Abstract
This introductory chapter consists of two parts. The first part of the chapter provides a brief overview of the problem of sexual exploitation in peacekeeping operations (PKOs) that eventually prompted the zero tolerance policy (ZTP). The second part of the chapter outlines the purpose and scope of the book. The third part describes the methodology adopted in the empirical research, while the final part outlines the structure of the book and provides a brief overview of each chapter.
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Notes
- 1.
Since the promulgation of the SGB, the term ‘sexual exploitation and abuse’ has become widely used in official UN documents, often as an acronym: SEA.
- 2.
The UN, scholars and researchers interchangeably use terms such as: UN peacekeeping operations, peacekeeping missions, missions and operations. For clarity within this book, I will use the term ‘peacekeeping operations’ to refer to the broad range of UN peacekeeping operations from 1948 until the present.
- 3.
For the purpose of this research, the term ‘peacekeepers’ will be used to refer to any uniformed service member serving as the UN military component, UN civilian police officers and military observers, UN volunteers, and individual contractors and consultants working on behalf of peace support operations.
- 4.
UNMIBH 1995-2002.
- 5.
Kien Serey Phal, ‘The Lessons of the UNTAC Experience and the Ongoing Responsibilities of the International Community in Cambodia’ (1995) 7(2) Pacifica Review 129.
- 6.
Natalia Lupi, ‘Report by the Enquiry Commission on the Behavior of Italian Peacekeeping troops in Somalia’ (1998) 1Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 375; Human Rights Watch, ‘Hopes Betrayed: Trafficking of Women and Girls to Post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina for Forced Prostitution’ (2002); Sarah Martin, ‘Must Boys be Boys? Ending Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Peacekeeping Missions’ (Refugee International, 2005).
- 7.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Save the Children UK (UNHCHR/STC-UK), ‘Sexual Violence and Exploitation: The Experience of Refugee Children in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone’ (2002); Paul Higate, ‘Gender and Peacekeeping Case Studies: The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone’ (Pretoria, Gender and Peacekeeping, Institute for Security Studies, 2004) 91 Monograph Series; East Timor Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Analysis ‘Commentary: International Security Forces and Sexual Misconduct’, The La’o Hamutuk Bulletin (online), August 2001 <http://www.laohamutuk.org/Bulletin/2001/Aug/bulletinv2n5.html>; Deutsche Presse Agentur, ‘U.N. Investigates Alleged Sexual Abuse by Peacekeepers in Eritrea’, 14 April 2005 <http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/ACIO-6BFN5E?OpenDocument>.
- 8.
Dianne Otto, ‘Making Sense of Zero Tolerance Policies in Peacekeeping Sexual Economies’ in Vanessa Munro and Carl F. Stychin (eds), Sexuality and the Law: Feminist Engagements (London, GlassHouse Press, 2007) 259.
- 9.
Machiko Kanetake, ‘Whose Zero Tolerance Counts? Reassessing a Zero Tolerance Policy against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN Peacekeepers’ (2010) 17(2) International Peacekeeping 200.
- 10.
Paul Higate and Marsha Henry, 'Engendering (In)security in Peace Support Operations' (2004) 35(4) Security Dialogue 482; Daniel Gustafsson, Peacekeeping and Prostitution: A Case Study of the Swedish Experience from Kosovo and Bosnia (Masters Thesis, University of Lund, 2005); Martin, above n 6.
- 11.
Otto, above n 8, 262.
- 12.
Secretary General’s Bulletin, Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, ST/SGB/2003/13 (9 October 2003) sec. 3.2 (c): ‘Exchange of money, employment, goods or services for sex, including sexual favours or other forms of humiliating, degrading or exploitative behaviour, is prohibited. This includes any exchange of assistance that is due to beneficiaries of assistance’.
- 13.
Ibid sec 3.2 (d): ‘Sexual relationships between United Nations staff and beneficiaries of assistance, since they are based on inherently unequal power dynamics, undermine the credibility of the UN and are strongly discouraged’.
- 14.
Ibid sec 3 (1).
- 15.
UNHCR/STC-UK, above n 7.
- 16.
Convention on the Rights of the Child, opened for signature 20 November 1989, 1577 UNTS 3 (entered into force 2 September 1990) art 1.
- 17.
Secretary General’s Bulletin, above n 13. Sexual abuse means ‘the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions’, para 1.
- 18.
Gayle Rubin, ‘Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality’ in Carole S. Vance (ed), Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984) 278.
- 19.
‘Beneficiaries of assistance’ is a term officially used in UN policies, defined as follows: ‘the entire population that we [UN peacekeeping forces] serve are considered beneficiaries of our assistance.’ Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Challenges in Peacekeeping Operations, Year in Review 2005 <http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/pub/year_review05/duty_of_care.htm>.
For the purpose of this research I have used the terms ‘beneficiaries’ and ‘local populations’ interchangeably to describe people under the protection of peacekeepers.
- 20.
One critique, developed by Dianne Otto, argues that the SGB treats almost all sex as coercive, and completely ignores the environment that is concerned with agency and survival. See, Otto, above n 8. Jennine Carmichael also argues that grouping sex with ‘humiliating or exploitative behaviour’ implies that all sex is harmful ‘particularly when a transactional exchange is involved’. See Jennine Carmichael, First, Do No Harm: Addressing the Problem of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by International Aid Workers and Peacekeepers (MA Thesis, The University of Melbourne, 2006) 29.
- 21.
Sheila Jeffreys, The Industrial Vagina: The Political Economy of the Global Sex Trade (Routledge, 2009)124; Vanessa L Kent, ‘Peacekeepers as Perpetrators of Abuse: Examining the UN’s plans to eliminate and address cases of sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping operations’ (2005) 14 (2) African Security Review 85; Elisabeth Defeis, ‘U.N. Peacekeeping and Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: An End to Impunity’ (2008) 7 (2) Washington University Global Studies Law Review 185; Muna Ndulo, ‘The United Nations Responses To The Sexual Abuse And Exploitation Of Women And Girls By Peacekeeping Missions’ (2008) 27(1) Berkley Journal of International Law 127.
- 22.
Catharine A MacKinnon, Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006); Sheila Jeffreys, The Idea of Prostitution (Spinifex, 1997) Laurie Shrage, ‘Comment on Overall's “What's Wrong with Prostitution? Evaluating Sex Work”’(1994) 19(2) Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 564; Kathleen Barry, The Prostitution of Sexuality (New York University Press, 1995).
- 23.
Rubin, above n 19; Carol S. Vance, above n 19; Alice M. Miller, ‘Sexuality, Violence Against Women, and Human Rights’ (2004) 7 (16) Health and Human Rights 5; Dianne Otto, above, n 8; Dianne Otto, ‘The Sexual Tensions of UN Peace Support Operations: A Plea for Sexual Positivity’ (2007) XVIII Finnish Yearbook of International Law 33.
- 24.
Kathleen M. Jennings, ‘Protecting Whom?: Approaches to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peacekeeping Operations’ (Fafo report, 2008).
- 25.
Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, A Comprehensive Strategy to Eliminate Future Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, UN GA, 59th sess, A/59/710 (24 March 2005) 4.
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Simic, O. (2012). Sexual Conduct and Peacekeeping. In: Regulation of Sexual Conduct in UN Peacekeeping Operations. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28484-7_1
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