Un Peacekeeping Has Become An Important Component Of Conflict

The UN and the US government are accredited for deploring conflict situations as well as contributing humanitarian aid, and this is what these two organizations did in Rwanda and Darfur. However, the UN did not do anything to punish or prevent the genocides that took place in these two countries. The US government promised to support the peace talk’s agreement in Darfur and hold the perpetrators accountable for their acts. It never kept that promise since nothing has been done. So far, the UN’s Security Council has also failed in its peace keeping mission effeorts, and is instead pressuring Sudan with words only. No solid steps have been made to bring the wrong doers into justice (Shapiro).

Thesis: The role of the United Nations has changed from being primarily an international peacekeeping force to primarily a humanitarian organization.

Beginning on October 30th, 2014, over 221 women were raped under the command of the Sudanese government in a 36-hour period. The Human Rights Watch reported 27 first hand accounts of the event, including confessions made by two Sudanese soldiers, who admitted that the government was paying them to commit rape (Dias, Rayman). Events like this one have now become common in Darfur and surrounding regions as government-backed Janjaweed mercenaries systematically degrade, rape, and murder “non-Arabs”. The ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and the surrounding regions has evolved from the complex combination of environmental, social, and ethnic factors, and has been allowed by modern civilizations through economic benefits and flaws in political

Sexual Abuse is known to occur among any relationship, race, sex, and gender, including male victims and homosexual couples. When rape is committed, authorities do what’s possible in order to seek justice. However, when the authoritative ones are those whom commit the crime, it is nearly impossible to seek justice. In the military forces, rape is the main issue among the soldiers and the authority figures. Although men are victimized in several cases, women constantly suffer from unjustified rape. Participating in sexual assaults are led due to external theories of gender construction, such as the Social-Learning Theory, supporting the influence of patriarchy (Barbara F. McManus, pt. 3). Male authorities allow corruption of the military forces against rape, initiating obstacles towards the justice for women.

According to (WHO, 2002) & (Obote-Odora, 2005, p135), sexual violence is not limited rape, but a person conducting a sexual act on another person via coercion. Sexual violence can relate to violence psychologically and physically and this is aimed at the sexuality of a person and this could include forced acts such as sexual slavery and prostitution. Sexual violence is prevalent in peace and armed conflict scenarios. This is regarded as traumatic, pervasive a common violation that people suffer from. This is a grave health and human rights issue that affects the individual mentally and physically in the short term as well as the long term. Though women and girls suffer disproportionately from sexual violence, it can happen to anyone from any age. This can be caused and the

While conventions have been in place since WWII to define war crimes and genocide and allow prosecution of those who commit these acts, the United Nations response to these atrocities has been sporadic and disorganized. The massacre in Srebrenica shined a spotlight on the failures of the international community to prevent mass atrocities. We needed an international guideline to systematically and effectively respond to civil war and intrastate conflict. Out of this was born the idea of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).

In Liberia they are already taking steps suggested by this practice. They are ensuring that sexual violence in their towns are taken seriously and punished rightfully (Liberian Women, 2009). By focusing on this local issue they are able to make a difference around the world. They are finding solutions that work that can be shared with other local communities. They are educating both the men and women about the no tolerance policies. And most importantly, they are decreasing the number of instances in which sexual violence occurs. All implications in which will have a positive affect to more than just their own community. Human security can also be applied to the issue of sexual violence within the military. By shifting our focus to this issue and implementing potential solutions, they can become a stronger force to assist others. But in order for that to happen this issue needs to be dealt with and fixed first so that internal conflict does not exist when trying to assist

The Office of His Holiness, Dalai Lama once said, “War is neither glamorous nor attractive. It is monstrous. Its very nature is one of tragedy and suffering”. War is a conflict with ramifications that can change the way a society recognizes the world and humanity itself. Wars play a crucial role in people’s everyday lives because it takes away people’s lives and freedoms. Many individuals in the world oppose war, but they do not know how to take action to prevent it. When considering war-time violence, issues demanding immediate attention are the uses of child soldiers, sexual assault, and the forcible displacement of refugees.

Sexual offences have been committed in conflict in various forms globally as a strategy and a ‘weapon of war’ even in the 21st century. As early as the 1st century, prohibitions of sexual violence were contained in military codes that were designed to protect innocent persons like women, children, farmers, merchants and priests from harm of any nature. This was often done on paper but in reality prosecuting sexual crimes was not given priority as “the legacy of impunity for wartime rape is often the normalization of chronic rape in the post-conflict phase.” For various reasons of patriarchy, women were historically considered as “property” and therefore could be owned and controlled by men. For that reason, when a sexual assault was perpetrated

In the destructive wake of WWII, it was general consensus that a world peace organization be formed. That organization came in the form of the United Nations, an institution once notorious for its peacekeeping abilities. From corner to corner of the globe, peacekeeping troops were deployed in attempt to relieve conflict in disputed regions. These troops once served as a beacon of hope for impoverished families in times of war, but, as time progressed, the quality of peacekeeping operations have degraded, and such, civilians became more wary of their presence. What UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon now calls “a cancer in our system” has been highly disputed. With the future of both civilians and entire countries at stake, it’s important to ask “What can be done to improve the U.N. peacekeeping force?”

The present Chapter introduces main concepts, theories and literature in relation to wartime sexual violence including the definition of gender based violence, sexual violence and wartime sexual violence. It presents a review of current theories and literature explaining the prevalence of sexual violence in armed conflicts but focuses on feminist and gender equality theories placing wartime sexual violence within a broader concept of Gender Based Violence. Some feminist authors consulted are Dubravka Zarkov (1997, 2007), Cynthia Enloe (1990, 1994, 2000), Judith Butler (1999), R.W. Connell (2005), and Skjelsbæk (2001). The main argument this Chapter is that wartime sexual violence is a form of gender based violence which underlying causes

Sexual violence is about being in power and has been used throughout the world as a tool to humiliate and disempower others. These such acts are done from the majority of males, who aim to cause physical, psychological or sexual harm on a female victim, for their own personal gain or satisfaction. It is a dehumanizing experience and a profound violation of a human being. The effects on a person’s mental well being can be dramatically altered, resulting in mental illnesses, destroying their lives forever. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, brutal rape has become a large battle to fight by the “Raise Hope for the Congo,” Campaign. By identifying the problem at hand, which is the excessive amount of sexual cruelty

Today I read “U.N. Condemns Sex Abuse by Peacekeepers in Africa” by Mary Bowerman and Oren Dorell. This article was published on January 13th, 2016 on USA Today. This article was about how U.N. peacekeepers are going to the Central African Republic and having sex with underage girls. Bowerman and Dorell go on to talk about how the sexual violence by peacekeepers is a violation of human rights and must be investigated. I chose to read and analyze this article because the title intrigued me. The words sex abuse and peacekeepers should mean completely opposite things. Sex abuse is a terrible crime and peacekeepers are supposed to be people that work to preserve the peace. This article shows that there are problems in Africa regarding the people

There are 16 peacekeeping operations worldwide, mainly in parts of Africa and parts of Asia to handle conflicts. To combat peacekeepers abusing their power Brazil has supported the United Nation in imposing of a zero tolerance policy for situations of misconduct and thoroughly investigates all credible accusations. However, often times people who are victimized by peacekeeper misconduct are afraid to come forward or do not have the resources to report. In order to combat the occurrence of power abuse, peacekeepers are required to adhere to the “Ten Rules”, which is a code of conduct. This code requires that Peacekeepers respect natives and their cultures, act with compassion, behave in a dignified manner, hold themselves to high moral standards and respect the environment . Members have been given a card, with these rules printed on them since 1998. As of 2007, the General Assembly has also adopted the United Nations Comprehensive Strategy on Assistance and Support to Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by United Nations Staff and Related Personnel, which helps outline methods to support victims of peacekeeper abuse . In recent times, there as been an increase in attention to peacekeeper misconduct and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has tried to remedy the problem by placing more people in missions. Brazil has also actively participated in these efforts.

However, accountability can be separated into two distinct areas by regarding whether or not the issue concerns operations involving UN peace-keeping. The second topic of the committee, “Strengthening Compliance and Accountability in Field Missions with Special Regard to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Cases,” focuses on PKO’s and relates directly to the already explored issues and events concerning Topic 1. A specific challenge that impedes PKO reform is the UN’s secondary status with regard to peacekeeper authority. In cases of PKO misconduct, perpetrators look towards their particular Member-State in order to defer allegations. In many instances, cases of Sexual Exploitation & Abuse (SEA) during PKO’s that have been referred to the perpetrator’s home country result in a lack of prosecution and a disappearance of the matter altogether—such as when Sri Lanka decided not to prosecute its peacekeepers involved in a three-year child sex ring in Haiti. Similar circumstances were present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where refugees have been raped even within a UN peacekeeper protected camps. In itself, by allowing such corruption, the UN has harmed those who they had wished to aid in the first place.