making pornographic films of Eritrean women. The main woman in the film said that she was the Irish soldier’s girlfriend and that they planned to marry. She was sentenced to two years in jail. Since then, several women accused of being prostitutes were arrested. The Irish soldier was sentenced to sixteen days detention and dismissed from the military. In June 2003, the Irish military police investigated allegations that seven Irish peacekeepers used prostitutes who were as young as 15.12 Not only military troops are accused of sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping missions. In 2000, U.S. civilians contracted to serve in the UN Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina (UNMIBH) by Dyncorp, a private US military contracting firm, were investigated for trafficking in young women in Bosnia. Human Rights Watch described Bosnia as “absolutely littered with brothels.”13 Also implicated in the trafficking scandal were Jordanians, Pakistanis, and German military troops. According to sources, however, in most cases, allegations were hushed up and officers sent home.14 * While women may be capable of the same crimes, men are the most often mentioned in conjunction with sexual exploitation and abuse of local women and children. + While there was no proof that the UN personnel contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS, the accusation of being responsible for introducing HIV into post-conflict countries has continued to follow UN peacekeepers. In September 2004, a Sudanese government official in Darfur told RI that he doesn’t want UN peacekeepers who will spread AIDS in his country. |
Conclusion Refugees International's Recommendations ----------- Notes Annex: UN Code of Conduct for Peacekeepers Acknowledgements List of Acronyms |
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Must Boys Be Boys? Sexual Exploitation in UN Missions
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