Blue Helmets as Sexual Predators: The Unspoken Security Threat?

Korać, Srđan (2017) Blue Helmets as Sexual Predators: The Unspoken Security Threat? In: Social and economic problems and challenges in the contemporary world. Institute of International Politics and Economics; Global Resource Management Program, Belgrade; Doshisa, pp. 195-217. ISBN 978-86-7067-236-9

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Abstract

The paper analyses how the United Nations peace operations become new source of insecurity in conflict-ridden circumstances by contributing additionally to the ongoing sexual victimisation of local women and children. The author argues that the UNʼs legitimacy—based on its collective power to act and to affect the world by its performance—is being eroded gradually by persistent but unsanctioned misbehaviour of peacekeepers. While research on peace operations has largely demonstrated the success of the broadened mandate of peacekeeping in preventing the recurrence of conflict, few studies seek to understand how sexual predation undermines the peacekeeping goals of establishment peace and security for the local population. The analysis focuses on how the gender dimension of power dynamics constitute the peacekeepersʼ behaviour additional security threat for local communities in the host country. Since the protection of civilians in war-affected situations from violence is now at the forefront of the UNʼs responsibilities, a consistent leaning on human security and gender equality as cornerstones of serving the victimised population has to be among critical criteria for evaluating UN peacekeeping missions. The author concludes that the issue of sexual predator culture transcends the “logistical” downsides of UN peacekeeping in terms of legal loopholes and operational management and it leaps into the realm of moral sensitivity—the first requirement for true moral behaviour.

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