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Abstract
Although recommendations for gender mainstreaming and the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse in United Nations peace support operations have increased in recent years, a comparative analysis of different approaches towards these policy objectives remains wanting. As a result, the effectiveness of the UN guidelines for gender mainstreaming as expressed in Security Council Resolution 1325 has not yet been evaluated and debated academically. By comparing UN missions in Sierra Leone and Liberia, this article provides a summary of the current literature on UN policies on gender mainstreaming and sexual misconduct. Relying on interviews with mission staff, the article argues that although the effects of 1325 look promising, efforts to integrate gender perspectives and prevent sexual exploitation still suffer from staff, funding and enforcement deficiencies. More importantly, it reveals how urgently further field research and an active scholarly debate on UN policies on gender awareness and sexual misconduct are needed.
Notes
1. The Beijing Platform for Action at the Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995, marked the beginning of the widespread use of the term ‘gender mainstreaming’.
2. Mark Malan, ‘Peacekeeping in the New Millennium: Towards “Fourth Generation” Peace Operations?’, African Security Review 7/3 (1998) pp.17–19.
3. UNDPKO, Gender Resource Package for Peacekeeping Operations (New York: UN DPKO 2004) p.45.
4. Pam Spees, Gender Justice and Accountability in Peace Support Operations: Closing the Gaps (London: International Alert 2004) pp.21–22.
5. UNSC, ‘UN Security Council Resolution 1325 On Women, Peace and Security’, S/RES/1325 (Oct. 2000).
6. For instance: Cynthia Cockburn, ‘Preface: Gender is Visible but Mostly Unseen’ in Fiona Clark and Caroline Moser (eds) Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence (London and New York: Zed Books 2001) pp.11–12, and Marsha Henry and Paul Higate ‘Engendering (In-)Security in Peace Support Operations’, Security Dialogue 35/4 (2004) pp.481–98, examine gender in the military context. Angela Mackay ‘Training the Uniforms: Gender and Peacekeeping Operations’, Development in Practice 13/2–3 (2003) pp.217–23 looks at gender training for peacekeepers. Paul Higate, ‘Gender and Peacekeeping Case Studies, DRC and Sierra Leone’, ISS Monograph 91 (Mar. 2004) p.43, examines the motivations for peacekeepers to indulge in sexual abuse.
7. Tsjeard Bouta, Georg Frerks and Bib Hughes, Gender and Peacekeeping in the West African Context (Clingendael: Netherlands Institute of International Relations, Conflict Research Unit 2005) pp.19–20, document the experience of UN and NGO staff working in the field gender in West Africa; Minna Lyytikäinen ‘Gender Training for Peacekeepers: Preliminary Overview of United Nations Support Operations’, United Nations INSTRAW, Working Paper 4 (2007) online at < www.un-instraw.org/en/library/gender-peace-and-security/gender-training-for-peacekeepers-working-paper/download.html> summarises current UN gender policy in UN peacekeeping missions.
8. UNSCR 1325 (note 5).
9. Gender Resource Package (note 3).
10. Agreed Conclusions of the Economic and Social Council, 1997/2.
11. Gender Resource Package (note 3).
12. UNSCR 1325 (note 5).
13. < http://www.peacewomen.org/un/pkwatch/News/07/UNasks.html>, accessed Dec. 2007.
14. DPKO statement in UNIFEM's Independent Experts Assessment on Women, War and Peace (2000), online at < http://www.peacewomen.org/un/pkwatch/facts.html>, accessed Dec. 2007.
15. < http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2001/issue4/0104p52.html>, accessed Dec. 2007.
16. Sarah Martin, Must Boys Be Boys? (Washington, DC: Refugees International 2005) p.10; interview with UNMIL gender advisor Mugo Muriithi 4 Feb. 2008.
17. Gender Resource Package (note 3) reflects this.
18. Martin (note 16).
19. Elisabeth Prugl, ‘Gender and War: Causes, Constructions and Critique’, Perspectives on Politics 1/2 (2003) pp.335–42, p.335.
20. Paul Higate, ‘Peacekeeping and Gendered Relations’ (2003), online at < http://www.monitor.upeace.org/archive.cfm?id_article = 47>, accessed Mar. 2008.
21. Deborah Harrison, ‘Violence in the Military Community’ in Paul Higate (ed.) Military Masculinities: Identity and the State (Westport, CT: Praeger 2003) pp.71–90.
22. Higate (note 20).
23. Cynthia Enloe, Manoeuvres: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives (CA: U of California P 1999).
24. Paul Higate, ‘Peacekeepers, Masculinities, and Sexual Exploitation’, Men and Masculinities 10/1 (2007) pp.99–119.
25. Enloe (note 23).
26. Cockburn (note 6).
27. Karishma Rajoo, ‘Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: Power Tools in Peacekeeping Missions’, Conflict Trends 4 (2005) pp.17–23, p.19.
28. Higate (note 6).
29. Sherene Razack, Dark Threats and White Knights (Toronto: U of Toronto P 2004).
30. UNGA, Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, A/62/890 (25 Jun. 2008).
31. UNGA, Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, A/61/957 (15 Jun. 2007).
32. Graca Machel, The Impact of War on Children: A Review of Progress (New York: Palgrave 2001).
33. Keith Allred, ‘Peacekeepers and Prostitutes: How Deployed Forces Fuel the Demand for Trafficked Women and New Hope for Stopping it’, Armed Forces and Society 33/1 (2006) pp.5–23, p.8.
34. UNGA, Comprehensive Review of the Whole Question of Peacekeeping Operations in All Their Aspects, A/59/710 (24 Mar. 2005) p.8.
35. UNGA, A Comprehensive Strategy to Eliminate Future Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peacekeeping Operations, A/59/710 (Mar. 2005).
36. UNGA, Special Measures for the Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, ST/SGB/2003/13 (Jun. 2003).
37. UNGA, Special Measures for the Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, ST/SGB/2003/13 (Jun. 2003)
38. Diane Otto, ‘Making Sense of Zero Tolerance Policies in Peacekeeping Sexual Economies’ in Vanessa Munro and Carl F. Stychin (eds) Sexuality and the Law: Feminist Engagements (Oxford and New York: Routledge-Cavendish 2007) pp.259–82.
39. Noelle Quenivet, ‘The Zero Tolerance Policy of the UN: A Step Forward’, Lecture delivered as part of the Re-viewing Gender, Protection and Security in Armed Conflict workshop held at Bristol U 2007.
40. Otto (note 38) p.262.
41. UNGA (note 31) p.5.
42. < http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unamsil/facts.html>, accessed Mar. 2008.
43. Higate (note 20).
44. Interview with Jebbeh Forster, UNIFEM Sierra Leone, 6 Feb. 2008.
45. Interview with Theresa Kambobe, UNAMSIL gender specialist, 19 Feb. 2008.
46. Interview with Theresa Kambobe, UNAMSIL gender specialist, 19 Feb. 2008
47. Interview with Theresa Kambobe, UNAMSIL gender specialist, 19 Feb. 2008
48. Interview with Theresa Kambobe, UNAMSIL gender specialist, 19 Feb. 2008
49. UNAMSIL Press Release – Special Representative of the Secretary-General launches UNAMSIL Personnel Conduct Committee (26 Aug. 2002), online at < http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/unamsil/DB/260802.pdf>, accessed Jan. 2008.
50. Higate (note 6) pp.42–43.
51. Forster (note 44).
52. Kambobe (note 45).
53. Higate (note 6) p.40.
54. Higate, ‘Gender’ (note 28) p.40
55. < http://hrw.org/reports/2003/sierraleone/sierleon0103-06.htm#P617_120441>, accessed Dec. 2007.
56. < http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unmil/facts.html>, accessed Feb. 2008.
57. < http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unmil/background.html>, accessed Mar. 2008.
58. Muriithi (note 16).
59. Martin (note 16) p.9.
60. UNMIL Gender Background and Mainstreaming, online at < http://unmil.org/documents/Gender_Background_and_mainstreaming.pdf>, accessed Aug. 2008.
61. Fatoumata Aisha, ‘Mainstreaming Gender in Peace Support Operations: The United Nations Mission in Liberia’ in Festus Aboagye and Alhaji M. S. Bah (eds) A Tortuous Road to Peace (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, May 2005) pp.147–163, p.156.
62. Muriithi (note 16).
63. Interview with Ms Lindora Howard of WANEP, 4 Feb. 2008.
64. UNMIL, Gender Mainstreaming in UNMIL, online at < http://unmil.org/content.asp?ccat = gender>, accessed Aug. 2008.
65. Muriithi (note 16).
66. Lindora Howard of WANEP-Liberia (West Africa Network for Peacebuilding), Moses Zayee of LINO (Liberian Networking Organisation), Grace Kandakai of WASH (Women Associated to Serve Humanity), Jeannie Tarley of NAWOCOL (National Women's Commission of Liberia) and Emmuel Kailie of WAS (Woman Aid Society) were interviewed in Monrovia, Feb. 2008.
67. Lindora Howard of WANEP-Liberia (West Africa Network for Peacebuilding), Moses Zayee of LINO (Liberian Networking Organisation), Grace Kandakai of WASH (Women Associated to Serve Humanity), Jeannie Tarley of NAWOCOL (National Women's Commission of Liberia) and Emmuel Kailie of WAS (Woman Aid Society) were interviewed in Monrovia, Feb. 2008
68. Martin (note 16) p.13.
69. Interview with conduct and discipline officer Damianus Pius Masinde, 4. Feb. 2008.
70. UNMIL, Report on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse for the Period (Jul.–Dec. 2007) p.2.
71. UNMIL (note 70) pp.5–6.
72. UNMIL (note 70) p.1.
73. Currently there are six off-limits places in Monrovia, four in Robertsport, two in Bo Waterside and one in Sinje.
74. UNMIL (note 70) p.4.
75. UNMIL (note 70) p.2
76. UNMIL (note 64) p.1.
77. Martin (note 16) p.9.
78. United Nations, Report of the Secretary General, S/2002/1154 (25 Oct. 2002).
79. Bouta et al. (note 7).
80. Forster (note 44).
81. Martin (note 16) p.13.
82. Muriithi (note 16).
83. Higate (note 6) p.49.
84. UNSCR 1325 (note 5).
85. Howard (note 63).
86. Forster (note 44).
87. Kambobe (note 45).