Peacekeepers and Prostitutes

United Nations, General Assembly , Comprehensive Review of the Whole Question of Peacekeeping Operations in All Their Aspects (Prepared by Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, U.N. General Assembly Document A/59/710, March 24, 2005), http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/247/90/PDF/N0524790.pdf?OpenElement (accessed March 30, 2005).

and Colum Lynch , “U.N. Sexual Abuse Alleged in Congo,” Washington Post, December 15, 2004.

Ibid.

United Nations , Comprehensive Review,8-8.

Ibid., 10.

Ibid., 22.

See, for example Lynch, “U.N. Sexual Abuse,” note 2. Referring to an earlier “confidential U.N. draft” version of the prince’s report, Lynch wrote, “The report alleges that a Moroccan contingent stationed in Bunia threatened a U.N. informant investigating child prostitution. The Moroccan peacekeepers also ‘spread the word’ that a U.N. child-protection advocate looking into allegations of child prostitution and rape by U.N. peacekeepers ‘had better be careful when she went out at night,’ the report said.” The report cites cases in which peacekeepers from Morocco, Pakistan, and possibly, Tunisia “were reported to have paid or attempted to pay witnesses to change their testimony” regarding alleged sexual abuse. It also charges that Moroccan military officials refused “to provide the names of Moroccan soldiers present at the location of an alleged rape.”

United Nations, Press Release SG/SM/9605 AFR/1069 PKO/115, November 19, 2004, http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sgsm9605.doc.htm (accessed March 15, 2005).

United Nations , Peace and Security Section of the Department of Public Information, in cooperation with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Monthly Summary of Contributors of Military and Civilian Police Personnel, http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/contributors/ (accessed October 31, 2005).

United Nations , Comprehensive Review,7-7.

and Daniel Pallen , “Sexual Slavery in Bosnia: The Negative Externality of the Market for Peace,” Swords and Plowshares XIII, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 27-43, http://www.american.edu/sis/students/sword/Back_Issues/3.pdf (accessed March 6, 2006).

See also Ian Traynor , “Westerner Troops Fueling Kosovo Sex Trade,” Irish Times, May 7, 2004.

Graca Machel , The Impact of War on Children: A Review of Progress Since the 1996 United Nations Report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children (New York: Palgrave, 2001).

United Nations, Security Council, 3607th Meeting, S/RES/1031, December 15, 1995. Under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1031, NATO was authorized to carry out the military aspects of the Dayton Peace Agreement. A multinational force led by NATO, called the Implementation Force (IFOR), started its mission on December 20, 1995, with a one-year mandate. IFOR was succeeded by the Stabilization Force (SFOR) on December 20, 1996 (see http://www.nato.int/sfor/docu/d981116a.htm).

Ibid., 55.

Jennifer Murray , “Who Will Police the Peace-builders? The Failure to Establish Accountability for the Participation of United Nations Civilian Police in the Trafficking of Women in Post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 34, no. 475 (Spring 2003): 502-504; and sources cited there.

House Committee , The U.N. and the Sex Slave Trade in Bosnia, 68-68.

Murray, “Who Will Police the Peace-builders?” 505, note 16, citing testimony of Martina Vandenburg, House Committee, The U.N. and the Sex Slave Trade in Bosnia, 57, note 15: “United Nations Bosnia Mission officials admitted that repatriation served as the only punishment for involvement in trafficking-related misconduct. They could not point to any cases where the U.N. secretary-general had waived immunity, nor could they point to any prosecutions in home countries. In February, the United Nations reported that twelve international police officers in Bosnia were expelled or voluntarily left the country after facing allegations of involvement in trafficking.”

United Nations , Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (Secretary General’s Bulletin, ST/SGB/2003/13), http://ochaonline.un.org/GetBin.asp?DocID=1083 (accessed August 8, 2005).

Franz Cede and Lilly Sucharipa-Behrmann , eds., The United Nations, Law and Practice (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2001), 97-98.

Mission strength levels vary slightly from month to month. The United Nations Mission in the Republic of the Congo (MONUC) maintains its own Web page and reports current troop strength there on a real time basis. See http://www.monuc.org/ContribMilit.aspx?lang=en (accessed March 6, 2006).

United Nations, Mission in the Congo, http://www.monuc.org/Civpol/Strength.aspx (accessed May 25, 2005). MONUC now boasts an Office of Gender Affairs, with a staff of nine, to ensure that a gender perspective is part of the peacekeeping mission (http://www.monuc.org/Gender/Default.aspx).

See note 21 supra.

Prince Al-Hussein referred to this as “an extensive mosaic of provisions drafted at varying points in time and with varying degrees of legal force... that apply to the various categories of peacekeeping personnel.” United Nations , Comprehensive Review, 12-12.

Much of the attention is admittedly compelled by the State Department’s Annual Report on Trafficking in Persons, which assesses national efforts to combat trafficking and lists countries on a three-tier scale. “Governments of countries in Tier 3 may be subject to certain sanctions. The U.S. Government may withhold non-humanitarian, non-trade related assistance. Countries that receive no such assistance would be subject to withholding of funding for participation in educational and cultural exchange programs. Consistent with the TVPA, such governments would also face U.S. opposition to assistance (except for humanitarian, trade-related, and certain development-related assistance) from international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and multilateral development banks such as the World Bank. These potential consequences would take effect at the beginning of the next fiscal year, October 1, 2005.” State Department, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, 2005 Annual Report on Trafficking in Persons (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 2005), Introduction, http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46606.htm. Further attention is mandated by the wide acceptance of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (147 signatories) and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (117 signatories). See United Nations, Office on Drugs and Crime, Signatories to the UN Convention against Transnational Crime and its Protocols, http://www.unodc.org/unodc/crime_cicp_signatures.html (accessed March 6, 2006), for the signature and ratification status of both instruments.

United Nations , Office of Drugs and Crime , Trafficking in Human Beings, http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/trafficking_human_beings.html (accessed March 6, 2006).

Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 4, scene 3.

United Nations , Comprehensive Review, 10-10. Prince Al-Hussein called it an “environment of de facto impunity.”

United Nations , Department of Peacekeeping Operations , Model Status of Forces Agreement for Peacekeeping Operations, UN Doc. A-45/594 (October 9, 1990). See also Dieter Fleck , ed., The Handbook of the Law of Visiting Forces (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 603-603, Annex F.

Charter of the United Nations, Article 105, includes the following text: “The Organization shall enjoy in the territory of each of its Members such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the fulfillment of its purposes. Representatives of the Members of the United Nations and officials of the Organization shall similarly enjoy such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the independent exercise of their functions in connection with the Organization.”

Bruno Simma et al. , eds., The Charter of the United Nations—A Commentary, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (London: Oxford University Press, 2002) [hereinafter “Commentary”]; Department of State, “Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations,” February 13, 1946, TIAS no. 6900, 21 United States Treaties 1418, 1 U.N.T.S., 15.

United Nations , Comprehensive Review, 10-11.

United Nations , Convention on Immunities, Article IV, Section 11(a).

Simma , Commentary, 1320-1321. In addition to functional immunity, the secretary general and all under- and assistant secretaries general, together with their spouses and children, enjoy diplomatic privileges and immunities.

Ibid.

United Nations , Comprehensive Review, 11-11.

Ibid.

United Nations , Convention on Immunities, Article VI.

United Nations , Convention on Immunities, Article VI, Section 22(a).

Murray , “Who Will Police the Peace-builders?” 509-509.

See, for example, United Nations , Convention on Immunities, section 20. “Privileges and immunities are granted to officials in the interests of the United Nations and not for the personal benefit of the individuals themselves. The Secretary-General shall have the right and the duty to waive the immunity of any official in any case where, in his opinion, the immunity would impede the course of justice and can be waived without prejudice to the interests of the United Nations. In the case of the Secretary-General, the Security Council shall have the right to waive immunity.” Section 23 applies to experts on mission and provides that “privileges and immunities are granted to experts in the interests of the United Nations and not for the personal benefit of the individuals themselves. The Secretary-General shall have the right and the duty to waive the immunity of any expert in any case where, in his opinion, the immunity would impede the course of justice and it can be waived without prejudice to the interests of the United Nations.”

United Nations , Comprehensive Review, 26-27.

Ibid., 14-16.

Ibid., 27.

With forensic evidence of paternity, support obligations might be imposed on peacekeepers who father children whether or not a criminal prosecution succeeds.

See text accompanying note 22 supra.

United Nations , Comprehensive Review, 16-16.

Ibid., 17.

Murray , “Who Will Police the Peace-builders?” 24-24.

Ibid.

See, for example, United Nations , Department of Peacekeeping Operations , General Guidelines for Peacekeeping Operations (New York, 1995).

and Katherine H. S. Moon , Sex among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).

and William H. McMichael , “Fighting Sex Slavery in Korea; Joint Command Has Done Well Trying to Halt Practice of Human Trafficking, Report Says,” Navy Times, August 23, 2003, 26-26.

Remarks of Inspector General Joseph Schmitt as delivered to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Forum for Security Cooperation, “Suppressing Slavery in the 21^st Century: From Legislation to Enforcement” (Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, November 17, 2004), http://www.usosce.rpo.at/archive/2004/11/schmitz_11_26_04.pdf (accessed May 4, 2005).

Defense Department, Office of the Inspector General, Assessment of DOD Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons, Phase I—United States Forces Korea, Case Number H03L88433128, July 10, 2003, http://www.dodig.osd.mil/aim/alsd/H03L88433128PhaseI.PDF; Phase II—Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, Case Number H03L88433128, December 8, 2003, http://www.dodig.osd.mil/aim/alsd/HT-Phase_II.pdf.

Defense Department, Assessment of DOD Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons, Phase I.

Ibid.

Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Memorandum for the Secretaries of the Military Departments, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Under Secretaries of Defense, Commanders of the Combatant Commands, General Counsel of the Department of the Defense, Inspectors General of the Department of Defense, Directors of Defense Agencies, “Combatting Trafficking in Persons,” September 16, 2004, http://www.marshallcenter.org/site-graphic/lang-en/pagemc-policy-1/static/xdocs/opa/static/SD%20091604.pdf (accessed March 6, 2006).

Statement of General Leon J. Laporte, Commander, United Nations Command, Commander, Republic of Korea-United States Combined Forces Command, and Commander, US Forces Korea before the House Armed Services Committee, and Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, September 21, 2004, 5-9, http://www.defenselink.mil/dodgc/olc/docs/test04-09-21LaPorte.pdf (accessed July 21, 2005).

E-mail message from Charles M. Johnson, Action Officer, U.S. Forces Korea, Prostitution and Human Trafficking Working Group, dated November 25, 2005, in possession of author.

The White House , President Bush Addresses United Nations General Assembly, September 2003, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/09/20030923-4.html.

The White House, Executive Order: Amending Executive Order 13257 to Implement the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003, March 18, 2004, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/03/20040318-7.html. In February 2003, the president issued a Trafficking in Persons National Security Presidential Directive that reported a series of broad federal initiatives to fight human trafficking and reaffirmed American commitment to the issue. The White House, Trafficking in Persons National Security Presidential Directive, February 25, 2003, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030225.html.

Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC §801 et seq.

In Fiscal Year 2004, for example, the armed forces of the United States conducted 7,301 military courts under the Uniform Code of Military Justice: Army (2,084), Navy (1,800), Air Force (1,027), Marines (2,339), and Coast Guard (51). Department of the Navy, Office of the Judge Advocate General, Code 20 Military Justice Statistical Trend Analysis for Fiscal Year 2004, April 28, 2005, in possession of the author.

Fed. Reg. 55600, 55603-604. The proposed elements of the offense of patronizing a prostitute are as follows: “(a) That the accused had sexual intercourse with another person not the accused’s spouse; (b) That the accused compelled, induced, enticed, or procured such person to engage in such act of sexual intercourse in exchange for money or other compensation; and (c) That this act was wrongful; and (d) That, under the circumstances, the conduct of the accused was to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces or was of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.” A summary of the public comments received through January 11, 2005, is published at 70 Fed. Reg. 1877, January 11, 2005.

House Armed Services Committee and Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Statement of Charles S. Abell, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), September 21, 2004, http://armedservices.house.gov/schedules/2004.html.

Executive Order 13387-2005, Amendments to the Manual for Courts-Martial, October 18, 2005, 70 Fed. Reg. 60701.

Mendelson , Barracks and Brothels, 60-60.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization , NATO Policy Document , NATO Policy On Combating Trafficking In Human Beings, September 29, 2004, http://www.nato.int/docu/comm/2004/06-istanbul/docu-traffic.htm (accessed March 6, 2006).

Ibid., app. 1, par. 3.

Ibid., par. 5 and 6.

State Department , US, Norwegian Envoys to NATO Brief on Anti-Trafficking Policy, July 9, 2004, http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/Archive/2004/Jul/10-919759.html.

See, for example, Isabelle de Pommereau , “Rethinking the Legal Sex Trade,” Christian Science Monitor, May 11, 2005, 15-15.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO Document ON(2005)0040, April 2005, “Guidelines for NATO Staff on Preventing the Promotion and Facilitation of Trafficking in Human Beings,” Annex 1.

State Department , US, Norwegian Envoys, statement of Ambassador Nicholas Burns, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, July 9, 2004.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Code of Conduct prohibits the purchase of sexual services and relations that might otherwise weaken confidence in the impartiality of the force. Norwegian military personnel who violate the code are subject to punishment. E-mail message from Brita Schawlann, Senior Advisor, Norwegian Defense Ministry, dated January 13, 2006.

Lithuanian Defense Vice-Minister Jonas Gecas has indicated that Lithuanian troops using sex services of women involved in prostitution cannot be prosecuted but that they face “moral and disciplinary assessment.” Baltic News Service, “Lithuanian Army will not Tolerate Promotion of Sex Slavery by Troops-Defense Vice Minister,” July 28, 2004.

s.v. “Tourism in the Netherlands,” http://explanationguide.info/meaning/Tourism-in-the-Netherlands.html (prostitution legalized October 1, 2000).

North Atlantic Treaty Organization , NATO Policy, app. I, par. 12.

Michael Noone , “The US Approach to Combating Trafficking in Women: Prosecuting Military Customers. Could It Be Exported?” Connections, The Quarterly Journal IV, no. 4 (Winter 2005): 81-90.

Ibid.