Gender and Peacekeeping Case Studies: the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone

Gender relations in Peace Support Operations (PSOs) are increasingly under the spotlight within the context of reports of the sexual abuse of local women by peacekeepers across the range of missions, involving a diversity of national military representatives. This monograph, based on a small-scale exploratory and qualitative study of the PSOs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) and Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) in April and May 2003, aims to contribute towards this evidence base together with understandings of the exploitative aspects of gendered relations in these two African PSOs. The report is concerned with gender issues, with a focus on the dynamic between privileged and powerful peacekeepers and local women and girls. Thus, findings presented here would not be considered as representative of the range of gendered relations in PSOs, but rather, are intended to deepen understanding of the factors driving prostitution and allied forms of exploitation in PSOs. In highlighting the current environment surrounding sexual abuse and exploitation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sierra Leone, the study involved in-depth interviews with 45 peacekeepers, UN civilian personnel and members of the civil society, together with a significant number of informal discussions and ethnography in and around the leisure sites of UN personnel and peacekeepers. The research focus reflected the particular conditions in the respective PSOs. In the DRC, the following themes were explored: the context of the PSO, the culture and attitude of UN personnel and peacekeepers towards the host population and vice versa, interpretations of the concept of gender, consideration of gender raising strategies - including gender training, peacekeepers engagement with prostitutes and the functioning and understanding of the Code of Conduct. In Sierra Leone, there was a focus on the context of this particular PSOs in terms of the legacy of, and response to the UNHCR/SCFUK report (2002) detailing allegations of sexual abuse of refugees by humanitarian workers and peacekeepers, the workings of the UNAMSIL personal Conduct Committee (UPC), prostitution involving peacekeepers, and finally, generated relations and peacekeeper national culture.