“I could not fight back,” Marie Badeau utters, recalling the day a UN peacekeeper raped her. She had been selling charcoal in a conflict-torn town in Haiti when the white man offered her a ride home. Instead of providing the safety her community desperately needed, he became her threat, leaving her scared and more vulnerable than ever.
According to António Guterres’ 2017 Speech at the United Nations General Assembly, “sexual violence is a threat to every individual’s right to a life of dignity, and to humanity’s collective peace and security.” So, how is it possible that precisely those entities entrusted by the international community to uphold such standards and praised worldwide for their mediation efforts pose a threat to women’s security?
Unfortunately, Marie’s story is not an isolated occurrence but exemplifies a broader system of misconduct and exploitation by United Nations forces in post conflict zones. “In Haiti and beyond, the ongoing lack of accountability for sexual abuse allegations against UN and other peacekeeping forces is lamentable,” said Renzo Pomi, Amnesty International’s Representative at the United Nations in New York. A UN report published in May 2016 detailing UN peacekeeping compliance in 2015 documents 69 credible allegations in 21 countries. Moreover, in 2004, 150 allegations of abuses perpetrated by UN forces in the peacekeeping mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo surfaced, which detailed cases of sexual assault, forced prostitution, exploitation, and rape. According to a 2005 report issued by UN permanent representative to Jordan, victims included children as young as 12 years of age and common methods were the use of survival sex—the exchange of necessary goods and services for intercourse.
This reveals that sexual violence is widespread throughout peacekeeping operations—it must be understood as an institutional flaw of the United Nations. Peacekeepers enjoy immunity from criminal and civil jurisdiction within their host nations under the protections of UN Charter Article 105. While this has the purpose of allowing forces to carry out their duties safely without interference or politically motivated prosecution, it also encourages sexual misconduct, prevents accountability through perceived impunity, and hinders legal action. As “minor” acts of sexual violence fall neither under the grave breaches nor the war crimes classification in international law, cases as reported in the DRC or Haiti largely go unprosecuted and unnoticed. While the 2005 UN report details the suspension of 77 million personal and national police forces to the mission in the DRC, legal accountability fails to materialize.
In a 2007 paper, Vojdik details that power rhetorics spread by military institutions globally instill within men a mentality encouraging patterns of abuse and violence toward women as a sign of masculinity. As UN peacekeepers are deployed by national militaries, almost all peacekeepers are indoctrinated with such ideas. Amnesty International reinforces this, highlighting that unequal power relations between men and women intensify during conflicts, as traditional gender roles are reenforced, making women increasingly vulnerable. Preexisting conditions of poverty and gender inequality, often going hand in hand with conflict zones, amplify this. In the light of hypermasculinity, almost universally endorsed in militaries, and perceived impunity through UN Charter Article 105, peacekeepers feel inclined to exploit such vulnerabilities.
This reveals that sexual Violence by UN peacekeepers is a systematic issue deeply embedded within poverty and gender inequality. Ex post facto mechanisms such as improving investigations, enhancing accountability of troops, and creating monetary funds to compensate and reimburse victims are necessary first steps do not suffice to eliminate the Practice. As long as hypermasculinity persists in military organizations, it reinforces patterns of abuse and violence toward women.
The solution must be twofold. A concrete mechanism for prosecuting peacekeepers’ actions must be established. This may manifest through a specialized ICC extradition provision or the exclusion of crimes of sexual nature from Article 105 to deter perpetrators through foreseeable prosecution.
More significantly, however, a fundamental shift in the military culture which encourages and legitimates the exploitation of women is required to tackle the systemic root cause of UN peacekeeper violence. This must be embedded within the UN’s broader goal of eliminating gender inequality and empowering women. We all can contribute to this by advocating for women’s rights to transform traditional values of masculinity, ultimately ensuring vulnerable women like Marie are no longer exploited.
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