Asilgarajevs, Sergejs

Biørnstad, Silje

Fonteyne, Arre Gunther Els

Tewolde, Eden

Over the last decade, a large number of reports have shown predominant high numbers of cases on sexual exploitation and abuse by the United Nations (UN) Peacekeepers in conflicted regions around the world. More than 2,000 allegations were made in the years between 2005 and 2017 (Essa, 2017). The paradoxical problem has been a hot topic in media and the subject has increasingly found its way into the academic debates. The problem is severe when the UN Peacekeepers are committing such crimes, as raping women and girls in conflicted regions. Our project seeks to understand the happenings of the UN Peacekeepers committing sexual abuse and exploitation, as to why they do it, covered by the theory of military masculinity. However, the project attempts to understand the cause and effect factors of why the women in these areas are at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation, in particular, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has the highest number of sexual abuse cases by the UN Peacekeepers. To understand the dynamic between the victims and the perpetrators, an analyses of the active UN mission (MONUSCO) is conducted. To conceptualise the dynamic, the theory of Vulnerability and Military Masculinity are utilised and discussed. This project has shown that the vulnerable environment in the conflicted regions exposes women to be more susceptible to sexual violence, where military masculinity is inherently portrayed as violent. Nonetheless, the project also problematizes the Western perspective of what masculinity is and how it is applied to an African context

Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN Peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Roskilde Universitet