Description
Peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) is rife throughout peacekeeping operations (PKOs). The neo-liberal world order positions what Audre Lorde (1980) refers to as the ‘mythical norm’ as the standard to which others are to meet. Typically, the set standard is white, young, heterosexual, and financially secure men (Lorde 1980). Peacekeeping actively reinforces the mythical norm by placing male peacekeepers in positions of power over local women and girls during PKOs, perpetuating a patriarchal hierarchy of protector/protected (Gunnarsson 2015; Jennings 2019).
The current way that peacekeeping works is failing to protect women. In order to fully understand why SEA continues and begin to look to future prevention, we must understand the broad spectrum of how, where, and when SEA occurs. My paper examines the limitations of peacekeeping practices and proposes a feminist postcolonial theoretical framework using the continuum of violence to understand interconnected nature of peacekeeper SEA, helping to improve prevention and end abuse.
Sources
Gunnarsson, H. 2015. Accountability of the UN and Peacekeepers: A Focus Study on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. SOAS Law Journal. 2(1), pp.207–229.
Jennings, K.M. 2019. Conditional Protection? Sex, Gender, and Discourse in UN Peacekeeping. International Studies Quarterly. 63, pp.30–42.
Lorde, A. 1980. Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference. Talk delivered at Amherst College.
