Accountability of the UN and Peacekeepers: A Focus Study on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse 2 SOAS Law Journal 2015

2 SOAS L.J. 207 (2015)
Accountability of the UN and Peacekeepers: A Focus Study on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

handle is hein.journals/soas2 and id is 216 raw text is:

Accountability of the UN and Peacekeepers: A Focus Study
on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Hanna Gunnarsson*

By the time I had reached the end of this eye-opening collection of smart
articles, I had concluded that it requires a truly exceptional combination
of skills and attributes to hold all the actors in peacekeeping operations
accountable for implementing all parts of resolution 1325 - that is, in
order to hold these officials accountable for turning a deaf ear to the
voices of girls and women and for their accompanying refusal to
challenge (others' and their own) masculinized cultures and practices.1

I. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of peacekeepers in post-conflict societies is not solely for the
carrying out of combatant disarmament, but also '... the rebuilding of
communities and longer-term conflict prevention'2 for a more sustainable
peace. The sexual exploitation and abuse (hereafter SEA) by peacekeepers
represent the failures in protecting the very people that the UN, NGOs and
international organisations are meant to protect. Whilst the international
community has attempted to impose strategies, which address this catastrophe,
the purpose of this Article is to find ways to improve the accountability of
peacekeepers who commit such crimes. This will be done by analysing the
feasibility of different approaches, such as incorporating women's experiences
of war in existing strategies or even developing new strategies that specifically
target accountability. The aim and desired outcome of these strategies are to
significantly reduce, and in the long-term eliminate, peacekeepers' perpetration
of these serious crimes in the mission's host and neighbouring countries.

* Hanna Gunnarsson undertook the LLM Human Rights, Conflict and Justice course at SOAS
2013-2014. She has just finished her internship at Womankind Worldwide and about to embark
on new job opportunities. She dedicates this publication to everyone who helped in the process
of writing, with a special thank you to Gaiwin, Amanda, Mia, Ben and her family.
1 Cynthia Enloe, 'Afterword' (2010) 17(2) International Peacekeeping 307 (emphasis added).
2 Ruth Jacobson, 'Women After Wars' in Carol Cohn (ed), Women and Wars: Contested Histories,
Uncertain Futures (Polity Press 2013) 220.

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