... to prevent and eliminate VAWG by Peacekeepers!
Call for Action
Ensuring Human Rights for Women and Girls in Conflict Zones:
Oversight, Accountability, and Reform of the UN Peacekeepers
Two key Commissions of the International Alliance of Women — the Peace Commission and the Human Rights Commission—received credible information about women being raped and sometimes impregnated by UN peacekeepers in the MONUSCO peacekeeping mission. This information comes through reports by our members in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and media outlets. [1]
We are deeply concerned for the health, safety, and human rights of victims of these horrific events – the women, girls, and children born as the result of rape. Even worse, this shocking information echoes evidence of rape and trafficking in women by UN peacekeepers in the aftermath of the Balkan war.
Further, we are alarmed about the societal impact of this scandalous behavior on the reputation and effectiveness of the UN, the UN Security Council (UNSC), and all peacekeeping units and missions.
UN mandates are undermined by so-called peacekeepers who commit grave crimes against women and girls. Impunity for these crimes leads to more violence and undermines trust in judicial and political institutions. Without accountability for the perpetrators’ actions, women’s voices are not heard, and the cycle of violence continues.
International Alliance of Women therefore calls for immediate action by the UN, as follows:
- The UN shall investigate and prosecute alleged perpetrators and put an end to impunity for alleged perpetrators for their violent crimes against women and girls to establish a sustainable peace.
- The UN shall allocate adequate funds to update and improve training and instructional materials and methods regarding women’s human rights for its peacekeeping forces. This includes instructions to uphold UNSCR 1820 [2]: end war crimes against women, uphold women’s human rights, provide equal protection under the law and equal access to justice, promote women’s health and safety, and hold its own staff accountable for violations of these guarantees.
- The UN shall evaluate and improve the selection process for members of its peacekeeping forces. This includes developing an early-warning system that identifies individuals with misogynist tendencies in order to proactively exclude such individuals from the peacekeeping units and missions. Further, all mission and unit supervisors, personnel observers, and ombudspersons must affirm that they will oversee peacekeeping forces to ensure the end to gender-based violence.
- The UN shall supply women and girls, especially those living in conflict regions, with information flyers outlining their human rights and protections by the UN peacekeeping forces. The flyers shall include emergency numbers and contacts to ombudspersons to be used in case of threats or violence.
IAW further calls for oversight of the UN by the international community, as follows:
- We urge the Global Alliance of the National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and all National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) to accelerate the actions sought from the UN in national and regional governments.
- We call on all National Machineries of the Advancement of Women (NMAW) to remind all entities and institutions, including the UN, of their responsibility to ensure women’s civil and human rights and ensure their protection under international, national, regional and local law.
IAW, supporting its Peace Commission and Human Rights Commission, calls on other Civil Society Organisations, especially, but not only, women’s rights and peace organisations to sign this open letter, and to use the text in whole or in part, to approach the above mentioned entities and their Member States with this and their proposals for safer peacekeeping missions.
In expectation of an energetic response from the addressed organisations to this continuing injustice, I wish you power and strength for the ensuing activity.
Alison Brown, President
International Alliance of Women (IAW)
Alliance Internationale des Femmes (AIF)
[1] 2025/01/07. https://www.passblue.com/2025/01/07/paternity-claims-against-peacekeepers-the-problem-that-wont-go-away/
[2] https://www.un.org/shestandsforpeace/content/united-nations-security-council-resolution-1820-2008-sres18202008
One Response
As if it were not enough that women are at the mercy of warring parties and victims of war crimes because violence against women is used as a means of war.
The fact that peacekeepers also commit crimes against women and girls is particularly perfidious and must be stopped and punished.