UN peacekeeping facilitating sex crimes

The United Nations’ Peacekeeping forces are deployed to high conflict areas to help prevent crimes against humanity across the world. Despite their mission to protect those in danger, Peacekeepers themselves sometimes pose a threat to locals. 2016 saw 103 allegations made against Peacekeepers of sexual assault, and there have been an additional 39 in 2017. Recent discourse in the UN on this issue may reshape the way the UN maintains peace in conflict areas.

Earlier this year, an Associated Press investigation uncovered a child sex ring in Haiti facilitated by UN peacekeepers. According to the report, “from 2004 to 2007, 134 peacekeepers from Sri Lanka operated a child sex ring, luring children on the poverty-stricken island with candy and bits of cash.” After discovering the ring, the UN sent the accused peacekeepers home, none of whom faced any charges.

Haiti is not the only case of this nature. Countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, and Guinea have all seen such human rights violations. The UN has at least attempted to take serious responsibility for these sex crimes, which has openly debated the issue in its General Assembly Main Committees as well as its subsidiary organs. Yet the organization’s proactive responses within its peacekeeping division have been met with mixed opinions.

This is partly because the UN was outed by watchdog groups for mishandling reports of sexual misconduct. The Washington Post reports that out of 14 cases contained in a recent campaign, “in eight cases, the alleged victims were not interviewed, and ten cases did not appear on the UN website where data is supposed to be released about sexual misconduct cases.” Not only does behavior like this leave multiple cases open, but also affects the UN’s reputation as a peace-fostering entity.

One of the major issues preventing the UN from adequately tacking the sexual assault problem is the organization’s inability to try peacekeepers itself. If accused of sex crimes, peacekeepers can be dismissed from the UN, but the responsibility of carrying out a formal investigation and fair trial lies with their home country. Naturally, it is difficult for the UN to ensure that justice is properly carried out. For an organization with as much prestige as the UN, not being able to ensure proper investigations of its own peacekeepers is a serious blow it its credibility.

The issue, however, became more complex earlier this year as the UN took new steps to regulate its peacekeepers. The UN’s longstanding policy pertaining to peacekeepers is to offer a monetary reimbursement to country supplying personnel monthly per-person. Recently, the UN added a stipulation that if a peacekeeper is facing allegations of sexual misconduct, that reimbursement will be withheld until proof of a proper investigation is provided. Additionally, should the investigation confirm any allegations, the amount that would have been reimbursed will instead be forwarded to a victim’s fund. This forwarding will also happen if a country outright fails to conduct an investigation.

Steps like this convey a message that the UN is willing to confront the issue head on. At the same time, however, the UN’s official documents indicate disillusionment within the organization about the Peacekeeping division’s usefulness. A reluctance to send peacekeeping troops to conflict areas is associated with an observed trend that “the arrival of peacekeeping troops has been associated with a rapid rise in child prostitution.”

These issues are weigh heavily on prominent financers of UN Peacekeeping, like the United States. Ambassador Nikki Haley recently stated US intentions to “withdraw funding for missions were such abuses were rife.” Contextualized in her recent praising of the 50% reduction of US Peacekeeping funding this past June, it is clear Peacekeeping is losing its global support. Clearly, the UN needs a much more concrete approach to internal issues before it loses too much support.

Edited by Ed McCombe.