Title: Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN Peacekeeping Personnel
Description: Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeepers is a prevalent issue within UN peacekeeping missions. As of January 2015, the UN Misconduct Tracking System (MTS) began recording the nationalities of alleged SEA perpetrators. This thesis fills the gap in literature and analyzes the relationship between the nationalities of uniformed personnel from troop contributing countries (TCCs) and their subsequent SEA perpetration; furthermore, whether or not there are other factors within the TCCs, such as societal norms of gender inequality, underreporting of sexual violence and attitudes of impunity, that help explicate the variation in SEA are explored. The findings yielded alarming proportions for certain nationalities perpetrating SEA and found that TCCs were responsible for the majority of overall SEA perpetrated (from the data available); this research shows that both developing and developed countries are perpetrators of SEA and that their actions are detrimental to the UN’s broader gender-equality and peacebuilding goals.

Furthermore, knowing the nationalities and the rates at which countries perpetrate SEA complicates the UN’s relationship with these TCCs, as these TCCs are in violation of international human rights norms.