Women in blue helmets
By Gerard DeGroot

May 11, 2008 – (Guardian Newsblog) During the UN operation in Somalia, local women who ventured outside the refugee camps to collect firewood were frequently raped by peacekeepers. In Cambodia, the prostitute population of Phnom Penh increased from 6,000 to 25,000 while the UN was present. Elsewhere, UN soldiers have been known to establish their own prostitution rackets. When these problems have been brought to the notice of the UN leadership, complaints have often been fobbed off with the excuse that "boys will be boys".

Clearly, putting on a blue helmet does not transform a soldier into a saint. The atrocities that one usually associates with war are too often found in operations dedicated to peace.

Dag Hammarskjöld, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and second secretary-general of the UN, once said that "peacekeeping is too important to be undertaken by soldiers". But, he added, "soldiers are the only ones who can do it". Unfortunately, few soldiers are given the training to transform themselves into effective peacekeepers.

The solution might lie with a few good women. Female soldiers can improve the effectiveness of operations for the simple reason that they are not men. Perception is crucial here. In other words, the way peacekeepers behave is important, but so too is the way they are expected to behave by the local population. Thus, the presence of a man can be provocative, even if that man has no intention to provoke. On the other hand, a woman tends to calm stressful situations because she is expected to be peaceful.

Even a token woman can have an enormous impact. In December 2003, the Dallas Morning News reported on the peculiar success of Dutch troops in Najaf - in contrast to American units in Baghdad. "Dutch troops," according to the newspaper, "always take a woman along while conducting house-to-house searches. She ensures that troops respect local customs regarding male-female contact. As a result, local Iraqis are comfortable with the Dutch ... even as they resent American soldiers."

Female soldiers have an additional benefit, namely in reducing the incidence of gender-based violence. A 1995 study for the UN Division for the Advancement of Women found that the incidence of rape and prostitution falls significantly with just a token female presence. Stated simply, men behave better when in the presence of women from their own culture.

I'm not arguing that women make better peacekeepers than men. Highly-trained male combat soldiers will always be necessary, particularly in the early stages of deployment. What the evidence does suggest, however, is that the presence of women improves an operation's chances of success. A better gender balance means that the operation more closely resembles civilian society. Its members are therefore more likely to observe social conventions that define civilised behaviour.

The male-dominated UN has been resistant to the sort of reforms a more gender-sensitive approach implies. The reason invariably given is that women's issues must take second place to matters of security. But this is not just a case of being nice to women. It is a matter of building a lasting peace.

From:http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/gerard_degroot_/2008/05/women_in_blue_helmets.html