Grad Chat - Queen's School Of Graduate Studies

Topic: ‘Even Peacekeepers Expect Something in Return’: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Analysis of Sexual Interactions Between UN Peacekeepers and Haitian Citizens. Overview: In 2004, the United Nations (UN) Security Council established Resolution 1542: The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). MINUSTAH officially began in June of 2004 and ended in October 2017, making it the longest UN peace operation in Haiti. During this time, allegations of sexual interactions between male UN peacekeepers and female Haitian civilians, including sexual abuse and exploitation, surfaced in the media. The UN frames civilian-peacekeeper sexual interactions as inherently exploitative and abusive, thereby supporting a zero-tolerance policy on sexual interactions with beneficiaries of assistance. However, during MINUSTAH civilian-peacekeeper sexual interactions were widespread and, in some cases, conceived children fathered by peacekeepers born to Haitian women- known as peace babies. The UN does n