As respostas da ONU aos casos de abuso e exploração sexual cometidos pelos “capacetes azuis” nas operações de paz

Abstract

After the end of the Cold War, new conflicts broke in the international system, and the United Nations, as a way to respond to these demands, modified the mandates of its peacekeeping operations, turning them more complex and multidimensional. In these new operations, the number of troops – and its contact with the local population – increased and, accordingly, the cases of sexual misconduct became manifold. The first complaints occurred back in the 1990’s, right after the media leaking of images portraying peacekeeping operation soldiers practicing sexual violence in Somalia. Nevertheless, these cases only received substantial attention in 2002, as a result of a report made by UNHCR alongside the non-governmental organization Save the Children, as well as in 2004 with the complaints regarding cases of sexual violence that occurred in the United Nations Organization Mission in Congo (MONUC). During these 14 years, the United Nations broke the silence regarding the reports to make use of a more proactive posture. The following work aims to present a record of the answers given by the UN to these cases of sexual violence from 1990 to 2010. In this regard, due to the attention given to the MONUC mission, we’ll present it separately from the other cases, with the purpose of giving a better understating of it.