Responses to Sexual Violence by Blue-Helmets in Peacekeeping Missions

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2015 im Fachbereich Politik - Internationale Politik - Thema: Frieden und Konflikte, Sicherheit, Note: 1,7, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Children, women and men in conflict areas are not only affected by the more obvious forms of violence, but too often also have to face all forms of gender-based violence, including rape, prostitution, trafficking etc.

Although the United Nations (UN) send their peacekeeping troops with the goal to establish and maintain peace and the well-being of the local civilians, some bluehelmets use their position to sexually violate the vulnerable population. However, as worse as only these violations might be, often the negative effects do not stop with the mere act. A whole range of problems is closely related to sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA): infections of HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancies and abandoned children, making the victims suffer double.

Although there exists a comprehensive legal framework regarding sexual violence, the problem obviously continues to exist as statistics of the number of allegations per year reveal: 105 in 2004, 340 in 2005, 82 in 2006, 136 in 2007, 111 in 2008; 154 in 2009. In the light of this shocking high rates of assaults, one must not forget however, that only the officially registered allegations are enlisted, the dark figure is estimated to be even several times higher if one considers the chronic under-reporting in post-conflict areas.

Bearing in mind, this thesis focuses on the responses given by the UN to the problem of sexual abuse and exploitation of women, men, girls and boys by bluehelmets during peacekeeping missions. The central question is therefore: What has been done so far and what else needs to be done?

Since it is essential to first try to understand why violations of sexual nature continue to occur in the first place to be able to derive possible responses and solutions to combat this problem, chapter 2 "Factors promoting the continuance of SEA and under-reporting" will focus on the context conditions that foster the increased likelihood of assaults. In the next chapter, this thesis will give an overview of the major responses given by the UN.

Due to a lack of concrete and detailed statistics as well as deeper and comparative case studies, it won't be able to determine the effectiveness of these measures implemented until now. However, some obvious flaws will be pointed out and further necessary actions and measures presented in chapter 4 "What more needs to be done?"