Peacekeeping

Citation:

Martin, Sarah. 2005. Must Boys Be Boys? Ending Sexual Exploitation & Abuse in UN Peacekeeping Missions. Washington DC: Refugees International.

Author: Sarah Martin

Topics: Gender, Men, Boys, Masculinity/ies, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Regions: Africa, West Africa, Americas, Caribbean countries Countries: Haiti, Liberia

Year: 2005

Citation:

Higate, Paul, and Marsha Henry. 2004. “Engendering (In)security in Peace Support Operations.” Security Dialogue 35 (4): 481–98.

Authors: Paul Higate , Marsha Henry

Abstract:

This article contributes towards ongoing debates on gender, security, and post-conflict studies. Its focus is on the activities of male peacekeepers and their gendered relations with women and girls. Against the backdrop of the peacekeeping economies in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, we focus on the consequences of male peacekeepers' construction and enactment of masculinity (and masculinities) on the security of local women. We conclude by suggesting that a deeper understanding of gender relations and security in peacekeeping contacts is necessary for any policy intervention in post-conflict settings. 

Keywords: security, insecurity, Gender, peacekeeping, masculinity, femininity, militarization, sexuality

Topics: Economies, Gender, Women, Girls, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Conflict, Peacekeeping, Post-Conflict, Security, Male Perpetrators Regions: Africa, Central Africa, West Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone

Year: 2004

Citation:

Higate, Paul. 2007. “Peacekeepers, Masculinities, and Sexual Exploitation.” Men and Masculinities 10 (1): 99–119. doi:10.1177/1097184X06291896.

Author: Paul Higate

Abstract:

My aim in this article is to analyze a set of gendered power relations played out in two postconflict settings. Based on interviews with peacekeepers and others, I argue that sexual exploitation of local women by male peacekeepers continues to be documented. I then turn to scholarly considerations of peacekeeper sexual exploitation, some of which accord excessive explanatory power to a crude form of military masculinity. This is underlined by similarly exploitative activities perpetrated by humanitarian workers and so-called "sex tourists." In conclusion, I argue that a form of exploitative social masculinities shaped by socioeconomic structure, impunity, and privilege offers a more appropriate way to capture the activities of some male peacekeepers during peacekeeping missions. Finally, in underlining the conflation of military masculinities with exploitation, I pose the question of how to explain those military men who do not exploit local women while deployed on missions.

Keywords: gendered power relations, male peacekeepers, military masculinities, exploitative social masculinities

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Humanitarian Assistance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Peacekeeping, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Women Regions: Africa, Central Africa, West Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone

Year: 2007

Citation:

Higate, Paul. 2004. “Peacekeepers and Gender: DRC and Sierra Leone.” Pambazuka News, no. 164, 4.

Author: Paul Higate

Abstract:

While sexual exploitation and violence has become a common feature in peacekeeping contexts among state and non-state actors, this monograph focuses on peacekeepers and the alleged abuse of power that they exert over the local population. Many of the findings are anecdotal and based on short visits in mission areas. Recommendations are based on extant UN policies and do not comprehensively reflect the views of civil society organisations, the host governments or local women leaders. The monograph does, nevertheless, represent an insight into the challenges faced by women in conflict and post-conflict environments, and highlights best practices aimed at stemming the on-going exploitation and abuse being committed by those with the responsibility to protect. (AfricaPortal)

Topics: Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Humanitarian Assistance, Justice, Peacekeeping, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Women Regions: Africa, Central Africa, West Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone

Year: 2004

Citation:

Harrington, Carol. 2003. “Peacekeeping and Prostitution in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.” Paper presented at the 5th European Feminist Research Conference, Lund, August 20-23.

Author: Carol Harrington

Abstract:

This paper compares the organisation of sexual violence in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo during UN operations to the sexual violence associated with US military bases in the Republic of Korea (ROK) during the 1970s, while also drawing some comparisons with the way sexual violence was organised in wartime Yugoslavia. I argue that in all of these cases military men agree that soldiers are entitled to heterosexual encounters, and thus provide women for soldiers to have sex with, treating the women concerned as people whose well- being, dignity and bodily integrity is of no relevance at all. Such sexual violence appears to be institutionalised across contemporary militaries. However, the political logic that categorises women as people to be protected or as people who have no rights to bodily integrity differs across sites. My enquiry is based in a sociology of the body that treats sexual violence as political violence, thus I expect that the sexual categorisation and organisation of women for soldiers will reveal important aspects of the political order the militaries involved are defending. I will elaborate on this theoretical perspective in relation to the three cases in the course of my discussion. Through comparing these three military contexts I seek to understand how military thinkers in the case of Bosnia and Kosovo divided people in relation to physical security and rights to bodily integrity, and thus to uncover the logic of the political order these peacekeeping operations defended. (Intro)

Topics: Gender, Women, Men, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarization, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Violence Regions: Asia, East Asia, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Korea, South Korea

Year: 2003

Citation:

Lutz, Catherine, Matthew Gutmann, and Keith Brown. 2009. Conduct and Discipline in UN Peacekeeping Operations: Culture, Political Economy and Gender. Providence, RI: Watson Institute for International Studies.

Authors: Catherine Lutz, Matthew Gutmann, Keith Brown

Abstract:

Systematic patterns of sexual exploitation and abuse have emerged around UN peacekeeping missions over the course of many years. These include, most egregiously, peacekeepers’ exchange of UN food supplies or money for sex with young girls and sometimes boys as well as sexual assault. This paper examines the cultural and political economic roots of the problem, focusing on the relationship between ideas and attitudes about culture, gender, sexuality, and peacekeeping as those influence the nature and extent of SEA. It offers a political economic and cultural framework for understanding the problem, which is proposed to replace frameworks currently in broad if often tacit use in the UN.

Topics: Economies, Gender, Girls, Boys, International Organizations, Peacekeeping, Political Economies, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexuality

Year: 2009

Citation:

Jennings, Kathleen M., and Vesna Nikolić-Ristanović. 2009. “UN Peacekeeping Economies and Local Sex Industries: Connections and Implications.” MICROCON Working Paper 17, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton.

Authors: Kathleen M. Jennings, Vesna Nikolić-Ristanović

Abstract:

“Peacekeeping economies” have not been subject to much analysis of either their economic or socio-cultural and political impacts. This paper uses a gendered lens to explore some ramifications and lasting implications of peacekeeping economies, drawing on examples from four post-conflict countries with past or ongoing United Nations peacekeeping missions: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Liberia, and Haiti. The paper is particularly concerned with the interplay between the peacekeeping economy and the sex industry. It examines some of the characteristics and impacts of peacekeeping economies, arguing that these are highly gendered – but that the “normalization” of peacekeeping economies allows these effects to be overlooked or obscured. It also contends that these gendered characteristics and impacts have (or are likely have) broad and lasting consequences. Finally, the paper considers the initial impacts of UN efforts to tackle negative impacts of peacekeeping economies, particularly the zero-tolerance policy against sexual exploitation and the effort to “mainstream” gender and promote gender equality in and through peacekeeping. The paper suggests that the existence and potential long- term perpetuation of a highly gendered peacekeeping economy threatens to undermine the gender goals and objectives that are a component of most peace operations. 

Topics: Economies, Gender, Gender Mainstreaming, International Organizations, Peacekeeping, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Africa, West Africa, Americas, Caribbean countries, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Haiti, Kosovo, Liberia

Year: 2009

Citation:

Greener, B.K., W.J. Fish, and K. Tekulu. 2011. “Peacebuilding, Gender and Policing in Solomon Islands.” Asia Pacific Viewpoint 52 (1): 17–28. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8373.2011.01439.x.

Authors: B.K. Greener, W.J. Fish, K. Tekulu

Abstract:

UN Security Council Resolution 1325 calls for a gender perspective to be integrated into the resolution of conflicts. This responsibility manifests itself in a number of more specific proposals, some easily assessable, others less so. In this paper, we begin by considering the success of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) – the poster child for peacebuilding efforts – at meeting these specific proposals. In light of this, we then go on to suggest ways in which RAMSI might meet greater success in fully integrating gender considerations in Solomon Islands by blending sensitivity to gender-based considerations together with a deeper sensitivity to cultural considerations, including cultural understandings of core notions such as ‘policing’ and ‘justice’.

Keywords: Gender, international policing, peacebuilding, RAMSI, Solomon Islands, UNSCR 1325

Topics: Gender, Gender Analysis, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity, Justice, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Oceania Countries: Solomon Islands

Year: 2011

Citation:

Pillay, Anu. 2006. Gender, Peace and Peacekeeping: Lessons from Southern Africa. 128. Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies.

Author: Anu Pillay

Abstract:

This paper reflects on the intersection between gender, peace and peacekeeping. The author draws on evidence from two Southern African peacekeeping experiences (UNOMSA in South Africa and MONUC in the DRC) to contend that having a critical mass of women in peacekeeping missions can make the mission more effective, but also changes gender stereotypes and rigid patriarchal gender roles. The author views conflict as, amongst other things, a motor of transformation. Conflict, though certainly fraught with gender-based violence, presents an opportunity for women to seek to change existing gendered power relations. (ISS Africa).

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Women Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2006

Citation:

Fitzpatrick, Daniel. 2012. “Land Policy in Post-Conflict Circumstances: Some Lessons from East Timor.” Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, Forthcoming, online

Author: Daniel Fitzpatrick

Abstract:

In the wake of adverse assessments of UN peace-building missions in Kosovo and Sierra Leone, the Report of the Panel on UN Peace Operations ("the Brahimi Report") was commissioned to consider UN peacekeeping and related field operations. Its recommendations range widely from the structure and role of various UN agencies, including the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, to the importance of "clear, credible and achievable" mandates. Most relevantly, for our purposes, the Brahimi Report recommends development of "peace-building strategies" (para. 2 (c)), including pre-selecting collegiate "rule of law" teams consisting inter alia of judicial and human rights specialists (para. 10).

Although little further detail is given, the assumption underlying these last recommendations is that, despite the variety of circumstances in which there will be UN peace-building missions, it is possible to develop in advance certain strategies, and pre-select specialist rule of law teams, so that future peace-building efforts may be facilitated. This article considers this assumption in relation to land policy in post-conflict circumstances. It does so by analysing UNTAET’s land policy in the immediate aftermath of the conflict in East Timor; and it argues, in particular, that lessons from the successes and failures of this policy may be applied to generate certain recommendations for template land strategies in other peace-building and post-conflict environments.

Keywords: land, title, East Timor, post-conflict, land policy

Topics: Development, Humanitarian Assistance, International Organizations, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Human Rights, Land Rights Regions: Oceania Countries: Timor-Leste

Year: 2012