Description
The presence of peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) is felt throughout all active (and former) UN peacekeeping operations. The UN has acknowledged peacekeeper misconduct and has worked to identify and combat SEA in its missions. Nonetheless, peacekeeper SEA continues to be reported to the UN, sex economies near missions continue to flourish, and ‘peacekeeper babies’ continue to be ostracised.
The UN's Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda forefronts the importance of gender mainstreaming, resulting in the homogenisation of 'womenandgirls'. This approach overlooks the gendered and racialised hierarchies that exist in peacekeeping operations. The reality on the ground points to the racialised hypersexualisation and Othering of the ‘peacekept’ by their ‘protectors’, forming understandings of who is worth protecting. By problematising the way that WPS considers SEA during peacekeeping operations, I situate my analysis at the critical juncture that wishes to take gender and race seriously, whilst identifying that current WPS practices fall short of effective change.
Using decolonial feminism and intersectionality, I rely on a normative framing of gendered and racialised security to critique peacekeeper SEA as a problematic practice. The UN has failed thus far to effectively convey the issue, specifically in poor peacekeeper (pre-) training material which allows for peacekeeper SEA to continue without extensive deterrent in the field.
