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

Abstract

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...