New Report: Improving the UN’s Response to Sexual Violence and Exploitation in Peacekeeping Operations

The International Peace Institute has released a new report evaluating the United Nation’s efforts to prevent sexual violence and exploitation during UN peacekeeping operations. Specifically, the report analyzes the effectiveness of UN Security Council Resolution 2272 (Resolution 2272), which was adopted in 2016 to improve the UN’s response to allegations of sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers and empower the Secretary General to replace peacekeeping contingents from countries that fail to address allegations of sexual abuse. 

The report makes twenty-one recommendations to strengthen and improve the implementation of Resolution 2272, noting that, “[p]atient, persistent effort is needed to shift the complex organizational dynamics that have enabled sexual exploitation and abuse to blight the UN system.” The report’s authors said that comprehensive implementation of Resolution 2272 is “one important component” of the Secretary General’s ”ambitious new approach to preventing and responding to sexual exploitation and abuse across the UN system.” 

Compiled from: Whalan, Jeni, Dealing with Disgrace: Addressing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peacekeeping, International Peace Institute (August 2017).