Abstract
This chapter focuses on the challenges of ensuring the accountability of peacekeepers in peacekeeping missions. Accountability for criminal misconduct involving corruption and resource exploitation is briefly discussed, but the main focus of the chapter is on sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by United Nations (UN) peacekeepers—one of the most widely documented areas in which lack of accountability for the transgressions of peacekeepers is most evident. The chapter includes a comprehensive and systematic survey, both empirical and theoretical, of the problem of sexual exploitation and abuse, as well as a discussion on the difficulties of policing peacekeepers. It concludes with suggestions and scenarios for transforming the current climate of impunity for peacekeepers into a culture of accountability and justice.
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Notes
- 1.
This chapter focuses, for the most part, on military and police personnel deployed as peacekeepers.
- 2.
See United Nations (UN), “What is Peacekeeping?”, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/peacekeeping.shtml (accessed 4 July 2016). See also Michael Doyle and Nicholas Sambanis, Making War and Building Peace: United Nations Peace Operations (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2006).
- 3.
Alice Gadler, “The Protection of Peacekeepers and International Criminal Law: Legal Challenges and Broader Protection”, German Law Journal 11, no. 6 (2010), pp. 585–608.
- 4.
The point here is that allegations do not always indicate criminal activity. Indeed, there have been cases where allegations of UN peacekeeping abuses were pressed for other motivations.
- 5.
UN News Centre, “Peacekeepers’ Sexual Abuse of Local Girls Continuing in DR of Congo, UN Finds”, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12990#.V4-XGnmV9aQ (accessed July 18, 2016).
- 6.
In an interview with the author (November 2013), Barbara Crossette, a former writer for the New York Times, illustrated the mixed picture that UN peacekeepers present, when she noted that in Cambodia , for instance, Bangladeshis had a good record of enforcing discipline, even if there were slippages; whereas Bulgarian troops in that country were known locally as the “Vulgarians” due to their bad conduct.
- 7.
Daniel McGrory, “Woman Sacked for Revealing UN Links with Sex Trade: How a Tribunal Vindicated an Investigator Who Blew Whistle on Workers in Bosnia”, Times of London, 7 August 2002. Her story became a bestseller as well and the basis of a film titled, The Whistleblower.
- 8.
David Smith and Paul Lewis, “UN Peacekeepers Accused of Killing and Rape in Central African Republic”, The Guardian, 12 August 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/11/un-peacekeepers-accused-killing-rape-central-african-republic (accessed 7 January 2016).
- 9.
Colum Lynch, “Pakistani Forces in Congo Aided Gold Smugglers, the U.N. Finds”, Washington Post, 23 July 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/22/AR2007072201242.html (accessed 8 July 2016).
- 10.
UN Peacekeeping, “Contributors to UN Peacekeeping Operations”, December 2015, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/resources/statistics/contributors.shtml (accessed 10 July 2016).
- 11.
UN Peacekeeping, “Summary of Contributions to Peacekeeping by Mission, Country and Post”, 30 June 2017, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/contributors/2017/jun17_5.pdf (accessed 9 August 2017).
- 12.
When it comes to sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), Celhia de Lavarene, a reporter and author of the book Un Visa Pour l’Enfer [A Visa to Hell] (Paris: Fayard, 2006) who has been on seven missions with the UN—not as a journalist, but as a UN staff member—says bluntly that, most of the time, “peacekeepers are part of the problem, not even to say, the problem”; interview with author, November 2013.
- 13.
Graça Machel, Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children: Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, Report of the Expert of the Secretary-General, UN Doc. A/51/306, 26 August 1996, http://www.unicef.org/graca/a51-306_en.pdf (accessed 1 March 2014).
- 14.
See UN, “The Conduct and Discipline Unit”, https://cdu.unlb.org/Policy/SexualExploitationandAbusePolicy.aspx (accessed 19 July 2016).
- 15.
UN General Assembly, “Letter Dated 24 March 2005 from the Secretary-General to the President of the General Assembly”, UN Doc. A/59/710, 24 March 2005, p. 2, https://cdu.unlb.org/Portals/0/Documents/KeyDoc5.pdf (accessed 6 December 2016). This document contains the full text of the Zeid Report, “A Comprehensive Strategy to Eliminate Future Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations”.
- 16.
Based on data from the reports of the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) up until 31 December 2015, https://cdu.unlb.org/Statistics/AllegationsbyCategoryofPersonnelSexualExploitationandAbuse/AllegationsforAllCategoriesofPersonnelPerYearSexualExploitationandAbuse.aspx (accessed 21 February 2016).
- 17.
Róisín Burke, Troop-Discipline and Sexual Offences by UN Military Peacekeepers: The UN’s Response – Moving Beyond the Current Status Quo?, Working Paper no. 1.5, Centre for International Governance and Justice, Canberra, Australia, http://regnet.anu.edu.au/research/publications/2945/working-paper-no-15-troop-discipline-and-sexual-offences-un-military (accessed 4 July 2016).
- 18.
Kathleen Jennings, Protecting Whom? Approaches to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peacekeeping Operations (Oslo: Fafo, 2008), http://www.fafo.no/media/com_netsukii/20078.pdf (accessed 19 July 2016).
- 19.
Kwesi Aning and Funmi Olonisakin, “Humanitarian Intervention and Human Rights: The Contradictions in ECOMOG”, International Journal of Human Rights 3, no. 1 (1999), pp. 16–39.
- 20.
Christopher Tuck, “‘Every Car or Moving Object Gone’: The ECOMOG Intervention in Liberia”, African Studies Quarterly 4, no. 1 (2000), http://asq.africa.ufl.edu/files/ASQ-Vol-4-Issue-1-Tuck.pdf (accessed 15 July 2016).
- 21.
Louis Charbonneau, “Kenyan Peacekeepers Aided Illegal Somalia Charcoal Export”, Reuters, 14 July 2013, http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-somalia-charcoal-un-idUKBRE96D01C20130714 (accessed 15 July 2013).
- 22.
Nicholas Kulish, “African Union and Somalia to Investigate Rape Accusation”, New York Times, 15 August 2013.
- 23.
UN News, “Investigation into Sexual exploitation of Refugees by Aid Workers in West Africa”, http://www.un.org/news/dh/infocus/a-57-465.pdf (accessed 12 July 2016).
- 24.
Gerald Caplan, “Peacekeepers Gone Wild: How Much More Abuse Will the UN Ignore in Congo?”, The Globe and Mail, 3 August 2012, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/peacekeepers-gone-wild-how-much-more-abuse-will-the-un-ignore-in-congo/article4462151 (accessed 19 July 2016).
- 25.
Steve Stecklow and Joe Lauria, “U.N. Mum on Probes of Sex-Abuse Allegations,” Wall Street Journal, 22 March 2010, pp. A1, A18, http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704188104575083334130312808 (accessed 6 May 2015).
- 26.
The full text of the Zeid Report can be found in UN Doc. A/59/710), https://cdu.unlb.org/Portals/0/Documents/KeyDoc5.pdf (accessed 10 July 2016).
- 27.
Warren Hoge, “Report Calls for Punishing Peacekeepers in Sex Abuse”, New York Times, 25 March 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/25/politics/report-calls-for-punishing-peacekeepers-in-sex-abuse.html (accessed 7 October 2013).
- 28.
Elizabeth F. Defeis, “U.N. Peacekeepers and Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: An End to Impunity”, Washington University Global Law Studies Review 7, no. 2 (2008), pp. 185–214.
- 29.
Barbara Crossette, “When Peacekeepers Turn Into Troublemakers”, New York Times, 7 January 1996, p. 6. See also “Profile: Bureaucrat at Large in the Balkans: Yasushi Akashi, Almost Painfully Diplomatic UN Envoy”, The Independent, 29 April 1994, http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/profile-bureaucrat-at-large-in-the-balkans-yasushi-akashi-almost-painfully-diplomatic-un-envoy-1373287.html (accessed 18 December 2014).
- 30.
Sahana Dharmapuri, “Not Just a Numbers Game: Increasing Women’s Participation in UN Peacekeeping”, Providing for Peacekeeping no. 4 (New York: International Peace Institute, July 2013); UN Peacekeeping, “Summary of Troop Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Operations by Mission, Post and Gender”, 30 June 2017, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/contributors/gender/2017gender/jun17.pdf (accessed 9 August 2017).
- 31.
UN Peacekeeping, “Ten Rules: Code of Personal Conduct for Blue Helmets”, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/documents/ten_in.pdf (accessed 6 December 2016).
- 32.
Melanie O’Brien, “National and International Criminal Jurisdiction over United Nations Peacekeeping Personnel for Gender-Based Crimes Against Women”, PhD thesis, University of Nottingham, 2010.
- 33.
See http://www.un.org/en/ga/sixth/67/CrimAcc.shtml (accessed 7 July 2016).
- 34.
Andrew Ladley, “Peacekeeper Abuse, Immunity, and Impunity: The Need for Effective Criminal and Civil Accountability on International Peace Operations”, Politics and Ethics Review 1, no. 1 (2005), pp. 81–90.
- 35.
“Liberia Sex-for-Aid ‘Widespread’”, BBC News, 8 May 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4983440.stm (accessed 9 November 2014).
- 36.
“Proposed Court,” New York Times, 2 July 2014, p. A10. See also, “Justice for Dictators: History Rules”, The Economist, 21 April 2012.
- 37.
See African Union (AU), “Judicial and Human Rights Institutions”, http://www.au.int/en/organs/cj (accessed 6 December 2016).
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Akonor, K. (2018). Accountability of Peacekeepers in Peacekeeping Missions. In: Karbo, T., Virk, K. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Peacebuilding in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62202-6_13
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