Sexual Exploitation And Abuse By Un Military Contingents

In Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN Military Contingents: Moving Beyond the Current Status Quo and Responsibility under International law Róisín Burke explores the legal, conceptual and practical difficulties of dealing with sexual offences committed by military contingent personnel deployed on UN peace operations. Some of the inadequacies of current legal frameworks for dealing with such abuses are examined. The book addresses the difficulties with applying international humanitarian law, human rights law and/or international criminal law in this context, and the broader issue of state/international organization responsibility. The book proposes policy options to increase accountability both for perpetrators and for troop contributing nations otherwise indifferent to the crimes of their national contingents.

Sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations (UN) peacekeepers is not an isolated or recent problem, but it has been present in almost every peacekeeping operation. A culture of sexual exploitation and abuse is contrary to the UN’s zero-tolerance policy and has been the target of institutional reforms since 2005. Despite this, allegations of sexual abuse continue to emerge, and the reforms have not solved the problem. This book is a response to the continued lack of accountability of UN peacekeepers for sexual exploitation and abuse. Focusing on military contingent members, this book aims to analyse ways in which the UN can fill the accountability gap while taking a feminist perspective and emphasising the needs of victims, their communities, and the host state. This book directly challenges the status quo of relying on troop-contributing countries (TCCs) to hold their peacekeepers to account. It proposes first, the establishment of a series of hybrid courts, and second, a mechanism for dealing with victim rehabilitation and reparation. It addresses these topics by considering international and human rights law and will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers, and students with an interest in international criminal law, United Nations peacekeeping, and peace studies.

While serving in United Nations peacekeeping missions, some peacekeepers sexually exploit and abuse the local population, a fact which erupted into a scandal published by many media outlets in 2005 and 2006. This book analyzes factors which may increase the risk of such behavior as well as measures the UN has taken which may have decreased the number of incidents. Using a mixed methods design, the book argues that previous analyses have been largely undertheorized—with the exception of gender theories—and turns to criminology to look at the phenomenon of so-called “Sexual Exploitation and Abuse” (SEA) in a new light. The three risk factors found to increase the likelihood of SEAs are an environment of sexual violence in the mission’s host country, the presence of internally displaced persons close to the mission, and a lack of supervised or regulated contact with the local population. In turn, the presence of an office whose purpose is to collect reports and investigate allegations, training on preventing SEAs for the incoming peacekeepers, and campaigns to empower the local population on these issues all seem to reduce the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse occurring. By using a statistical analysis followed by case studies of the UN peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, and the Golan Heights, the author demonstrates the importance these factors have in the peacekeepers’ behavior on the mission, providing a solid basis upon which future policy recommendations can be made.

Sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations peacekeeping forces first came to international attention more than a quarter century ago. Despite numerous U.N. policy responses, the problem persists, harming individuals, jeopardizing missions, and undermining the credibility and legitimacy of U.N. peacekeeping operations. This report addresses the question of why more progress has not been made in preventing these violations and draws attention to ways in which prevention efforts can be strengthened and made more effective.

The deployment of a large number of soldiers, police officers and civilian personnel inevitably has various effects on the host society and economy, not all of which are in keeping with the peacekeeping mandate and intent or are easily discernible prior to the intervention. This book is one of the first attempts to improve our understanding of unintended consequences of peacekeeping operations, by bringing together field experiences and academic analysis. The aim of the book is not to discredit peace operations but rather to improve the way in which such operations are planned and managed.

The protection of civilians is a highly topical issue at the forefront of international discourse, and has taken a prominent role in many international deployments. It has been at the center of debates on the NATO intervention in Libya, UN deployments in Darfur, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and on the failures of the international community in Sri Lanka and Syria. Variously described as a moral responsibility, a legal obligation, a mandated peacekeeping task, and the culmination of humanitarian activity, it has become a high-profile concern of governments, international organizations, and civil society, and a central issue in international peace and security. This book offers a multidisciplinary treatment of this important topic, harnessing perspectives from international law and international relations, traversing academia and practice. Moving from the historical and philosophical development of the civilian protection concept, through relevant bodies of international law and normative underpinnings, and on to politics and practice, the volume presents coherent cross-cutting analysis of the realities of conflict and diplomacy. In doing so, it engages a series of current debates, including on the role of politics in what has often been characterized as a humanitarian endeavor, and the challenges and impacts of the use of force. The work brings together a wide array of eminent academics and respected practitioners, incorporating contributions from legal scholars and ethicists, political commentators, diplomats, UN officials, military commanders, development experts and humanitarian aid workers. As the most comprehensive publication on the subject, this will be a first port of call for anyone studying or working towards a better protection of civilians in conflict.

This book examines the possibility of ratification of international covenants providing rights for women as an alternative to the ERA Constitutional Amendment. Existing U.S. laws are compared with those set forth in the international treaties on women's rights being proposed for adoption by the Senate.

"In it's first part, the Global Overview, the report profiles documented conflict-related sexual violence in 51 countries - in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East - that have experienced armed conflict over the past twenty years. The second part of the report, entitled Implications for the Security Sector, explores strategies for security and justice actors to prevent and respond to sexual violence in armed conflict and post-conflict situations"--P. 4 of cover.