MASARYKOVA
U N I V E R Z I T A
F A C U L T Y O F S O C I A L S T U D I E S
Negative repercussions of UN peacekeeping
missions: Sexual exploitation and abuse
committed by peacekeeping personnel in
host countries
Bachelor's Thesis
ALEXANDRA BLASKOVA
Supervisor: Mgr. Jana Urbanovskä, Ph.D.
Department of International Relations and European
Studies
International Relations and European Politics
Brno 2020
F S S
NEGATIVE REPERCUSSIONS OF U N PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS: SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE COMMITTED BY PEACEKEEPING PERSONNEL IN
HOST COUNTRIES
Bibliographic Record
Author: Alexandra Blaskovä
Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University
Department of International Relations and European
Studies
Title of Thesis: Negative repercussions of UN peacekeeping missions:
Sexual exploitation and abuse committed
by peacekeeping personnel in host countries
Degree Programme: International Relations and European Politics
Supervisor: Mgr. Jana Urbanovskä, Ph.D.
Academic Year: 2020
Number of Pages: 57
Keywords: United Nations, UN, sexual exploitation and
abuse, SEA, peacekeeping missions
1
NEGATIVE REPERCUSSIONS OF U N PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS: SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE COMMITTED BY PEACEKEEPING PERSONNEL IN
HOST COUNTRIES
Abstract
The objective of the thesis is to examine the issue of sexual exploitation
and abuse that has arisen during numerous peacekeeping missions
carried out by the UN. The policy paper aims to analyse the causes of
the issue, as well as the numerous reasons why SEA crimes occur in UN
missions on a frequent basis to this day. Based on the analysis of the
issue, a number of viable solutions to the problem is evaluated, including
a revision of the Memorandum of Understanding various gender
equality increasing policy options or enhanced investigation processes.
The paper then proposes a recommendation based on the previous eva-
luation.
2
NEGATIVE REPERCUSSIONS OF U N PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS: SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE COMMITTED BY PEACEKEEPING PERSONNEL IN
HOST COUNTRIES
Statutory Declaration
I hereby declare that I have written the submitted Bachelor's Thesis
concerning the topic of Negative repercussions of UN peacekeeping
missions: Sexual exploitation and abuse committed by peacekeeping
personnel in host countries independently. All the sources used
for the purpose of finishing this thesis have been adequately referenced
and are listed in the Bibliography.
In Brno 4 May 2020
Alexandra
Blaskovä
1
NEGATIVE REPERCUSSIONS OF U N PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS: SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE COMMITTED BY PEACEKEEPING PERSONNEL IN
HOST COUNTRIES
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Mgr. Jana Urbanovska, Ph.D. for her prompt answers
to my manifold questions, her supportive advices as well as her
extraordinarily friendly approach.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 5
Table of Contents
List of Images 7
List of Tables 8
List of Terms and Acronyms 9
1 Introduction 11
Chyba! Nenalezen zdroj odkazů.
Chyba! Nenalezen zdroj odkazů.
Chyba! Nenalezen zdroj odkazů.
Chyba! Nenalezen zdroj odkazu.
2 SEA in UN peacekeeping 18
2.1 Causes of SEA crimes in UN peacekeeping 20
2.2 UN approach to SEA 24
2.3 Legal aspects of SEA allegations 26
3 Policy Options 30
5
6 OBSAH
3.1 Gender-oriented policy options 30
3.2 Revision of the Memorandum of Understanding (Moll)
between the UN and Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) 32
3.3 Enhanced investigation processes 34
4 Evaluation and Recommendations 37
4.1 Evaluation of gender-oriented policy options 37
4.2 Evaluation of the revision of the Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) between the UN and Troop Contributing
Countries (TCCs) 38
4.3 Evaluation of enhanced investigation processes 40
4.4 Recommendations 42
5 Conclusion 45
Bibliography 48
Appendix A [Title of the Appendix] 55
Index 57
6
LIST OF IMAGES 7
List of Images
Chyba! Nenalezen zdroj odkazů.
Chyba! Nenalezen zdroj odkazů.
7
8 LIST OF TABLES
List of Tables
8
LIST OF TERMS AND ACRONYMS 9
List of Terms and Acronyms
CDT Conduct and Discipline Teams
DPKO United Nations Department of Peacekeeping
Operations
10 international organisation
MoU Memorandum of Understanding
MTS Misconduct Tracking System
MUNOSCO United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
NGO non-governmental organisation
OIOS Office of Internal Oversight Services
SEA sexual exploitation and abuse
TCC troop-contributing country
UN United Nations
9
INTRODUCTION
1 Introduction
According to the official statement of the United Nations Department
of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), peacekeeping missions
belong to the small group of the most effective tools that the UN uses in
order to help and support host countries throughout the course of the
difficult, early transition from conflict to peace (United Nations 2019).
The UN has been assisting countries in need since the first peacekeeping
mission with the aim to ensure preservation of peace terms
between Israel and the surrounding Arab countries in 1948 (United
Nations 2019). As of today, the UN is assisting transition to peace and
post-conflict reconciliation in 13 missions, with approximately 110 000
peacekeeping personnel deployed in host countries (United Nations
2019).
Apart from the general objective of UN peacekeepers to provide
aid and assistance to people inhabiting areas affected by conflict, each
of the peacekeeping missions has its own, specific set of objectives and
goals based on the particular issues of the given country. Such information
can generally be found in mandates defined in UN Security Council
resolutions, which form the foundation of every peacekeeping mission.
Unfortunately, UN missions do not solely bring about desired
and beneficial results stated in the mandates. More often than not, taking
action and intervening in systems of high complexity such as a society
has multiple consequences, out of which not all are wished for.
That has been the case of numerous UN missions where unintended
results of actions of peacekeepers impeded their overall success. Experiences
gained throughout the course of the past couple of decades proved
that UN peacekeeping can produce growth of levels of corruption
11
INTRODUCTION
and criminal activities, further disturb the host economy or even contribute
to increased numbers of people suffering from HIV/AIDS (Kent
2007). Causes of such repercussions vary; in certain cases, they are a
result of poorly constructed missions, tasks carried out incorrectly or of
human errors of the peacekeeping personnel.
In spite of the fact that the intentions of UN peacekeeping are
clear and straightforward, it is a system in which success is to a large
extent determined by the performance of its employees. Consequently,
misconducts of peacekeepers may eventually result in causing setbacks
in successful course of a given mission. One of the most serious and
severe misbehaviours of peacekeepers in missions are undoubtedly
crimes of sexual exploitation and abuse of host countries' women and
children.
1.1 Definition of terms: sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA]
United Nations defines sexual exploitation as any actual or attempted
abuse of position of vulnerability, differential power or trust,
for sexual purposes, including but not limited to, profiting monetarily,
socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another (United
Nations 2019). Similarly, the term sexual abuse is understood by the UN
as both actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature,
whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions (United Nations
2019).
In spite of the fact that unprofessional behaviour and issues related
to SEA have been occuring on a fairly frequent basis since the first
decades of active UN peacekeeping, sufficient and adequate attention to
this matter has only been paid since the early 1990's missions in Somalia
and Cambodia (Kent 2007). What is more, official stance of the UN to
SEA carried out by peacekeeping personnel - the so called „zero tole-
12
INTRODUCTION
ranee policy" was promulgated no sooner than in the year 2003,
described in detail in one of the Secretary General's bulletins (United
Nations 2003).
1.2 Aims, methodology and limitations of the thesis
As the severity of the issue is so high, this thesis is dedicated to
its analysis, its causes as well as to the examination of UN's responses to
the subject matter. By the same token, the thesis aims to assess the
effectiveness and viability of possible policy options. Based on the evaluation,
the thesis proposes a recommendation with the most feasible
strategies designed to tackle the given problem. It goes without saying
that it is unlikely that a certain strategy, or a combination of multiple
policy strategies, would solve the issue completely. Nonetheless, functional
preventive measures, discouragement, high levels of deterrence
against SEA crimes as well as other factors may reduce the numbers of
SEA victims in host countries significantly.
The thesis greatly relies on data sets provided by the UN that record
SEA violations of their personnel in numerous peacekeeping missions
as well as national statistics of Troop Contributing Countries
(TCCs) that deal with the given issue. Moreover, in order to ensure the
so called data triangulation, the thesis also takes into consideration information
and statistics that deal with the issue of SEA in UN peacekeeping
by a number of non-governmental institutions or think-thanks,
such as the Stimson Center or the National Sexual Violence Resource
Center. Based on the information gained from the named sources, major
trends regarding SEA shall be assessed and further evaluated. Subsequently,
the concluded trends will form the basis of the issue and shall
facilitate the process of specifying the fitting policy options.
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INTRODUCTION
In spite of the fact that the aim of the thesis is to provide the
most precise analysis of the issue possible, there is a number of elements
that may cause distortions and slight distinctions between how
the problem is described in the paper and its actual state.
First of all, underreporting presents a great obstacle in the way
of proper understanding of the seriousness of the issue. Generally speaking,
rape is considered to be the most under-reported crime, alongside
with other sexual assult-related crimes. As a matter of fact, according to
a survey carried out recently by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2017),
more than 70 per cent of sexual assaults are never reported to the poli-
ce.
Secondly, the primary data used in the thesis is derived from the
official UN statistics of SEA allegations against their peacekeeping personnel
as well as other statistics provided by the UN, as there are very
few thorought reports of the issue carried out by other organisations.
Consequently, even the numbers of allegations released in UN's annual
reports shall be taken into consideration with a pinch of salt, as there
has been a great deal of academic work aimed to point out their questionability
(Grady 2016).
Last, but not least, the UN implemented an electronic system for
tracking allegations of misconduct only in 2007, whereas prior to this
year, information about misconducts was stored exclusively in physical
files (United Nations 2019). As a result, rigorous data about allegations
from the first couple of decades of UN peacekeeping are not available
which may stand in the correct way of analysing the overall trends of
the issue.
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INTRODUCTION
1.3 Review of topic-related literature
Just as the issue of SEA in UN peacekeeping missions has become a
subject persistently reviewed by the media and discussed by political
figures and international organisations (IOs), the numbers of academic
work dealing with the topic have also increased proportionally in the
course of the past decades.
Vanessa Kent (2007) belongs to the group of authors that addressed
SEA in UN peacekeeping in an elaborate and detailed way. In her
work, Kent pays great attention to a detailed description of the issue.
Furthermore, the chapter explains the legal aspects and obstacles in
prosecution processes with UN personnel, which fosters an enhanced
comprehension of the matter.
Unlike the work put together by Kent, Sabrina Karim and Kyle
Beardsley (2016) or Donna Bridges and Debbie Horsfall (2009) rather
focus on proposing solutions to the given problem instead of analysing
it so thoroughly. In their work, SEA is addressed in relation to gender
inequality prominent among peacekeeping personnel of the UN. Moreover,
they both come to a similar conclusion that increasing gender
equality and female participation in UN peacekeeping missions might
lead to higher effectiveness of the missions and ultimately even decrease
the occurrence of SEA crimes committed by peacekeepers.
The impact of including more women peacekeepers in UN missions
is also acknowledged by Elizabeth F. Defeis. Nonetheless, Defeis does
not focus solely on better gender balance. The author proposes a number
of other possible reforms that could help the UN deal with the given
problem, including a proposal for standardized norms of conduct or
higher levels of investigation and discipline of the UN staff.
15
INTRODUCTION
A comparably normative attitude was taken on by Pam Spees
(2004), who aimed to stress the urgency and necessity of peacekeeping
personnel and even missions themselves to be designed in such a way
that the encourage and strengthten a culture of sufficient gender justice
and accountability.
Ragnhild Nordas and Siri Aas Rustad (2013), on the other hand,
mainly aim to foster greater understanding of SEA in peacekeeping missions
that may prove helpful in the process of tackling the issue. The
authors focus on the conceptualisation of factors that affect the
occurence of SEA in peacekeeping missions within two separate groups
- factors that are mission and host country specific. Consequently, this
conceptualisation facilitates the development of highly effective policy
options.
A critical assessment of policy options that have been put in place
after the Secretary General published the main tenets of the zero tolerance
policy in 2003 is presented by Machiko Kanetake (2012) who
aims to point out the discrepancy between law and politics, thanks to
which the UN struggles and frequently fails to ensure effective punishments
of SEA crimes.
In a similar fashion, Jenna Stern (2015) seeks to point out the
current challenges and to highlight areas that the UN's policies that
address SEA in peacekeeping missions do not yet cover well. Nonetheless,
unlike Kanetake, Stern also tries to assess progress and advancements
that the UN managed to achieve in the period of the past 10
years.
The amount of academic work that deals with SEA in peacekeeping
is large and frequently varies in nature, structure, outcomes and solutions
it proposes. Hence, the aim of this thesis is to firstly provide a
16
INTRODUCTION
unique, comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the most viable policy
options to SEA in UN missions that are gained from already existing
pieces of literature or that are only to be introduced in the thesis and
subsequently, to propose a recommendation derived from the foregoing
evaluation.
1.4 Road map of the thesis
The thesis shall consist of 4 major parts. In the first chapter, the
matter in question - SEA in UN peacekeeping, is looked at in depth. This
part includes an analysis of causes of high SEA rates during UN missions,
the official stance of the UN to the given issue as well as an examination
of the variety of obstructions and obstacles that stand in the way
of smooth persecution processes with UN personnel.
The second chapter then proceeds to describe and assess the
most feasible possible policy options that could help to decrease the
levels of misconducts carried out during UN missions. These policy options
include a variety of policies that seek to increase gender equality,
a revised version of the Memorandum of Understanding as well as
enhanced investigation processes.
Thirdly, the thesis proceeds onto a part that deals with scrutinous
evaluation of the most viable strategies that aim to tackle high SEA
crime rates prevalent in UN peacekeeping missions. On top of that, the
chapter formulates a well-grounded policy recommendation that would
be applicable on each and every forthcoming peacekeeping mission of
the UN.
Finally, the last chapter focuses on providing an all-embracing
conclusion and on summarising results of feasibility analyses of all possible
policy options presented in Chapter 2 and 3.
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SEA IN UN PEACEKEEPING
2 SEA in UN peacekeeping
Throughout the year 2019, the number of SEA allegations conducted
by UN staff reached an even 80, out of which 49 allegations were
filed against military personnel, 25 against civilian personnel and the
remaining 6 accusations were directed against the members of UN police
(Conduct in UN Field Missions 2020). In spite of the fact that the UN
has been actively engaging in the process of tackling SEA in peacekeeping
missions since the beginning of the 21s t
century, the amount of
misconducts of SEA nature in 2019 is not significantly smaller than a
decade ago (Conduct in UN Field Missions 2020).
It is rather disappointing that the portrayal of such high prevalence
of SEA misconducts by the media no longer astounds the public as it
used to at the beginning of the past decade, as the issue still belongs to
the group of the most serious and crucial challenges that the UN faces
these days. In 2015, in one of his reports, UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon
stated that even a single case of SEA crime committed by personnel
employed by the UN is one case too many (UN General Assembly
2015). The severity of the issue of SEA in UN peacekeeping is high due
to the fact that it undermines and compromises the main aim of UN
missions - to help countries and societies on their difficult path from
conflict to peace. Each time that a member of UN peacekeeping staff
takes advantage of his/her position and vulnerability of the people they
have been sent to protect and assist, trust and faith of host countries in
the UN is being betrayed (Deschamps, Jallow and Sooka 2015).
SEA was not considered to be a major issue at the time when the
very first allegations were filed. Awareness of SEA crimes conducted by
UN peacekeepers was first raised during the 1993 mission in Cambodia,
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SEA IN UN PEACEKEEPING
where the amount of female and child prostitutes quadrupled as a direct
consequence of the presence of UN personnel in the host country
(Withworth 2004). One would expect that the UN reacted promptly and
adopted measures to ameliorate the issue. Unfortunately the UN handled
the situation very poorly and only managed to give away a mixed
message about their stance towards SEA. Not only the leadership of the
Cambodian mission justified the misconducts of their personnel based
on the intensified masculine culture prevalent among the peacekeepers
but the UN also supplied them with thousands of condoms and made
sure that they wore civilian clothing anytime they were using the services
of local prostitutes (Simic 2012). Based on the information provided
from official UN datasets on SEA misconducts introduced in 2007, the
group of 8 missions where the numbers of filed allegations were clearly
the highest are shown in Graph 1.1 below and include countries such as
the Central African Republic, Haiti, Liberia, Cote d'lvoire or Sudan. The
leading position with the biggest portion of SEA allegations against UN
peacekeeping personnel was recorded in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, where up to the beginning of the year 2020, 198 victims decided
to report actions of alleged peacekeepers that were deployed in the
MONUSCO mission (Conduct in UN Field Missions 2020).
Similar events occured in other missions, too, nevertheless it took
a notably long time until the UN first began to implement policies that
addressed the issue instead of passively accepting the engagement of
their personnel in crimes of SEA nature. Ever since then, the UN's approach
towards SEA has been evolving and making headway. Unfortunately,
in spite of the efforts, the issue of SEA in UN missions is still so
extensive that it belongs to the group of the biggest risks that currently
jeopardize the positive impact of UN peacekeeping (Stern 2015).
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SEA IN UN PEACEKEEPING
Graph 1.1
UN missions with the largest share of SEA allegations
2007-2019
200
(Conduct in UN Field Missions 2020)
2.1 Causes of SEA crimes in UN peacekeeping
Understanding the reasons why SEA crimes conducted by UN
peacekeepers occur on such a frequent basis is vital for analysis of the
issue as well as for further attempts to address it from its core.
High levels of men peacekeepers' participation in UN missions is
recurrently discussed as one of the major factors contributing to high
SEA crime levels. As of November 2019, out of 74 647 military person-
20
SEA IN UN PEACEKEEPING
nel deployed in 13 UN missions, 92 per cent were of male gender (United
Nations 2019). Subsequently, the strikingly high proportion of men
in missions ultimately leads to the creation of a so called „hypermasculine
culture". The term hyper-masculinity is identified by sociologists
as a form of behaviour that involves overemphasized volumes of
masculinity, virility, physicality or even animalism (Parrot and Zeichner
2003) . Most commonly, the characteristics of a hyper-masculine culture
include the portrayal of violence and ferocity as favorable, the image of
peril as thrilling and last, but not least, inconsiderate and disrespectful
behaviour towards females as admissible.
Such behaviour is very common when it comes UN missions, as
hyper-masculinity is a crucial aspect of good performance of militarised
groups. As a matter of fact, ..militarised masculinity" is generally believed
to be essential for warrior culture to be capable of flourishing (Enloe
1990).
Participation in UN missions involves the necessity of peacekeepers
to leave their homes and move to locations where family and other
societal structures are entirely disrupted. Hence, peacekeepers are forced
to construct new identities in predominantly male groups that view
sexual relationships with local women as primary and fundamental indicators
of a soldier's status throughout the mission (Higate and Henry
2004) . Unfortunately, presence of such attitudes has more than just the
desired effects on peacekeepers' success - it undoubtedly increases the
amount of crimes associated with male sexuality and misconduct. In
spite of the fact that the zero tolerance policy strongly discourages
misbehaviours of such kind, military personnel of the UN conducts
them to the present day.
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SEA IN UN PEACEKEEPING
Hyper-masculine attitudes are not only a cause of high levels of
SEA in peacekeeping missions, but they also facilitate underreporting of
such crimes since they frequently lead to the creation of a so called
„wall of silence". The term wall of silence stands for secrecy that occurs
in environments mostly dominated by men, e.g. police force departments
or military groups, which ensures prevention of allegations and
accusations from outside of the given group (Schmitt 1992). What is
more, this kind of secrecy not only protects the group from the outside,
but also restrains any possible reports that would origin within the
group, as the individual responsible for accusations would be condemned
and vastly stigmatised by other members of the mission. Due to
this, walls of silence are considered to be major decisive factors in regard
to the problem of SEA underreporting.
Hyper-masculinity, however, does not solely explain why SEA
occurs so commonly. Karim and Beardsley (2016) have argued that
another contributor to high SEA rates is opportunism. Opportunism is
an assumption based on which people are naturally prone to selfinterest
and will seize an opportunity to take advantage od others when
possible (Smith 1935). Opportunism thus serves well as an explanation
of the fact that the larger a UN mission, the higher the proportional number
of SEA allegations (United Nations 2019). The issue may be analysed
in relation to the agency dilemma which supposes that agents - UN
military personnel, have a tendency to act according to their personal
interests as soon as principals - UN military leaders and commanders,
show smaller control over monitoring of agents' actions (Nordas and
Rustad2013).
Another scenario where opportunistic behaviour might take place
is when peacekeepers take part in missions that entail low intensity of
22
SEA IN UN PEACEKEEPING
high-risk situations and violent clashes. This is a result of the fact that
when peacekeeping personnel is not located in areas where fighting is
still in process, they are customarily granted larger levels of mobility
and hence, have a chance to get in touch with local populations more.
Nonetheless, determinants of SEA crime rates in UN peacekeeping
missions can also be found on the side of host countries. According to
numerous scholars, there seems to be a direct link between high numbers
of SEA misconducts and widespread sexual violence predating the
arrival of UN peacekeepers (Kent 2007). The term transactional sex
stands for sexual relationships between local women in host countries
and UN personnel thanks to which women receive various benefits,
money, food or any other necessary supplies (Defeis 2009). If women
are faced with transactional sex and violence throughout conflict that
precedes the onset of a UN peacekeeping mission in the country, UN
personnel is usually granted better and faster access to sexual relationships
with the local population than in other countries where UN missions
take place. In extreme cases, such sexual relationships become so
normalised during conflict that complex systems of prostitution channels
are developed to facilitate and ease the process of finding sexual
partners within local communities (Nordas and Rustad 2013). Formation
of prostitution channels might arise from two possible reasons that
differ based on community culture and customs. Firstly, pervasive wartime
sexual violence may result in a break-down of restrictions regarding
sex trade. On the other hand, normalised forms of harlotry may
also be a consequence of the fact that societies reprobate and shy away
from victims of sexual violence who are ultimately forced to opt for
transactional sex as a form of occupation necessary for their survival.
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SEA IN UN PEACEKEEPING
Last, but not least, another major host country-related factor
affecting high levels of SEA during UN peacekeeping is low development
and poverty. Financial hardship and small employment possibilities
increase the chances of UN personnel being provided with increased
supply of potential sexual partners seeking benefits from their contact
with peacekeepers (Nattrass 2009). Similarly, low development of the
local legal system, human rights and culturally-acceptable genderbased
cruelly and violence in the country all contribute to higher risk of
SEA misconducts during UN missions.
2.2 UN approach to SEA
UN launched its first peacekeeping missions approximately in the
half of the past century. It is rather likely that misconduct of UN peacekeeping
personnel took place already during the very first missions. In
spite of this fact, the first records of violence of sexual nature date back
to peacekeeping missions in Somalia or Cambodia during the last decade
of the past century (Kent 2007).
The evolution of UN's approach to SEA was a slow and steady process
that is undoubtedly not finalised yet. The initial attempts to
address the issue occured in the early 2000's, when the Secretary General,
as a response to a resolution put out by the General Assembly, published
a bulletin that proposed a number of ways to tackle the problem
(Conduct of UN Field Missions 2020). The bulletin embodied what
later became to be known as UN's official stance towards SEA - the so
called „zero tolerance policy". The essence of the zero tolerance policy
was highly restrictive as the Secretary General strongly refused and
banned any sexual conduct of UN peacekeepers with vulnerable local
populations. Similarly, he also highlighted the prohibition of sexual relationships
and prostitution with children (Kanetake 2012). Unfortuna-
24
SEA IN UN PEACEKEEPING
tely, the bulletin missed a number of points that would be vital for dealing
with SEA. For instance, the restriction that addressed child prostitution
did not delimit the age when a person is no longer considered a
child. As the perception of the age line between childhood and majority
differs based on the host country, the bulletin allowed the creation of a
leeway for child prostitution that was not criminalised (Kanetake
2012).
As a consequence of the fact the Secretary General's bulletin did
not bring about any major changes in the occurence of SEA during
peacekeeping missions, two years later, an elaborate work on SEA in
UN missions was issued. The report was, unlike the bulletin, put together
by his special adviser for the given matter - Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid
Al-Hussein of Jordan who carried out a thorough research regarding
misconduct of peacekeepers on missions (Kent 2007). Based on the
research he then proposed multiple reforms and improvements that
needed to be done in order to handle SEA, both on the sides of the UN
and the member states. The Zeid report initiated a series of structural
changes that took place in the following years that were aimed to
enhance prevention, improve the response mechanisms as well as to
increase the capacity and abilities of assistance to SEA victims (Conduct
in UN Field Missions 2020).
Another major step forward in the process of forming the way UN
approaches SEA was the outset of rigorous collection of data regarding
SEA allegations in 2007. Two years later, the UN adopted the so called
Misconduct Tracking System (MTS) a database on SEA allegations with
a worldwide outreach that allows for cases to be subjected to close
scrutiny to the present day (UN Department of Political Affairs 2020).
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SEA IN UN PEACEKEEPING
From this point on, UN's credibility concerning investigation of SEA
cases witnessed a fairly slow but steady rise (Stern 2015).
Currently, the UN approach to SEA still focuses on three main areas
- prevention of SEA crimes conducted by UN personnel, prompt response
to SEA allegations and well-developed victim assistance. Among
one of documents that had an impact on the current approach of the UN
to SEA in peacekeeping is the 2017 bulletin proposed by the Secretary
General that introduces a strategy to address SEA at a system-wide level
that is meant to be achieved by a great number of new initiatives,
including increased engagement of local societies and external partners
in victim assistance and SEA combatting, enhancing transparency and
improving education on the matter (UN Department of Political Affairs
2020).
Despite the fact that UN pays extensive attention to clearly presenting
their condemnatory approach towards SEA-related misconducts of
their personnel, it seems that their strategy of tackling the issue does
not bring about desired effects, as only a very small decrease can be
observed in the amount of allegations on SEA between the years 2007
and 2019 (Conduct in UN Field Missions 2020). The group of the
biggest blind spots of the UN's approach to SEA are currently considered
to be the lack of gender equality among peacekeeping personnel
(Karim and Beardsley 2015), insufficiency of information and conditions
included in bilateral agreements between the UN and TCCs (Defeis
2008) as well as lack of transparency in investigations of SEA misconducts
by the home countries of UN peacekeeping staff (Stern 2015).
2.3 Legal aspects of SEA allegations
Another one of the biggest downsides of UN approach to SEA is the
lack of UN's abilities to ensure the enforcement of necessary pu-
26
SEA IN UN PEACEKEEPING
nishments for perpetrators of SEA crimes. This inability to act promptly
and safeguard fair trails with UN personnel that was accused of SEA
misconducts on missions is currently considered to be one of the major
causes of scepticism towards UN's approach of dealing with the issue of
SEA. Given the privileges and immunities UN officials as well as experts
on mission possess, combined with a jurisdictional gap over this matter,
SEA crimes, alongside with other misconducts of serious matter, often
result in very little or no punishments at all (Correa and Bergmann
2018). Immunity and lack of criminal accountability of UN peacekeeping
staff is largely based on their status and position within the missi-
on.
Trials and prosecutions regarding crimes that are carried out by
peacekeepers who hold the rank of UN military staff are for the most
part considered to be the responsibility of peacekeepers' home countries
(UN General Assembly 2005). The responsibility is promulgated in
a document signed by both UN and a given TCC, also known as the Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) (Kent 2007). Prior to the year
2007, the model MoU addressed criminal accountability of TCC's members
in a fairly laissez-faire way, stating that, instead of UN personnel
being subjected to jurisdiction in countries where given mission takes
place, home countries of military staff accused of misconduct were expected
to carry out necessary investigations and to exercise criminal
jurisdiction over their nationals (Deen-Racsmany 2011).
After the release of the Zeid report, major modifications of the model
MoU were expected to take place since in his work, Prince Zeid
addressed MoU directly. The amendments eventually came into effect
two years later. The new 2007 version of model MoU undoubtedly aimed
to provide a more clear and straightforward definition of stan-
27
SEA IN UN PEACEKEEPING
dards that are to be adhered to by peacekeeping personnel throughout
the whole duration of a given mission. The modified MoU also contains
an enhanced and detailed description of all the steps of investigations of
SEA and other serious misconducts (UN General Assembly 2006).
In spite of the fact that the amended MoU brought about certain improvements,
the question of criminal accountability of UN personnel
still remains open. It is true that the UN has the ability to carry out preliminary
fact-finding investigations of its own and is allowed to further
deal with a given allegation if a TCC does not take initiative to take over
the case in a period of 10 days (UN General Assembly 2006). Nonetheless,
such scenario appears highly unlikely and thus, large majority of
cases is bound to be subjected to exclusive jurisdiction of TCCs (DeenRacsmany
2011). Unfortunately, unlike the suggestions made in the
Zeid report, the model MoU does not contain a clear clause that would
point out the legal requirement of TCCs to actually exercise jurisdiction
over their nationals. Due to this, multiple allegations go only as far as
repatriation, as TCCs frequently show a great deal of reluctance and
hesitation when it comes to imposing punishments over crimes carried
out by their own troops outside the borders of their home country
(Kent 2007). What is more, in certain cases, TCCs do not consider some
forms of rape to be illegal. Currently, there are still 10 countries in the
world that allow spousal rape and 4 of them do not view this as actions
against the law even if the victims have not yet reached adulthood
(Hassan 2017). Consequently, there has been a trend of peacekeepers
taking part in forced marriages with local females as a means of
committing sexual violence with impunity (Spees 2004).
Apart from UN's military staff, peacekeepers of other ranks, namely
civilian personnel may, too, be perpetrators of SEA during missions and
28
SEA IN UN PEACEKEEPING
eventually get off scot-free. Civilian staff possesses a certain degree of
immunity from their position of international civil servants, however,
unlike UN military personnel, they are subjected to local jurisdiction of
the host country in case they commit any acts against local laws and
customs (Kent 2007). It could seem that such subordination would
effectively prevent SEA crimes carried out by civilian personnel from
happening. Notwithstanding peacekeeping missions most commonly
take place in countries and environments disrupted by conflict and
disturbances where legal systems are not capable of functioning well or,
not at all. Due to this, it is rather unlikely that a member of UN civilian
personnel would have to face a thorough investigation carried out by
the host country even if an SEA crime as reported. On top of that, even if
an investigation of a crime was to take place, host countries tend to
show unwillingness when it comes to imposing punishments and penalties
against peacekeepers that are viewed as foreign help needed for
wellbeing of their country (Spees 2004).
29
POLICY OPTIONS
3 Policy Options
Ever since the issue of SEA in UN peacekeeping missions became
so widely discussed, there has been a large supply of policy options and
solutions from various sources that address the problem, including UN
agencies, the academia or numerous international organisations (IOs)
that deal with violence against women and children or human rights. In
spite of this, only a limited number of policy changes was adopted and
thus, the answer to the question regarding which policy options would
be most effective is not yet clear. The aim of the following section is to
assess the feasibility of what seem to be a group the most viable solutions
to the matter in question. Due to the great quantity of possible options
and the length limitation of the thesis, only 3 are to be analysed in
depth within this work. The 3 given policy options - enhancement of
gender equality in peacekeeping missions, revision of the MoU and improved
investigation processes - were chosen based on their relevance,
feasibility as well as on the fact that they all aim to address the biggest
challenges that the UN's approach to SEA crimes currently faces.
3.1 Gender-oriented policy options
One of the most commonly proposed ways to tackle SEA in peacekeeping
is through opting for adopting policies that increase genderequality
in UN missions. As previously stated in the section dealing with
causes of SEA in UN missions, high proportion of male peacekeepers
deployed on missions frequently creates a hyper-masculine culture in
which there is a considerably higher likelihood of SEA becoming normalised
and thus also a higher chance of peacekeepers committing crimes
of such nature (Karim and Beardsley 2015). The need for a better
gender-oriented approach towards peacekeeping missions was already
30
POLICY OPTIONS
recognised at the beginning of the 21s t
century when, after high numbers
of SEA allegations against UN personnel received public attention,
the Security Council of the UN requested the TCCs to ensure that their
troops undergo gender-sensitive trainings (Defeis 2008). Unfortunately,
such demands of the Security Council did not have a significantly
positive impact on the overall amount of SEA allegations as the training
system itself was defective (Save the Children UK 2006).
Up to this day, there is still more than one alternative of strategies
that would establish better gender balance in UN peacekeeping missions.
First and foremost, a large number of academics or in his report,
even Prince Zeid himself suggested that a substantial increase in participation
of women peacekeepers in missions could lead to a decrease of
SEA crimes. The assumptions behind this strategy are fairly simple and
straightforward. Many are of the stance that higher proportion of female
UN staff could disrupt the hyper-masculine culture built up by mostly
male peacekeepers and hence, lead to a decrease in SEA allegations
(Karim and Beardsley 2015). Similarly, it is presumed that the presence
of more females in UN missions would have a discouraging effect on
male peacekeepers committing misconducts of SEA nature (UN General
Assembly 2006). Furthermore, as the data gained over the years
suggests that women engage in rape and other types of sexual assaults
less than men, it is expected that female peacekeepers would not
commit SEA crimes as often as their male colleagues (Uniform Crime
Reporting FBI 2012).
The second option of a gender-oriented strategy that could ameliorate
the severity of the problem of SEA in UN peacekeeping is increasing
the respect for gender equality among UN personnel of both genders
deployed on missions. In order to achieve such a goal, a high-
31
POLICY OPTIONS
quality training would need to be set up aimed at promoting equal respect
for both genders and at enhancing peacekeepers' awareness of
the issue of SEA and its consequences. On top of that, the requirements
and conditions for peacekeepers selection processes shall be elevated
and UN military as well as civilian personnel sent to missions should
preferably come from TCCs that naturally show higher levels of gender
equality (Karim and Beardsley 2015).
3.2 Revision of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
between the UN and Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs)
Another area where the UN could make certain amendments as a
means of ameliorating the issue of SEA is the model MoU. As mentioned
above, the MoU is an agreement between the UN and a TCC that establishes
and stipulates all the necessary conditions under which troops
are admitted to become members of UN staff during missions (UN General
Assembly 2006). Based on the amended MoU, in case of misconduct,
the TCCs are responsible for taking further actions regarding the
prosecution of their troops. Unfortunately, the lack of legal bindingness
of this responsibility of TCCs frequently leads to very little or no punishments
for misconduct of peacekeepers (Holmes 2005). Subsequently,
low legal accountability of UN staff decreases the credibility of UN
and its missions as such. On top of that, since Un peacekeepers are aware
of their functional immunity that arises from TCCs' reluctance to act
upon their misconducts, there is no deterrence factor that would discourage
them from committing SEA.
Hence, it goes without saying that MoU plays a vital role in the
course of tackling the high prevalence of SEA misconducts among UN
peacekeepers. There have been multiple suggestions that claimed that
the model MoU should include a clause which would ensure that a
32
POLICY OPTIONS
TCC's full right to exercise jurisdiction over its troops would be taken
away after it showed vacillation and unwillingness to do so. However, if
the MoU included such a condition, it is quite likely that there would be
a decrease in troops at UN's disposal as states would most probably
mind losing judicial power over their nationals (Defeis 2008).
A more feasible and attainable way of achieving a substantial modification
of the MoU would address the issue of criminal accountability
of UN military personnel in a slightly different manner. As already stated
in the Zeid Report, in order to safeguard transparent investigation
processes and fair trials carried out by TCCs, the possibility of imposing
sanctions would need to be implemented and then used if TCCs failed to
meet the requirement of prosecuting SEA perpetrators (UN General
Assembly 2005). Such a sanction could be imposed in the form of a ban
from providing troops to other UN peacekeeping missions in the future.
What is more, in order to disrupt the so called wall of silence usually
built up among male peacekeepers, financial penalties would need to be
charged from military commanders of troop contingents in case of misconducts
(UN General Assembly 2005). Furthermore, in such a scenario,
the UN shall also incorporate a stipulation in the model MoU that would
secure that all the remittances sent to military commanders throughout
the course of their deployment on a given mission would be retrieved
from them if they were accused of committing crimes of SEA nature
(Defeis 2008). This way, UN military personnel would face a functional
discouragement from committing crimes against women and children
from host countries and hence, the numbers of SEA allegations would
be likely to change in the foreseeable future.
33
POLICY OPTIONS
3.3 Enhanced investigation processes
Ever since the Zeid report was published in 2005, there have been
multiple reforms and improvements regarding the investigation of SEA
crimes. As a response to the critique of Prince Zeid that stated that the
UN lacks a single body that would be in charge of conduct and investigation
on missions, the UN established the so called Conduct and Discipline
Teams (CDTs) to deal with incoming SEA allegations (Stern 2015).
Similarly, the UN also began to pay great attention to the wellfunctioning
of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), a UN body
in charge of preliminary investigation of SEA crimes before they are
passed on to TCCs (UN General Assembly 2006).
Unfortunately, despite the increased concern of the UN with the
operation of their investigative procedures, there are still certain areas
that require refinement. As shown in Graph 1.2, the amount of SEA allegations
filed against UN peacekeeping personnel during the past decade
somewhat fluctuates, with the numbers of SEA misconducts in 2019
being only slightly lower than those in the year 2010 (Conduct in UN
Field Missions 2020). Due to this, it is crucial that the UN's system of
investigating misconducts is as effective as possible.
Currently, the biggest challenge that UN investigations face is insufficient
transparency, communication and cooperation between UN
investigative agencies, namely the OIOS, and TCCs (Stern 2015). It has
been a frequent case of the past few years that the TCCs made complaints
about the prefatory inspection and assessments carried out by the
UN, as they sometimes simply do not fit the laws and cannot be accepted
and further used by the judicial system of a given TCC (UN General
Assembly 2005). Similarly, on a number of occasions, the UN
showed reluctance to share certain pieces of information with TCCs
34
POLICY OPTIONS
from already carried out investigations as a consequence of already
existing UN policies that aim to ensure protection of their files from
unwanted subjects (UN General Assembly 2005).
Graph 1.2
(Conduct in UN Field Missions 2020)
On this account, another strategy that could lead to improved investigations
of SEA misconducts during missions, higher criminal accountability
of UN peacekeepers and ultimately, serve as a way of
tackling SEA in UN peacekeeping could be through increasing cooperation
and the so called ..partnership approach" between UN investigative
35
POLICY OPTIONS
agencies and TCCs. This way, easier access of TCCs to documentation of
UN agencies would result in elevated chances of SEA perpetrators being
sentenced for their crimes carried out throughout the course of their
deployment on missions, which would later serve as a deterrence factor
for any possible SEA offenders present in UN missions in the future.
Likewise, the UN should continue strengthtening their victim assistance
capabilities in order to ensure that victims are not concerned
with or even feel discouraged from reporting a crime of SEA nature
committed by a member of the peacekeeping personnel. Due to the large
proportion of crimes that involve sexual violence go underreported
worldwide (National Sexual Violence Resource Center 2015), it is expected
that a similar, or even higher, proportion of all the SEA crimes
conducted throughout the course of UN peacekeeping missions is not
formulated into allegations as a consequence of largely prevalent fears
of victims. In order to enable in-depth investigations of all the misconducts
of UN personnel that include sexual violence, the UN should continue
to enhance the abilities of its victim assistance established since
2007 (United Nations 2020) and the reporting system as well, to guarantee
support, aid and safely to victims thanks to which the fears and
doubts linked to reporting SEA crimes would eventally fade away.
36
EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
4 Evaluation and Recommendations
4.1 Evaluation of gender-oriented options
Policy options that focus on equal gender representation of
peacekeepers in UN missions are proposed quite commonly and their
positive impact on high SEA crime rates is often considered to be a given.
Unfortunately, such an impact may not be the case after all.
First and foremost, the presumed positive effect of higher participation
of female peacekeepers is to a large extent built on the assumption
that the presence of women and their femininity would serve as a
discouraging element against SEA crimes in the hyper-masculine culture
of male peacekeepers (Simic 2010). Be that as it may, the assumption
falls short of acknowledging that not all female military peacekeepers
possess high levels of femininity. Moreover, even if they did, it is not
certain that they would use it as a tool to fight SEA misconducts in missions,
as it seems that due to common prejudice against female performance
in military contingents, women peacekeepers do their best to fit
in and to present themselves as reliable team players (Lutz, Gutmann
and Brown 2009).
The second major flaw of this strategy is the assumption that female
peacekeepers would be aware of SEA misconducts of their male colleagues.
Walls of silence are most commonly formed to ensure security
of a given group from any outside intrusion. Due to this, it is not correct
to assume that women peacekeepers would know about illegal activities
of their fellow workers as the likelihood of such misconducts
being hidden from them is fairly high (Kronsell 2012).
37
EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Thirdly, the policy of increasing female participation in UN peacekeeping
as a solution to high prevalence of SEA crimes on missions does
not seem to acknowledge the possibility of the fact that even female
peacekeepers may commit crimes of SEA nature throughout their
deployment. It is true that the general trend seems to show that women
do not commit crimes such as rape and other sexual assaults as often as
men (Uniform Crime Reporting FBI 2012). Nonetheless, this does not
exclude the possibility of female peacekeepers becoming perpetrators
of SEA crimes as well.
Last, but not least, the feasibility of this policy option is impaired
as, even with increased levels of recruitment of female peacekeepers,
the amount of women soldiers offered to the UN by TCCs is unlikely to
increase dramatically in the foreseeable future.
On the other hand, the previously described strategy to strengthten
gender equality training prior to missions and to mainly employ
peacekeepers from TCCs with high levels of gender equality comes
across as more attainable. Unfortunately, in case such policies were implemented,
the latter could result in difficulties and shortages of peacekeeping
personnel employed by the UN as currently, the UN's largest
troop contributors is a small number of countries, out of which the majority
are developing and with a considerably poor record of balance
between genders (UN Peacekeeping 2020).
4.2 Evaluation of the revision of the Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) between the UN and Troop Contributing Countries
(TCCs)
A revised MoU between the UN and its TCCs that would include the
possibility of UN imposing sanctions against perpetrators of SEA crimes
conducted during peacekeeping missions would undoubtedly serve as a
38
EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
strong, discouraging element that could ultimately lead to a decrease in
SEA allegations filed against UN personnel. In spite of this, it is also vital
to take into consideration its possible negative impact on UN peacekee-
ping.
As previously stated, the UN's group of largest contributors of staff
that are employed in peacekeeping missions is fairly small and limited
to mostly developing countries, such as Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Rwanda
or Nepal (UN Peacekeeping 2020). Consequently, the biggest risk of
implementing a preventive measure such as a revision of the MoU as a
means of reducing SEA misconducts would be a deficiency of troop contributors
as TCCs could be hesitant or unwilling to sign the amended
document with the UN.
The UN is undoubtedly aware of the mentioned risk as the organisation
has not carried out any steps or proposed reforms in the field of
the binding legal documents between the UN and its TCCs for over a
decade despite the frequent remarks and repetitive requests from the
side of numerous NGOs and states (Defeis 2008). For instance, already
since the year 2005, the US has been appealing for the introduction of
the possibility of imposing sanctions by the UN in cases of misconduct
of their personnel as well as an extensive modification of the MoU. The
US even proceeded to using warnings of possible cuts in funds and contributions
to the UN unless the organisation did not refine the MoU and
its procedures for dealing with SEA misconducts in general (United States'
Congress 2005). Nevertheless, the model MoU remains unchanged
since it's last correction that came shortly after the Zeid Report was
published.
39
EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
4.3 Evaluation of enhanced investigation processes
Up to this day, investigation of SEA crimes committed by peacekeeping
personnel remains to be one of the main areas where the UN
has very limited power over how the allegation is handled. As previously
described, currently, the only tool at the organisation's disposal is
repatriation of alleged perpetrators as the rest of the prosecution process
is officially the responsibility of a given TCC.
Consequently, the strategy of the so called ..partnership approach"
between the UN and the responsible TCCs is believed to lead to an improvement
in transparency of the follow-up actions taken by individual
governments.
The main critique of this strategy lies within the assumption that
even if both the UN and the TCCs stuck to the partnership approach and
shared all the necessary detailed information about the prosecution
process, the UN would still not be able to affect the final decision of the
TCC in case it chose not to act upon the wrongdoing of its own national.
For this reason, the partnership approach strategy is presumed to be
impaired and without any major positive impact on the high prevalence
of SEA crimes in UN peacekeeping missions.
The critique, however, does not take into consideration the fact
that TCCs are more likely to carry out a fair and transparent investigation
procedure as long as they are controlled and urged by the organisation
on a frequent basis. The partnership approach has been gaining
more attention throughout the past decade with an increasing connectivity
between the UN and TCCs every single year (Stern 2015). During
this period of time, the proportional amount of alleged perpetrators
sentenced by their national governments has also increased, with
only 18 per cent of all criminals imprisoned in 2010 and almost 45 per
40
EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
cent of them being jailed no more than 6 years later (Conduct in UN
Field Missions 2020). It is believed that one of the main factors that lead
to such an increase is the advancement in mutual communication and
information transmission between the investigative agencies of the UN
and TCCs (Stern 2015).
It goes without saying that, even though the abilities of welldeveloped
victim assistance that provides support to victims of SEA
crimes has very little chance of decreasing the occurence of SEA in general,
it may still have an extremely positive impact on the wellbeing of
the victims and can slightly make up for the damage caused by peacekeepers'
misconducts.
Unlike the constrained power of the UN over ensuring fair investigations
and trials with peacekeepers that reportedly committed crimes
of SEA nature, the organisations capabilities and options when it comes
to victim assistance are undoubtedly less limited. The UN has first implemented
its strategy and policies on victim assistance more than a
decade ago and has been gradually updating them over the years to
correspond with contemporary issues.
Well-functioning victim assistance can not only improve and ameliorate
the harm brought about by UN personnel, but also has the power
to increase the number of victims that decide to report peacekeepers'
misbehaviour. In spite of the fact the the UN has been working on its
victim assistance policies for 13 years, the numbers of SEA allegations
remain fairly low (Conduct in UN Field Missions 2020). In order to be
able to estimate the real number of SEA misconducts and to improve
the investigation of such misbehaviour, the promotion of reporting possibilities
within its victim assistance policy is considered truly crucial.
41
EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
4.4 Recommendations
The following section proposes a recommendation that aims to
address the main issue areas in the UN's approach towards SEA misconducts
in peacekeeping based on the evalution of all previously
described variety of policy options.
In order to reach major improvements and significantly decrease
the high numbers of cases in which UN peacekeeping personnel engaged
in illegal activities of sexual nature with members of local
communities of host countries, the UN shall implement the following
reforms and revisions.
Firstly, the UN should pay a great deal of attention to enhancing
gender equality among its peacekeeping personnel. It is vital that the
UN keeps on promoting the recruitment of female peacekeepers to ensure
a healthy gender balance, in spite of the fact that it most likely has
very limited impact on the high prevalence of SEA crimes conducted
while missions take place. Nonetheless, a more essential reform to be
adopted would be increasing the necesarry requirements when
choosing peacekeeping personnel, as they should be hired primarily
from countries that have a better record of women's and children's
rights. Moreover, since it is improbable that the UN would be able to fill
in the neccessary numbers of personnel in its contingents with peacekeepers
that mainly come from countries with more well-developed
fundamental human rights, a high quality training aimed at boosting
respect of gender equality shall be put into place.
Secondly, the UN should make the necessary ammendments of
the model MoU that the organisation signs with each of the TCCs before
the employment of their nationals in peacekeeping missions. The revised
MoU shall include a clause stipulating the possibility of imposing
42
EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
sanctions and bans against a TCC, were the country reluctant to carry
out a proper and thorough investigation of the SEA crime supposedly
perpetrated by their national during their deployment on a UN peacekeeping
mission. The MoU should also include that, in case the investigation
proved that the allegation was well-grounded, financial penalties
should be charged from SEA crime perpetrators that would serve as a
discouraging element among other peacekeepers. Moreover, the UN
should also ensure the MoU establishes the retrieval of each of the payments
sent to the perpetrator throughout the whole duration of his
deployment.
Thirdly, the UN should undoubtedly continue to strengthten the
partnership approach based on which the UN and TCCs can enhance
their mutual cooperation within each of the investigations and thus ensure
that the perpetrators of SEA crimes are punished. Well-functioning
cooperation approach could also serve as a discouraging factor for
peacekeeping personnel deployed on future missions. In a similar manner,
the forms of support within UN victim assistance should continue
to be updated in specific time periods, in order to ensure that victims of
SEA crimes conducted by UN peacekeepers do not worry about the negative
consequences of reporting and thus, the numbers of underreported
SEA misconducts can decrease significantly.
It is rather crucial that, in order to induce the most successful
outcomes and thus, to minimise the incidence of SEA in peacekeeping
missions, the UN shall put the reforms and amendments into effect
jointly within a short period of time. The current UN policies that are in
effect and the overall approach of the organisation that has been developing
for the past decade resulted in a seemingly little accomplishments
in this sphere. Consequently, the implementation of a rene-
43
EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
wed strategy to SEA in peacekeeping should be put in place not solely to
decrease the numbers of SEA allegations, but also to ensure the preservation
and international legitimacy of the organisation as a whole.
44
CONCLUSION
5 Conclusion
The consideration of the matter of high prevalence of SEA crimes
in UN missions as currently one of the most acute and substantial issues
hindering the ultimate success of UN peacekeeping is undoubtedly wellgrounded
as it undermines the fundamental principles and goals of
peacekeeping - to help and assist those in need on their way of postconflict
peace reconstruction.
The aim of this bachelor's thesis was to firstly point out and emphasize
the gravity of the issue in question by proving that in spite of
the fact that the given problem has been hampering favourable outcomes
of UN missions for a number of decades, it has not been dealt
with effectively up to this day and the yearly amount of SEA allegations
filed against UN personnel is outstandigly vast.
Second of all, the thesis examined the possible reasons and explanations
for the engagement of UN peacekeepers in such activities as
well as the impact of mainly male-dominant group dynamics on their
behaviour during the course of their deployment.
The thesis further proceeded to describe the most commonly
proposed and discussed policy options that address the issue that include
the revision of the MoU signed by the UN and the respective TCCs,
enhanced investigation processes and a number of gender-oriented
policies as well.
Last, but not least, the thesis evaluated the upsides and downsides
of each of the mentioned policies that aim to minimise or completely
tackle the occurence of SEA in UN peacekeeping and subsequently,
proposed a recommedation with the most viable policy options based
45
CONCLUSION
on the previous assessment of their positive and negative attributes
and possible impacts.
The information provided in the thesis clearly shows that, after a
thorough analysis, not all of the most commonly proposed policy options
to SEA in UN peacekeeping may be expected to be as effective as
originally imagined by the authors that proposed them. For instance, in
spite of the fact that the need to increase the proportion of female
peacekeepers in UN missions should remain a priority, it shall not be
viewed as a functional tool to fight misconducts of UN personnel of sexual
and violent nature.
The main finding brought about by the bachelor's thesis are that
the issue of SEA crimes conducted by UN peacekeepers is so complex
that, in order to attain the best results and thus achieve a significant
decrease in SEA allegations, a simultaneous implementation of multiple
policies that address the matter in different ways would need to be put
in place. The evaluation of the policy options leads to an estimation that
such results can be achieved if the the UN pays more attention to
enhancing the acceptance of gender equality by their personnel, if it
provides a long-awaited revision of the MoU and if it continues to
strengthten the functioning of investigation processes as well as the
partnership approach with different TCCs.
It is unambiguous that the policies and strategies to fight high
prevalence of SEA crimes in missions that are currently in place did not
manage to bring about the desired results over the past decades as the
numbers of SEA allegations are still considered to be fairly high in proportion
to the numbers of SEA peacekeepers deployed on missions.
Hence, as long as the UN does not proceed to major reforms of their
46
CONCLUSION
ways of tackling the issue of SEA in peacekeeping, the occurence of such
crimes conducted by their personnel is likely to remain unchanged.
47
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APPENDIX A [TITLE OF THE APPENDIX]
Appendix A [Title of the Appendix]
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APPENDIX A [TITLE OF THE APPENDIX]
Appendix A [Title of the Appendix]
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INDEX
Index
No entries found.
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