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‘They Put a Few Coins in Your Hand to Drop a Baby in You’: A Study of Peacekeeper-fathered Children in Haiti

ABSTRACT

Many peace support operations have faced allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated by UN personnel against members of local communities. Some of these intimate relations result in children being born but there is little empirical data on the experiences of women and girls who conceive and bear these children. We analyse 265 self interpreted narratives from community members in Haiti about children fathered by UN personnel and born to local women or girls. The mixed methods results highlight three important themes: (a) poverty is a key underlying factor contributing to sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeeping personnel, (b) the repatriation of implicated peacekeepers often leaves the woman and child in exacerbated poverty, and (c) intimate relations with fair-skinned peacekeepers and having fair-skinned children are sometimes perceived as desirable. The data highlight that children fathered by MINUSTAH personnel are typically being raised in settings of extreme economic deprivation and are often denied access to education and other basic services that would enable them to break the cycle of poverty. While the overarching need identified in this analysis is financial, additional research with the children themselves in warranted to identify other needs and to inform policies and programmes intended to improve their well-being.

Introduction

Since the early 1990s, there has been a significant increase in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping activities, and in the first two decades of the twenty-first century the number of personnel deployed in such operations has risen to unprecedented levels. In August 2018, a total of over 103,000 personnel, with almost 90,000 uniformed staff from 124 countries served in fourteen peacekeeping operations, primarily in Africa, the Middle East and Asia as well as in Haiti.11 UN Department of Peacekeeping, “Peacekeeping Operations Data.”View all notes In addition to the increase in peacekeeping activity, there has also been a significant shift in the troop–contributing countries (TCCs). While in the early years of peacekeeping, the so-called middle powers such as Canada, Sweden and Norway supplied the majority of forces22 Sotomayor, Myth of the Democratic Peacekeeper, 1.View all notes more recently, troops have increasingly come from other parts of the world. Among the top fifteen troop contributors today are: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Nepal, Senegal, Ghana, Egypt, China, Tanzania, and Bukina Faso. Most of these countries are not only relatively new to large-scale engagement in peacekeeping, but several of them also have questionable human rights records, and a lack of transparency and democratic credentials in their home countries.33 Moncrief, “Military Socialization,” 717–8.View all notes

First concerns about sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) at the hands of peacekeepers were voiced in the early 1990s, when reports emerged about improprieties during the UN operations in Mozambique. Since then, almost all UN peace support operations (PSO) have been associated with sexual misconduct to some degree of magnitude and severity. These include missions in West Africa (Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eritrea, East Timor and Haiti.44 Phal, “The Lessons of the UNTAC Experience,” 129, 133; Lupi, “Report by the Enquiry Commission,” 375; Higate, “Gender and Peacekeeping Case Studies”; “Investigation by the Office of Internal Oversight Services.”View all notes Furthermore, in some peacekeeping operations, for instance in Bosnia and Kosovo, NATO and UN peacekeeping personnel were widely understood to be important clients for sexual services, and evidence suggests that increased demands were met through ‘trafficking’ women into sexual servitude. The relative affluence of NATO and UN personnel fuelled the trade and made it more profitable.55 Vandenberg, Hopes Betrayed; Simic, “Accountability of UN Civilian Police”; Allred, “Peacekeepers and Prostitutes,” 19, note 12.View all notes SEA undermines the credibility not only of the individual soldier but also of the peacekeeping mission as a whole. Abuse almost always takes place in situations characterized by power imbalances. In PSO host countries, the structural imbalances are particularly pronounced, as most women and girls live in conditions of economic deprivation, insecurity, gender-inequitable norms and frequently also displacement.

Having faced numerous allegations of SEA perpetrated by soldiers associated with UN peacekeeping, an Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Task Force on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Humanitarian Crises, was established in March 2002 to develop definitions of sexual exploitation and abuse, to advise the UN on specific measures and to provide guidelines for investigations. This led to the 2003 publication of a Bulletin ‘Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse’ which detailed what has since become known as the ‘zero-tolerance policy’.66 UN General Assembly, “Special Measures for Protection,” 9–10.View all notes While this bulletin, among others, defined and prohibited SEA and outlined responsibilities for senior staff in facilitating the implementation of the zero-tolerance policy, the more significant change in attitude and policy happened in the wake of the so-called ‘Zeid report’, commissioned by the Secretary General to provide a ‘Comprehensive Strategy to eliminate future SEA in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations’.77 UN General Assembly, “A Comprehensive Strategy” hereinafter cited as ‘Zeid Report’.View all notes In December 2007 the UN General Assembly adopted two resolutions on criminal accountability (Resolution 62/63)88 UN General Assembly, “Criminal Accountability of United Nations Officials.”View all notes and on victim support (Resolution 62/214), the ‘Comprehensive Strategy on Assistance and Support to Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by United Nations Personnel and Related Personnel’.99 UN General Assembly, “Comprehensive Strategy on Assistance and Support.”View all notes While being radical not only in their acknowledgement of the problem and their desire to tackle SEA but also in the stipulation that soldiers should be accountable for their actions, and while being pioneering in addressing the issue of children conceived in relationships between peacekeepers and local women,1010 Lee, Children Born of War, 226–43.View all notes peacekeepers are still committing crimes with impunity.1111 Freedman, “UN Immunity or Impunity?” 961–85.View all notes In the Comprehensive Strategy, the UN, for the first time, acknowledged that children born of war are among those directly affected by SEA. Alongside complainants1212 Complainants are defined as ‘Persons who allege, in accordance with established procedures, that they have been, or are alleged to have been, sexually exploited or abused by United Nations staff or related personnel, but whose claim has not yet been established through a United Nations administrative process or Member States’ processes’.View all notes and victims,1313 Victims are defined as ‘Persons whose claims that they have been sexually exploited or abused by United Nations staff or related personnel have been established through a United Nations administrative process or Member States’ processes.’View all notes children ‘who are found by a competent national authority to have been born as a result of acts of SEA by UN staff or related personnel’ deserve and are entitled to support. Another indication of the Secretary General’s (SG) desire to include the rights of peacekeeper-fathered children and their mothers in the reform agenda of the United Nations are the SG reports on SEA which, since 2013, have not only started to include initial country-specific data on children born of conflict-related sexual violence, but have also included calls for action in addressing challenges around the implementation of protective measures contained in the ‘Zeid Report’.1414 Simić and O’Brien, “‘Peacekeeper Babies’,” 346.View all notes A survivor-centred approach to SEA and children born of SEA has recently been taken up and extended in UN Security Council Resolution 2467, which not only calls for a more holistic understanding of accountability and justice, but also includes the provision of reparations for survivors as well as livelihood support to enable them to rebuild their lives and support their families.1515 United Nations Security Council, “UNSCR 2467 (2019).”View all notes Furthermore, in August 2017, the UN Secretary General António Guterres appointed the first Victims’ Rights Advocate, in an attempt to ‘elevate the voice of the victims’ and to ‘put their rights and dignity at the forefront’ of the UN efforts.1616 UN General Assembly, “Special Measures for Protection.”View all notes It is this dichotomy of the apparent desire on the part of the UN to acknowledge and address SEA perpetrated by UN and related personnel on the one hand,1717 WILPF, “Rees on UN Security Council Resolution 2467.”View all notes and the evident failure to achieve justice for victims on the other hand, that is particularly evident in the case of Haiti.

Peacekeeping, SEA and Peacekeeper-fathered Children in Haiti

In April 2017, the UN Security Council decided that the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)1818 https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/minustah. The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti is named after its French name: La Mission des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en Haïti.View all notes would close on 15 October 2017,1919 United Nations Security Council, “UNSCR 2350 (2017),” 9–10.View all notes transitioning to a smaller UN Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH) mandated to assist local Haitian institutions, to further support the Haitian National Police, and to undertake human rights monitoring, reporting and analysis. This move concluded a complex peacekeeping mission, MINUSTAH, that had not only been impacted by natural disasters, which added to the volatility of the political situation in the country, but that had also been marred by an array of allegations of wrongdoings, both of peacekeepers themselves and of the institutions monitoring their practices, making MINUSTAH one of the most controversial UN missions. With regard to public health, it is undisputed, and now officially recognized by the UN, that peacekeepers inadvertently introduced cholera to Haiti with over 800,000 Haitians known to have sought medical attention for the disease and at least 10,000 Haitians having died from cholera.2020 Ministère de la Santé et de la Population, “Profil statistique du cholera”, slide 6.View all notes Equally controversial, MINUSTAH has been the focus of extensive allegations of SEA. A shocking number of uniformed and non-uniformed MINUSTAH personnel have been linked to a variety of human rights abuses including sexual exploitation, rape, and unlawful deaths.2121 Yearman, The Cite Soleil Massacre Declassification Project.For the purposes of this study, we use MINUSTAH personnel, agents, and peacekeepers interchangeably to refer to uniformed and non-uniformed foreign staff associated with MINUSTAH.View all notes Reportedly, minors were offered food and small amounts of cash for sex,2222 BBC News, “UN Troops face child abuse claims”; Kolbe, “It’s not a gift,” 7–19.View all notes and credible reports spoke of a sex ring operating in Haiti with impunity.2323 Dodds, “UN Peacekeepers in Haiti”; See also Snyder, UN SEA, 6–8.View all notes As has been the case more generally with regard to allegations of wrongdoing in PSOs, in Haiti, too, such allegations often passed without investigation, and even where allegations have been substantiated, little action has been taken to deliver justice for victims. One example may serve as an illustration: according to an internal UN report obtained by Associated Press, at least 134 Sri Lankan peacekeepers exploited nine children in a sex ring in Haiti from 2004 to 2007. In the wake of the report, 114 peacekeepers were returned to their country of origin, but none of them were convicted or even charged in a court of law in Sri Lanka.2424 Snyder, UN SEA, 3.View all notes

Where there are sexual contacts between foreign soldiers and local women, whether they are consensual or exploitative/abusive in nature, children are being born.2525 For challenges in determining the exact nature of relations on the spectrum from consensual to abusive relations see Simić, Regulations.View all notes As known from extensive research on children born of war more generally,2626 Lee, Children Born of War.View all notes these children are often raised in single-parent families in precarious economic conflict and post-conflict situations; added to this, the association with the (absent) foreign father and the birth out of wedlock often result in the child growing up in a triangle of childhood adversities, stigma/discrimination and challenges regarding their identity.2727 Glaesmer, “Die Kinder des Zweiten Weltkrieges,” 323.View all notes Little is known about the impact of being a child fathered specifically by a peacekeeper. Even less in known about whether ‘peace babies’ experience their childhoods and youth differently depending on the circumstances of their conception and particularly depending on whether they were conceived in a consensual, exploitative or abusive relationship. The fact that the Haitian population has coined a specific term in Kreyol, pitit MINUSTAH, and that Haiti’s official language, French, has two separate terms bébés casques bleus (blue helmet babies) or ‘les enfants abandonnés par la MINUSTAH’ (the children who are abandoned by the MINUSTAH), is an indication that those children are not a rarity, but instead are a sizeable group recognized by the local population as having a parentage that sets them apart from other local children. This suggests that their experiences will differ from those of their peers with Haitian fathers.2828 For the purpose of this study, we used the hybrid term Petit MINUSTAH, identified as the most widely-used and commonly understood term for peacekeeper-fathered children in Haiti by the local Haitian research assistants.View all notes

Immunity and Impunity: The Problem of Seeking Justice

The lack of prosecution of the repatriated Sri Lankan peacekeepers is a vivid example of what has been described as the ‘actuality of impunity’,2929 Jennings, “The Immunity Dilemma.”View all notes which – in part – is a result of the real as well as perceived immunity of peacekeepers for wrongdoings committed while on mission.3030 See Chang, “ When do-gooders do Harm,” 7–8; Odello and Burke, “Between Immunity and Impunity,” 845–9; O’Brien, Criminalising Peacekeepers, chapter 9.View all notes While UN personnel enjoy functional immunity in the host country, i.e. immunity from prosecution for crimes committed while on duty, they do not enjoy full immunity, i.e. immunity from prosecution from crimes committed off-duty.3131 For details see Freedman, “Unaccountable,” 966–70.View all notes This distinction, however, appears more theoretical than practical in that the UN has interpreted the line of duty generously in the peacekeeping context. What is more, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between TCCs and the UN,3232 UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, “Model Memorandum of Understanding.”View all notes and the Model Status of Forces Agreement3333 UN General Assembly (UNGA), “Model Status of Forces Agreement.”View all notes determine that only TCCs can prosecute military members of the mission, usually in the TCC’s military justice system. As a result, uniformed peacekeepers are not subject to the host country’s jurisdiction, and victims will not have access to justice in their home countries, even in the case of serious crimes. While the MoU between TCCs and UN detail the process for investigations of SEA in the troop-sending countries, in reality, few TCCs can or are willing to investigate allegations, and the UN has little, if any power, to force TCCs to comply with expectations of delivering justice for alleged victims, in Haiti and elsewhere.3434 Human Rights Council (submission to), On the abuse and sexual exploitation of Women, Girls, and young Men; see also Boon, “The United Nations as Good Samaritans,” 374–84.View all notes

Objectives, Methods and Implementation

The current analysis aims to address the knowledge gap around the experiences of the local Haitian population living in close proximity to peacekeepers. In particular we are seeking to explore the challenges and life courses of women who raise children conceived by MINUSTAH personnel, specifically investigating gender norms, socioeconomic, cultural and security circumstances that are known to contribute to unequal power relations between UN personnel (military plus non-military) and local civilians, thereby providing the background before which sexual relations develop between peacekeepers and local women. The study seeks to foreground the experiences of women raising children fathered by peacekeepers and to highlight local perceptions of accountability of the UN as well as expectations around justice and redress among Haitians. These issues were investigated using a mixed qualitative-quantitative, cross-sectional study conducted across seven locations in Haiti between June and August 2017, using Cognitive Edge’s SenseMaker® tool.

Methods

We used SenseMaker as a narrative capture tool to collect self-interpreted stories from a broad range of community members about the experiences of women and girls living in communities surrounding ten UN bases in Haiti. From that dataset, the current analysis focuses on community perceptions around children fathered by MINUSTAH personnel.

Location and Participant Selection

Ten UN bases across seven locations were purposively chosen for inclusion based on size, years of operation, TCCs staffing the base,3535 Countries contributing military personnel were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jordan, Mexico, Nepal, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Sri Lanka, United States; countries contributing police and civilian personnel were Algeria, Benin, Brazil, Bukina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, CAR, Chad, Chile, China, Columbia, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Grenada, Guinea, India, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Madagascar, Mali, Nepal, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russian Federations, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Togo, Turkey, United States, Yemen. Uruguay.View all notes geographic variation within Haiti as well as urban/rural designation. Prospective participants were approached in public locations within a 30 km radius of each base including market areas, shops, parks, public transportation stops/depots, etc. Individuals 11 years of age or older were eligible for participation. It was deemed important to include younger participants since anecdotal evidence would suggest that young girls are also affected by SEA perpetrated by UN peacekeeper personnel. Although the survey was intended to investigate experiences of SEA, by design SenseMaker does not have direct questions. Therefore, the survey did not mention SEA and participants (including young girls) could share any story they chose. A variety of participant subgroups were intentionally sought to capture a wide range of perspectives including women/girls who had interacted with MINUSTAH personnel, family members and friends of women/girls who had interacted with MINUSTAH personnel, community members more generally as well as community leaders.

Survey

Cognitive Edge’s SenseMaker is a mixed methods tool that collects a group of micro-narratives on a given topic (in this case interactions between women/girls in Haiti and MINUSTAH personnel) and then asks participants to convey the meaning of their shared stories by responding to a series of analytical questions. Collectively, the participants’ interpretation responses create a nuanced picture in the same way pixels come together to produce a clear image.3636 GirlHub, “Using Sensemaker,” 2–3.View all notes SenseMaker leverages the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ by collecting data from a sufficient number of people to ensure adequate a priori statistical power while also providing contextualization of the quantitative results by linking with the accompanying qualitative micro-narratives.3737 Cognitive Edge, “Sensemaker”; Senseguide, “What is Sensemaker?” slide 2.View all notes Practically speaking, participants are presented with three prompting questions (Appendix 1) and asked to share a brief narrative after choosing one of the three prompts. Stories are audio recorded and participants are then asked to give their story a title. Participants interpret the described experiences by responding to a series of predefined questions in the form of dyads and triads (Appendix 1), which in turn generate the quantitative data. Multiple-choice questions collect demographic information and data to contextualize the shared story (e.g. emotional tone of the story, how often do the events in the story happen, who was the story about, etc.).

The SenseMaker survey was written in English by team members with collective expertise on humanitarian crises, children born of war, SenseMaker methodology and sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). It was translated to Haitian Creole and back-translated by an independent translator to check for accuracy. Translation discrepancies were resolved by consensus. The SenseMaker survey did not prompt for stories about consenual sexual relations, SEA, or about children fathered by MINUSTAH personnel; instead it prompted for stories about experiences of women and girls living in the vicinity of UN bases. This was to avoid introducing reporting biases that are inevitable if the enquiry is narrowed to a research hypotheses and to allow stories about a broad range of topics to emerge more naturally from the lived experiences of participants. The survey was pilot tested in Haiti among 54 participants and questions were then refined to improve clarity, ease of response, participant comfort and translation inaccuracies.

Study Implementation

The study was implemented by an interview team consisting of 12 research assistants selected purposively from two local partners, Komisyon Fanm Viktim pou Viktim (KOFAVIV) and Enstiti Travay Sosyal ak Syans Sosyal (ETS). The 10 ETS research assistants (six female and four male) were undergraduate students in social work and the two female research assistants from KOFAVIV were volunteers with the organization who had experience working with survivors of SGBV. Male research assistants were designated to primarily interview male participants while female research assistants were designated to primarily interview female participants. All research assistants completed a four-day training immediately prior to data collection. Training topics included SenseMaker methodology, research ethics, use of an iPad, informed consent, a detailed question-by-question review of the survey with multiple role-playing sessions, data upload, as well as management of adverse events and programme referrals. Recorded micro-narratives were transcribed and then translated from Haitian Creole to English by native Creole speakers.

All interviews were conducted in Haitian Creole and the shared micro-narratives were audio recorded. Each participant was asked if he/she would like to share a second micro-narrative about interactions between local women/girls and MINUSTAH personnel and thus the total number of shared stories exceeds the number of unique participants.

Ethics Considerations

After reviewing the participant information and consent forms in Creole and having an opportunity to ask questions, respondents indicated their willingness to participate by tapping a consent box on the tablet. Written consent was waived since the study was believed to involve minimal risk. No identifying information was collected and all interviews were conducted privately. No financial compensation or other incentive was offered for participation and respondents did not have to travel to take part in the study. The study protocol was approved by the University of Birmingham’s Ethical Review Board (protocol ERN_16-0950) and by the Queen’s University Health Sciences and Affiliated Teaching Hospitals Research Ethics Board (protocol # 6020398).

Results

A total of 2,541 self-interpreted stories about interactions between local women/girls and MINUSTAH personnel were collected from 2,191 unique community members at seven locations around Haiti (Figure 1) between June and August 2017. Of these, 69 (2.7%) were about Petit MINUSTAH, and 196 (7.7%) mentioned Petit MINUSTAH. This analysis explores the perceived experiences of mothers who have conceived and given birth to peace babies and as such, considers the differences between micro-narratives about Petit MINUSTAH and all other micro-narratives within the context of broader questions about relations between MINUSTAH and local civilians. Stories about and mentioning Petit MINUSTAH were combined for the purposes of this analysis allowing visual patterns in the data to be more readily identifiable. Designation regarding whether the story was about or mentioned a Petit MINUSTAH was made by the research assistant at the end of each interview.

Figure 1. Map of Haiti illustrating number of collected micro-narratives about Petit MINUSTAH in each interview location.

The study’s quantitative data was derived from participants plotting their interpretation of the experiences described in the micro-narrative (using dyads and triads) as well as from the multiple-choice questions. Once patterns of perspectives were identified on the dyads and triads, accompanying narratives were independently reviewed to help interpret the quantitative data.

Study Participants3838 Sample sizes represent the number of responses on each individual question and therefore vary across questions.View all notes

Overall, more than half of all participants were aged 18–34 (56.3%), the majority were male (71.0%), and most were single (61.0%). The majority of participants did not graduate from secondary school (65.3%). Most participants had average household income (63.7%) which was measured based on reported household possession of a radio, mobile phone, refrigerator/freezer, electricity/solar panels, and/or a motorized vehicle. Possession of none or one of these items was categorized as very poor, possession of two or three items was categorized as average, and possession or four or five items was categorized as above average. Full demographics of study participants are provided in Table 1.

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of participants disaggregated by whether the shared stories were about or mentioned Petit MINUSTAH (Petit MINUSTAH stories) or not (Other stories).

In the Petit MINUSTAH stories, 28.3% and 21.9% of the UN personnel were identified as being from Uruguay and Brazil respectively. While these represent the two largest troop contingents, Brazil’s troop contribution was consistently much larger than that of Uruguay, which would have suggested a reversal of the observed proportion of stories affecting these two TCCs. Among the Petit MINUSTAH stories, 93.6% of the peacekeeping personnel were identified by the narrators as being soldiers, which was not significantly different from non-Petit MINUSTAH stories.

Dyads

Dyad data are presented as histograms illustrating the spectrum of responses from one extreme to the other. For our purposes, the three bars at either end of the histograms were combined and presumed to represent the most extreme responses. In two of the four dyads, statistically significant differences in response patterns (p-values < 0.05) were identified between Petit MINUSTAH stories and Other stories using the Kruskal–Wallis H test. Quotes are all taken from the extremes of possible responses.

The dyad presented in Figure 2 asked participants about their perceptions on who held power and control in the interaction between the local woman/girl and the MINUSTAH agent in the recorded story. Narrators of Petit MINUSTAH stories perceived that the foreign MINUSTAH agent had more power and control than did narrators of Other stories (p = 0.02).

Figure 2. Dyad asking about perceived power and control in the interaction between the Haitian woman/girl and the MINUSTAH personal described in the story. p = 0.02 for different response patterns between Petit MINUSTAH stories and Other stories.

Note: These were analysed with the Kruskal-Wallis H test and the chi-squared test statistics (IBM SPSS Statistics 24.0.0.0)(44) to determine if the area under the histogram bars were statistically different between subgroups. A p-value of < 0.05 was taken to be statistically significant.

Of the Petit MINUSTAH stories that were interpreted as the peacekeeper having power and control, some clearly referred to sexual abuse and exploitation. In many of those stories, power and control was manifested as the peacekeeper having the freedom to leave without any repercussions or responsibilities while the women or girl’s future was compromised and she was left to care for the child with little recourse to reparation or support.

Another terrible action that I’ve criticized MINUSTAH for is, how come after you get a woman pregnant and you have a baby with her, you neglect this woman instead of caring for her and that baby? Sometimes she has nothing to eat nor to feed this baby, she’s begging for food and you’re there as if you don’t care. To me, it is an act of raping I would say, and as a military member and a MINUSTAH agent, your goal was to help the people instead you tried to destroy them … .. The soldiers destroy these young girls’ future by getting them pregnant with a couple of babies and abandon them. Basically, these actions of the soldiers can have a negative impact on the society and on the country in general because these young girls could have been a lawyer, a doctor or anything that would help Haiti tomorrow.

Story title: “Violence of MINUSTAH”, shared by a single male in Cap Haitien.

In contrast, narrators of Other stories were less likely to respond that the foreigner had power and control in the interaction with the Haitian woman/girl in the story. In this cohort, more stories elaborated on the choices made by women and girls including consensual relationships between adult women and members of MINUSTAH. Some narratives discussed how having a foreign partner was perceived as being desirable by local women and girls who initiated the interactions.

Women [inaudible] when the MINUSTAH did not talk to them. They like starting relationships with them. You know how the Haitian is? Once they see white people, that sort of thing. At the time, they could not find anywhere to do it. This means a place to have sex.

“Relations with the MINUSTAH through the bars”, shared by a single female in Port Salut.

Another theme highlighted in the Other stories was sexual exploitation with clear narrative around women and girls engaging sexually with MINUSTAH peacekeepers in exchange for help paying various expenses. In some cases, there was evidence that sexual relations with members of MINUSTAH created a tension between girls and their parents although it was less clear if the tension was around the sexual relations themselves or around the fact that promises to the girls had been broken.

The MINUSTAH caused a lot of chaos, especially with young ladies, because they made promises to the ladies, like they would say that they are going to pay for their school, allow them to go to the university, but nothing has materialized. The MINUSTAH put a lot of divisions between parents and the ladies, even though we knew they were not there for long, but they left a lot of issues in the area.

The bad influence of the MINUSTAH on the country”, shared by a single male in Hinche.

The dyad illustrated in Figure 3 asked participants about assistance and support for the woman/girl in the shared story. Narrators of Petit MINUSTAH stories were statistically more likely to perceive that the authorities did nothing to assist or support the woman/girl in the story in comparison to narrators of Other stories (p < 0.01).

Many Petit MINUSTAH stories interpreted as the authorities having done nothing to support the girl discussed the financial burdens of raising children alone without financial support from their MINUSTAH fathers or from organizations perceived to be in a position to assist. There was a clear sense of the MINUSTAH members having abandoned their responsibilities and concern expressed about who would support and care for the children in the absence of their biological fathers.

… MINUSTAH impregnates our girls and they turn their backs on them. So who will take care of these children, another man will take care of them. That means these men have children in the country. Before they leave the country, we need to do a DNA test for everyone who has children so that they can send money to help these women. What will these women do with them? They will give the Haitian government money to take care of these children.

The MINUSTAH can better serve the country if they used the materials they have”, shared by a single male in Port-au-Prince.

Some women raising children fathered by members of MINUSTAH expressed their frustration about carrying sole responsibility for the child without support from various stakeholders. It was also clear that many of the women/girls affected were under the age of 18 at the time of the sexual interaction and the pregnancy/raising the child had obvious negative implications in terms of family relations and ability to continue formal education.

Figure 3. Dyad asking about perceived support and assistance from authorities to the woman/girl in the story. p < 0.01 for different response patterns between Petit MINUSTAH stories and Other stories.

Now, the child is 4 years old and I haven’t ever received support from an NGO, from the Brazilians, from the Haitian state. It’s only me that’s giving to the child to eat because I can’t pay for school for the child …  When I was with the Brazilian, I was 14 years old. I went to school at a Christian school. When I became pregnant, my father kicked me out of the house. And now I do work for someone who gives me 25 gourdes so that me and my child can eat.

“MINUSTAH abuse”, shared by a single female in Port-au-Prince.

The exacerbation of pre-existing poverty resulting from giving birth to and raising a child fathered by MINUSTAH was evident with some women/girls engaging in additional transactional sex with peacekeepers in order to provide for their children.

When they reach their term end this group has to leave, they also leave girls in misery, because they already had them pregnant, they left them in misery, understand what I tell you? He left her in misery because when he used to have sex with her it was for little money, now his term reaches its end, he goes and leaves her in misery, and then now she has to redo the same process so she can provide meals to her child, can’t you understand.

MINUSTAH’s violence on women at Cité Soleil”, shared by a married male in Port-au-Prince.

Non-Petit MINUSTAH stories on the other hand, were more likely to report positively on the financial implications of having a peacekeeping mission in the country. In many cases, narrators of these stories had benefited financially from being employed by the UN or had benefited from the peacekeeping economy in their communities.

Many people found employment. Myself, personally, I have people close to me that used to go sell stuff to the MINUSTAH. When they went there, from what they sold, they made money, built homes. This was positive … 

Good and Evil of the MINUSTAH”, shared by a single male in Hinche.

In other stories not involving Petit MINUSTAH, it was basic survival needs that were being met by the PSO, often informally, in the form of food or small sums of money to purchase food.

… .the ladies did not want to give us the information because they say, it is the white people who are helping them, who support them when they are hungry. It is the white people who give them 2, 3, or 4 USD. Sometimes they call it, there is a way they phrase it, COMIDA,3939 COMIDA refers to food.View all notes which means they are the ones who give them COMIDA, something to eat.

“Issues between [X] and MINUSTAH in Cité Soleil”, shared by a single male in Port-au-Prince.

Triads

Triad data are presented as geometric means for each subgroup4040 DeLong, “Statistics in the Triad” parts I and II.View all notes (represented by prominent dots on the triangles) with 95% confidence intervals for each mean presented visually as a 95% confidence ellipse generated using R scripts (R version 3.4.0).4141 R Foundation, “R: The R Project for Statistical Computing”; DeLong, “Statistics in the Triad, part IV.”View all notes If the 95% confidence ellipse for a given subgroup does not overlap other 95% confidence ellipses, the geometric mean for that group is taken to be statistically different. In the triad illustrated in Figure 4, participants were asked what their shared story was about. The geometric mean for Petit MINUSTAH stories differed from Other stories groups as demonstrated by its non-overlapping 95% confidence ellipses.

Figure 4. Triad asking about the main topic of the shared micro-narrative. The 95% confidence ellipses for the Petit MINUSTAH stories does not overlap with the 95% confidence ellipse of the Other stories indicating that they are statistically different.

Petit MINUSTAH stories were more likely to be interpreted as being about financial/material security. Some narrators expressed clearly how economic need led women to engage in survival sex with peacekeepers and highlighted the constrained choices made by women living in extreme poverty.

The issue of the MINUSTAH with the ladies is because the ladies were trying to feed themselves that they ended up in such a situation. They offer themselves to the MINUSTAH so they can get something in return … I think that, if it wasn’t for hardship, the ladies would never have done these things with the MINUSTAH.

Misery”, shared by a single male in Port Salut.

In other stories about Petit MINUSTAH, the financial/material security was more implicit in transactional sex, which was often a means for women and girls to meet their material needs/desires.

I used to go to Calico beach, I used to live together with them  …  I used to talk with them, Those guys, they used to give us money to pay for a transportation to go to the beach … they used to need things, they used to give me, give me money to go to the beach, I would go to the beach, they would give me money to buy clothes … They came to have sex without condoms and I got pregnant.

“MINUSTAH treated me badly”, shared by a single female in Port-au-Prince.

Non-Petit MINUSTAH stories, on the other hand, were interpreted as being more about social status. In some instances, the narratives implied that social status was elevated because of MINUSTAH’s efforts to improve living conditions for individuals and families in need.

There were people struggling to make ends meet, they created jobs for them. There were people who have certain means, but couldn’t utilize them in a productive way to care for themselves and their families, sometimes they will trade with them. Sometimes that allowed them to feed themselves and their families.

“Positives and negatives”, shared by a single male in Port Salut.

Safety and security was another prominent theme among micro-narratives that were not about Petit MINUSTAH. In these examples, the PSO was often recognized as having played an important role in creating safer communities, which likely led to improved social status because individuals could socialize in their neighbourhoods and towns without fearing for their safety.

Okay, the arrival of MINUSTAH in these two places [X] and [Y] was very beneficial considering the level of insecurity in these areas, and people being robbed and killed every day. Before, people died on a daily basis, and motorcycles were stolen  …  The presence of MINUSTAH in these areas allowed a sense of a normal security  …  Even though people said bad things about MINUSTAH, but I was proud of their work, when it comes to insecurity there is some progress.

“MINUSTAH’s protection in the community”, shared by a married male in Léogâne.

In the second triad presented, participants were asked about the position of the MINUSTAH agent in the shared story. As illustrated in Figure 5, the MINUSTAH agents in the Petit MINSTUAH stories were interpreted as being more about financial/material support than were agents in Other stories.

In some cases, the financial support provided by MINUSTAH referred to commercial sex work and/or sexual exploitation, with women putting themselves at risk of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections by having unprotected sex with multiple partners at UN bases.

They perform wicked things for $10.00 to $20.00 US dollars and they know that they already have 4, 5 of them … . Once they have $100 US dollars in their hand, they know that they will be able to sweet talk someone for $12 apiece  …  The ladies love money. They do anything they want on the base. Once they are there, 4, 5 guys sleep with them. Some do not protect themselves. They do not want to be shamed. Some had children fathered by the MINUSTAH. We will notice it in a few years when we realize that the country is turning white. We will find little ones with split eyes. We will see silky hair.

“The mark of the MINUSTAH on the country”, shared by a married male in Cap Haitien.

In other stories about Petit MINUSTAH, the financial/material support was discussed in terms of child support from the absentee MINUSTAH father. Promises of love and support made to the women or girl either before or after the pregnancy were not infrequent but most often, these promises were not followed through and the women or girl was left as the sole provider for the child.

Figure 5. Triad asking about the position of the MINUSTAH agent in the shared micronarrative. The 95% confidence ellipses for the Petit MINUSTAH stories does not overlap with the 95% confidence ellipse of the Other stories indicating that they are statistically different.

They abused many of our families, they can find a young woman  …  They may seem like they love you, they drop a few coins in your hands, after they sleep with you, when they put a few coins in your hand to drop a baby in you. And this child reads on the same arms you do not have … . Then, the child is in your arms, your family has nothing. All of this is the abuse of the MINUSTAH in the country … 

Down with the MINUSTAH”, shared by a single male in Saint Marc.

In contrast, stories in the Other subgroup tended to focus more on authority and protection. Often, narrators of these stories discussed improved security and noted improvements within the country that were often perceived to have been impossible without MINUSTAH. Some participants also discussed other wrongdoings by MINUSTAH but interpreted those wrongdoings as an expression of human fallibility.

MINUSTAH in the country, it helps and gives good service, I don’t have anything bad to say against them. We are all human and we make mistakes. They supply water to the people and help build roads. The only thing I can see they did wrong was cholera, beside that I think they did a great job indeed. They went to multiple parts of the country and in the provinces, they support the police troops and they help with the security … 

Good deed of the MINUSTAH”, shared by a single male in Morne Casse.

Some narratives expressed lack of confidence in the Haitian authorities or government which contrasted with approval of MINUSTAH’s positive impact on security and stability in the country.

But with UN presence through MINUSTAH, like we are saying their support is more than 10,000 times more effective for Haiti (than the government or the National Police Force). The reason: the National Police is committing more crimes, while MINUSTAH offers support with what they have … . To the current Haitian Government officials who are listening and want to do it alone … MINUSTAH has a place in Haiti.

“Stability”, shared by a married male in Port-au-Prince.

In the third triad presented Figure 6, participants were asked about the nature of the interaction between the woman/girl in the story and the MINUSTAH agent.

Interactions in the Petit MINUSTAH stories were much more likely to be interpreted as being friendly and/or a relationship than were interactions in Other stories. Some of the interactions began as friendships and then became romantic over time leading to sexual relations and to conception/birth of children. Despite the seemingly consensual nature of these relationships, some women clearly felt that they had been wronged or victimized likely as a result of not receiving support from the MINUSTAH peacekeeper after giving birth.

So, I met with one, we talked, then we became friends …  then the friendship went further, and after a lot of time we were in love. I was 17 years old and he had a party for me and we started a sexual relationship. So, I became pregnant and then my parents found out. They put him in jail for a month and he went back to his country. When he got there, I used to call him, he sent me money until I gave birth, since then I have not heard from him again.

Crime against me”, shared by a single female in Port Salut.

In a number of stories, community members described local women intentionally seeking out MINUSTAH peacekeepers with the goal of having beautiful, mixed race children.

Figure 6. Triad asking about the nature of the interaction between the Haitian woman/girl in the story and the MINUSTAH agent. The 95% confidence ellipses for the Petit MINUSTAH stories does not overlap with the 95% confidence ellipse of the Other stories indicating that they are statistically different.

Many Haitian people, when they saw the MINUSTAH, they wanted to have good-looking children. They wanted to make beautiful children, so they came down to the park. They needed to make beautiful children. Besides wanting to make the beautiful children they wanted, they just went to the MINUSTAH.

“Violence”, shared by a single female in Saint Marc.

Interactions in the narratives that were not about Petit MINUSTAH, on the other hand, were more likely to be interpreted as being a business interaction. Discussion in many of these stories included peacekeeping economies and highlighted how employment with the UN had presented a unique opportunity for some individuals to get ahead financially. A number of these narratives also commented on the business of PSOs with participants expressing appreciation for the improved security in their communities.

MINUSTAH was really good when they were in the area. Even though I didn’t have direct family members involved in MINUSTAH, I have friends who benefited from them through jobs. Because there are a few young men in the neighbourhood, if you saw them make certain progress it was because of MINUSTAH. Because MINUSTAH came to the area, they really helped us by providing security.

“Importance of MINUSTAH”, shared by a single male in Morne Casse.

In a few instances where interactions in the Other stories were interpreted as being about business, the business referred to commercial sex work. Some participants specifically made the point of distinguishing sexual violence from commercial sex work, clearly demonstrating that they perceived women to be wilfully exchanging sex for food, goods or money in these instances.

There were two young women that I knew very well, they walk all the time in front of my house to go to the MINUSTAH to take care of their business. Whenever they go to the MINUSTAH, they return with food and money because this is the way they conduct their business with the MINUSTAH. They have sex with the white man, but it doesn’t mean that they were aggressively attacked by the white men.

“The MINUSTAH engaged in sexual business”, shared by a married male in Cap Haitien.

Discussion

This is the first empirical study to examine the experiences of women and girls raising children fathered by UN peacekeepers. Using SenseMaker we collected a total of 2,541 self-interpreted narratives from 2,191 unique participants about the experiences of local host community members interacting with foreign personnel from MINUSTAH. A diverse range of perspectives were collected from men, women, adolescent boys and girls, and community leaders at the sites of ten UN bases in Haiti including urban, suburban and rural locations. While the range of respondents was broad, the study has several important limitations. First and foremost, despite considerable effort to collect narratives from a wide range of participants, the sample is not representative and thus the results are not generalizable. Women and girls were more likely to decline participation despite increasing efforts to include them as data collection progressed, leaving the final sample to be two thirds male participants. Discussion with local partners identified several reasons why men may have been more inclined to participate. For instance, women and girls are sometimes less visible in public spaces (because they are more likely to be working in the home) and since the sample was derived from public areas, there may have been fewer women to approach for participation. Additionally, women may have been less willing to share personal traumatic or disturbing experiences and there was a sense that interview fatigue was particularly high among women and that this likely contributed strongly to their lack of participation. Furthermore, stereotypic differences in gender socialization often make women shy away from talking about sex and, therefore, although some women may have had first-hand sexual interactions with members of MINUSTAH or may have known others who had engaged sexually with peacekeepers, they might have declined participation because they were not comfortable talking about sex. This explanation is given additional credence when considering in conjunction with a separate narrative capture study in which, although men and women participated in equal numbers, women and girls were less likely to talk about sexual violence or sexual exploitation in comparison to men.4242 Roupetz at al., “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.”View all notes This may warrant further exploration of whether men and women respond differently to narrative data capture around gendered topics. The current study’s results must be interpreted within the context of this limitation, and it is important to be cognizant of the fact that women’s first hand perspectives were fewer in number compared to men’s perspectives. It is unclear how, and to what degree, inclusion of more women’s perspectives would have impacted on the results although we speculate, based on separate qualitative data, that additional women’s stories would have introduced more nuance around the nature of the sexual relations and around sexual consent. Future studies should be designed with these challenges in mind in an effort to engage with women on their own terms and in a manner that is acceptable to them.

A second limitation is that SenseMaker narratives are relatively short in comparison to more traditional qualitative research, and the shared stories often lack the detail and richness afforded by in-depth interviews. However, the self-interpretation questions partially compensate for the lack of detailed narratives since participants directly indicate their perceptions of the shared experience. It is important to note though that the participants’ interpretation of their shared stories may have been constrained by the pre-determined dyad and triads labels although review of the narratives shows that the chosen labels were highly relevant to most of the shared experiences.

The study has several notable strengths including a large sample size with 2,541 self-interpreted narratives providing a wide range of perspectives from host community members around the country and 265 stories directly concerning Petit MINUSTAH. The mixed-methods approach and lack of direct questioning allowed for new insights into circumstances that predispose to sexual relations and into improved understanding of the experiences of mothers who are raising Petit MINUSTAH. Using SenseMaker allowed the narrative around sexual relations with members of MINUSTAH to emerge from the broader landscape of experiences and contextualized the experiences within the everyday lives of Haitian community members.

Without direct questioning or prompting, 10.4% of the narratives were about (n = 69) or mentioned (n = 196) a Petit MINUSTAH. Quantitative analysis identified several important differences in perceptions between narrators who shared a story about Petit MINUSTAH and those who shared Other stories. For instance, a larger proportion of stories relating to Petit MINUSTAH stories were interpreted by the narrator as the MINUSTAH agent having more power and control; similarly a larger fraction of those stories was interpreted as being about financial/material support compared with Other stories. Additionally, interactions in the Petit MINUSTAH stories were much more likely to be perceived as being friendly and/or a relationship than were interactions in Other stories which were interpreted as being more business in nature. In the narratives about Petit MINUSTAH, the overarching qualitative themes highlighted the extreme poverty that led many women and girls to have sexual relations with members of MINUSTAH; furthermore, mother and child almost always lost contact with the peacekeeper, leaving her (and in some cases her family) to care for the child including meeting all the financial needs.

Academic literature on peacekeeping economies has pointed to the extreme poverty that is a given in almost all PSO host countries.4343 Nordhås and Rustad, “Sexual Exploitation and Abuse,” 522, 528–9.View all notes It has explored and demonstrated the correlation between host state poverty and SEA allegations,4444 Ibid; Karim and Beardsley, “Explaining Sexual Exploitation and Abuse,” 105–6.View all notes and in Haiti has found links between the power differential between peacekeepers and local women impacting on women’s particular vulnerabilities.4545 Henry and Highgate, “Peacekeeping Power Practices,” 141–2.View all notes The UN bases its approach to military-civilian relations on the assumption that, by construct, a power differential exists between members of the PSO and the local community, which manifests itself with peacekeepers having access to some of the resources that are desired or needed by the local population.4646 E.g. Mudgway, “Sexual Exploitation by UN Peacekeepers,”1456, 1462.View all notes Again, by construct, this almost inevitably results in the transactional nature of military-civilian relationships. A corollary of this is that any relations, including consensual sexual relations in conditions of inequality can be seen as exploitative, which has led to a formally rigid UN guidance on sexual relations between UN mission staff and the local population expressed in its zero-tolerance policy4747 UN Secretary-General, “Special Measures.”View all notes that states that (almost) all intimacies between peacekeepers and local women are prohibited because the socio-economic and other power differentials (have the potential) to make those relations exploitative.

The merits and demerits of this approach have been discussed in detail elsewhere.4848 McGill, “Survival Sex in Peacekeeping Economies”; Westendorf and Searle, “Sexual Exploitation,” 372, 376.View all notes What is important in our context, is that the study data indicate a more nuanced understanding of those relations by the local population. The self-interpreted stories about Petit MINUSTAH presented in this study describe a combination of:

  • Power and control resting with the man, with this power imbalance being even more pronounced in stories that mention or are about Petit MINUSTAH.

  • Poverty contributing to the women’s decision to interact with peacekeepers. In the stories mentioning or about Petit MINUSTAH, a significant number describe a downward spiral where, contrary to women’s potential expectations of a relationship as a way out of poverty, in most cases the birth of a Petit MINUSTAH exacerbated pre-existing poverty and, in some cases resulted in the mothers again seeking relationships with peacekeepers in order to alleviate this poverty.

  • Relations with peacekeepers (especially fair-skinned peacekeepers) and becoming the mother of a lighter-skinned peacekeeper-fathered child being perceived as desirable. Seeking relationships with fair-skinned peacekeepers is reported as a conscious choice of some women. Yet, despite the fact that such a relationship is perceived to have potential to improve material and social status, only a very small number of stories describe this outcome as a reality.

Thus there is a clear mismatch of the expectations of women who enter into relationships with peacekeepers in the hope of material or social gain, and the realities of the overwhelmingly negative impact of bearing a peacekeeper-fathered child. Instead several stories describe a vicious circle in which women engage in sexual relations with peacekeepers in the hope of gaining materially or socially; upon becoming pregnant their already precarious socio-economic situation further deteriorates, driving them to again engage with a peacekeeper to alleviate this enhanced poverty.

A further point implicit in many of the individual stories and even more so in the story collection as a whole is the diversity, variability and the dynamic nature of the different relationships. Stories of rape or sexual abuse are rare; stories of exploitative relations, more frequent, stories about economic hardship driving women into transactional sex similarly frequent; stories about casual friendships developing into transactional relations and leading to children being born occur just as stories of women consciously seeking to become mothers of peace-keeper-fathered children. The data indicates that while few relationships appear to have started out as abusive, often transactional relationships develop an increasingly exploitative and potentially abusive character. Consistent with published research4949 Jennings, “Service, Sex and Security,” 315–6; Smith, “Accountability,” 406, 413.View all notes the three core insights that can be found in significant numbers of stories, are those of:

  1. Poverty as the driving force of women’s choices to engage in sexual relations with MINUSTAH agents;

  2. Peacekeepers leaving (or being moved) when the women becomes pregnant or when she gives birth; and

  3. Unfulfilled expectations of support for mother and child, either by the peacekeepers themselves, the UN or, most frequently, the Haitian authorities.

Individually and in combination these three points raise significant questions relating to the UN’s and TCCs’ responses to the challenges around SEA and peacekeeper-fathered children, both with regard to prevention of SEA and mitigation of its impact, specifically if children are conceived as a result. This study highlights that women make choices about relations with peacekeepers in the hope of escaping a poverty trap, which – in the case of children being conceived – only serves to exacerbate economic hardship. As is clear from the narratives, soldiers – in contravention of the UN’s zero-tolerance policy – often accept transactional sex thus indicating a lack of understanding and/or concern of the consequences for the women and/or children. This points to the need for much more extensive training specifically relating to the circumstances within which women exercise their agency, the impact of economic and power differentials on those choices, the potential consequences for the women particularly when children are born, and the consequences of those circumstances on meaningful consent.

A second point, raised in a significant number of stories about peacekeeper-fathered children is the UN practice of immediate repatriation of the peacekeepers found to have engaged in SEA or to have fathered children. Such repatriation polices exacerbate the difficulties of the mothers left behind with regard to seeking compensation or obtaining child support. These experiences align with the briefing note presented in April 2018 to the UN Victim Rights Advocate (VRA), Jane Connors, by Bureau Avocats Internationaux, a Haitian Law Firm representing eleven women allegedly impregnated and abandoned by UN Peacekeepers5050 IJDH, “Briefing Note.”View all notes and followed-up with an Open Letter to the VRA in January 2019.5151 IJDH, “Open Letter.”View all notes The Open Letter gives insights into the reasons why local victims, even those who are represented by a law firm, struggle to receive assistance. Not only does the complexity of the multi-layered international legal system make it difficult for victims to seek redress, the UN, as the ‘sole actor with the information and resources to assist victims of SEA’ and children fathered by peacekeepers, is slow to respond to demands for support and/or the information needed in order to make a case for support. This ‘lack of follow-through’ by the UN of its own commitments to those affected by SEA makes it all but impossible for victims to obtain justice.5252 Ibid., 1.View all notes

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the participants who shared their experiences living in communities that host a peacekeeping mission. We are also indebted to the research team who collected the data and to KOFAVIV, ETS and BAI and for the support and guidance in implementing this work. The work would not have been possible without the financial support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sabine Lee is a historian with expertise in the field of historical and anthropological research around consequences of war and conflict. She has published on the social consequences of war and children conceived as a result of sexual and gender-based violence. She is a Professor of Modern History at the University of Birmingham and has led a funded international, interdisciplinary research network on children born of war and currently co-ordinates a European Commission Horizon2020-funded Innovative Doctoral Training Network consisting of 15 interdisciplinary doctoral projects in Europe.

Susan Bartels is a Clinician Scientist and Associate Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Public Health Sciences at Queen’s University. In addition to practicing emergency medicine, she conducts global public health research focused on how women and children are impacted by humanitarian crises. While much of her work has been in Sub-Saharan Africa, she has also worked in the Middle East as well as in Asia and Haiti. Dr Bartels is interested in using innovative methods to improve understanding of health-related topics in complex environments such as armed conflict and natural disasters.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Notes

1 UN Department of Peacekeeping, “Peacekeeping Operations Data.”

2 Sotomayor, Myth of the Democratic Peacekeeper, 1.

3 Moncrief, “Military Socialization,” 717–8.

4 Phal, “The Lessons of the UNTAC Experience,” 129, 133; Lupi, “Report by the Enquiry Commission,” 375; Higate, “Gender and Peacekeeping Case Studies”; “Investigation by the Office of Internal Oversight Services.”

5 Vandenberg, Hopes Betrayed; Simic, “Accountability of UN Civilian Police”; Allred, “Peacekeepers and Prostitutes,” 19, note 12.

6 UN General Assembly, “Special Measures for Protection,” 9–10.

7 UN General Assembly, “A Comprehensive Strategy” hereinafter cited as ‘Zeid Report’.

8 UN General Assembly, “Criminal Accountability of United Nations Officials.”

9 UN General Assembly, “Comprehensive Strategy on Assistance and Support.”

10 Lee, Children Born of War, 226–43.

11 Freedman, “UN Immunity or Impunity?” 961–85.

12 Complainants are defined as ‘Persons who allege, in accordance with established procedures, that they have been, or are alleged to have been, sexually exploited or abused by United Nations staff or related personnel, but whose claim has not yet been established through a United Nations administrative process or Member States’ processes’.

13 Victims are defined as ‘Persons whose claims that they have been sexually exploited or abused by United Nations staff or related personnel have been established through a United Nations administrative process or Member States’ processes.’

14 Simić and O’Brien, “‘Peacekeeper Babies’,” 346.

15 United Nations Security Council, “UNSCR 2467 (2019).”

16 UN General Assembly, “Special Measures for Protection.”

17 WILPF, “Rees on UN Security Council Resolution 2467.”

18 https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/minustah. The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti is named after its French name: La Mission des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en Haïti.

19 United Nations Security Council, “UNSCR 2350 (2017),” 9–10.

20 Ministère de la Santé et de la Population, “Profil statistique du cholera”, slide 6.

21 Yearman, The Cite Soleil Massacre Declassification Project.

For the purposes of this study, we use MINUSTAH personnel, agents, and peacekeepers interchangeably to refer to uniformed and non-uniformed foreign staff associated with MINUSTAH.

22 BBC News, “UN Troops face child abuse claims”; Kolbe, “It’s not a gift,” 7–19.

23 Dodds, “UN Peacekeepers in Haiti”; See also Snyder, UN SEA, 6–8.

24 Snyder, UN SEA, 3.

25 For challenges in determining the exact nature of relations on the spectrum from consensual to abusive relations see Simić, Regulations.

26 Lee, Children Born of War.

27 Glaesmer, “Die Kinder des Zweiten Weltkrieges,” 323.

28 For the purpose of this study, we used the hybrid term Petit MINUSTAH, identified as the most widely-used and commonly understood term for peacekeeper-fathered children in Haiti by the local Haitian research assistants.

29 Jennings, “The Immunity Dilemma.”

30 See Chang, “ When do-gooders do Harm,” 7–8; Odello and Burke, “Between Immunity and Impunity,” 845–9; O’Brien, Criminalising Peacekeepers, chapter 9.

31 For details see Freedman, “Unaccountable,” 966–70.

32 UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, “Model Memorandum of Understanding.”

33 UN General Assembly (UNGA), “Model Status of Forces Agreement.”

34 Human Rights Council (submission to), On the abuse and sexual exploitation of Women, Girls, and young Men; see also Boon, “The United Nations as Good Samaritans,” 374–84.

35 Countries contributing military personnel were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jordan, Mexico, Nepal, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Sri Lanka, United States; countries contributing police and civilian personnel were Algeria, Benin, Brazil, Bukina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, CAR, Chad, Chile, China, Columbia, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Grenada, Guinea, India, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Madagascar, Mali, Nepal, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russian Federations, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Togo, Turkey, United States, Yemen. Uruguay.

36 GirlHub, “Using Sensemaker,” 2–3.

37 Cognitive Edge, “Sensemaker”; Senseguide, “What is Sensemaker?” slide 2.

38 Sample sizes represent the number of responses on each individual question and therefore vary across questions.

39 COMIDA refers to food.

40 DeLong, “Statistics in the Triad” parts I and II.

41 R Foundation, “R: The R Project for Statistical Computing”; DeLong, “Statistics in the Triad, part IV.”

42 Roupetz at al., “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.”

43 Nordhås and Rustad, “Sexual Exploitation and Abuse,” 522, 528–9.

44 Ibid; Karim and Beardsley, “Explaining Sexual Exploitation and Abuse,” 105–6.

45 Henry and Highgate, “Peacekeeping Power Practices,” 141–2.

46 E.g. Mudgway, “Sexual Exploitation by UN Peacekeepers,”1456, 1462.

47 UN Secretary-General, “Special Measures.”

48 McGill, “Survival Sex in Peacekeeping Economies”; Westendorf and Searle, “Sexual Exploitation,” 372, 376.

49 Jennings, “Service, Sex and Security,” 315–6; Smith, “Accountability,” 406, 413.

50 IJDH, “Briefing Note.”

51 IJDH, “Open Letter.”

52 Ibid., 1.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under Grant [AH/P008038/1].
 

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