Violence Against Women, Sex Industry and The Business of United Nations Peace Operations

Abstract

When the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 in October 2000, the relationship of peace and security with gender effectively and decisively became the subject matter of international relations. How this relationship became real and significant as well as the form it has taken within the structure of United Nations Peace Operations. When conflicts had changed its form and targeted more on women, using Violence Against Women (VAW) as a weapon of war, when it comes to the post war time, VAW was not limited only an act of war criminals but the "heroes" coming to the operating country with the "blue helmet" banners.

In this article, I argue that international peace and security cannot be attained without gender justice and women b human rights. It is thus crucial how the main peacekeeping and development agencies and actors, especially the United Nations, can socially construct a rights-based approach giving attention to VA W in the framework of women S human rights. The selected cases of UNTAC in Cambodia and UNTAET in East Timor show United Nations' experiences and how learning from those experiences has helped in the process of socially constructing the rights-based approach to be included in peace operations. Base on this argument, the article is divided into 5 sections ( I ) article overview (2) Peacekeeping forces, militarized values and sexual violation (3) VAW in the militarized culture of peacekeeping forces (4) Prostitution and peacekeeping (5) Concluding Points and Recommendation.

The literature, information and arguments presented in the article are presented as possible explanations and analysis on the consequences o f the UN Peace Operations in relation to VA W in order to seek for constructive recommendation at structural level rather criticizing for the past misconducts.