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Acting with Impunity: A Three-Part Series on Peacekeepers’ Involvement in Trafficking in Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Part 1 of 3)
by Pauline White

Although the mission of peacekeeping operations is to rebuild state institutions in the aftermath of war and the breakdown of social structures, various characteristics of peacekeeping missions have allowed for trafficking in women to not only exist, but flourish, in post-war states. In this series, I analyze the role that civilian police have played in trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first installment addresses how peacekeeping missions have changed since the end of the Cold War using the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina as an example of this shift. The second installment examines trafficking in women both in general and in the specific case of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Peacekeeper involvement in trafficking will be explored in this section. The third and final installment discusses the gendered implications of trafficking in women and how trafficking in women in Bosnia and Herzegovina could have been predicted and thus avoided. This section calls for a clear gender perspective in peace negotiations and in peacekeeper training in order to reduce the demand for trafficked women.

With the end of the Cold War, United Nations (U.N.) peacekeeping missions have become more prevalent ¹ and traditional peacekeeping has often been transformed into a new form of involvement, peace-building.² These missions, unlike traditional forms of peacekeeping, involve the rebuilding of various state institutions, necessitating the participation of U.N. civilian police officers and relief workers in the rebuilding process. At the same time, the end of the Cold War brought economic and social change in Central and Eastern Europe leading to the increased vulnerability of women to trafficking from this region. The presence of foreign troops and international organizations in post-conflict countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, has heightened demand for sexual services, leading to the importation of trafficked women into these areas. Peacekeeping personnel, including civilian police recruited to rebuild judicial and law enforcement systems, have been accused of various human rights abuses centered on trafficking in women. These activities range from frequenting brothels in which women are held in slavery-like conditions, selling and buying women, and working with organized crime bodies to recruit and facilitate the movement of trafficked victims.³

Although the U.N. Charter did not envision peacekeeping as part of the U.N.’s duties, peacekeeping itself “can rightly be called the invention of the United Nations.” ⁴ Peacekeeping developed out of necessity in dealing with conflict during the Cold War period.⁵ Since 1989 and the subsequent end to the Cold War a few years later, however, peacekeeping has evolved from its traditional military focused function of overseeing ceasefires and separating warring parties to its more modern inception where military and civilian personnel work together in order to demobilize military, assist in rebuilding state infrastructure, train local police, and repatriate and assist internally displaced persons and refugees.⁶ These traditional forms of peacekeeping treated the symptoms and not the source of conflict, leading to sustained peacekeeping efforts lasting sometimes as long as fifty years.⁷ Because the U.N. does not have its own peacekeeping forces, it relies on individual nations to supply participants for these missions. In order to fulfill their peacekeeping duties in the face of financial and institutional constraints, some countries, including the U.S., have outsourced these duties to privatized military firms (PMFs).⁸ PMFs are part of a new international industry composed of private firms that sell military services.

The U.N. mission in Bosnia illustrates the clear progression from traditional peacekeeping to more modern peace-building. The United Nations operation in Bosnia first began in February of 1992, following the traditional model of peacekeeping. The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) stationed in the area was given the mandate to oversee the cessation of hostilities and monitor demilitarized zones. The UNPROFOR mandate was strengthened and enlarged over the course of the next few years to include delivery of humanitarian aid via the Sarajevo airport, monitoring of ‘no-fly zones’ and ‘safe areas.’ The Security Council also authorized the use of force in order to insure the delivery of humanitarian aid.⁹

In November of 1995 a peace agreement was brokered between the warring parties.¹⁰ Part of the peace agreement, the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (GFA), commonly referred to as the Dayton Peace Agreement, called for the establishment of the U.N. Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) in order to oversee the implementation of peace-building in the area. The UNMIBH was composed of several divisions: the International Police Task Force (IPTF), a human rights division, a civil affairs unit, and a division that assessed the condition of the Bosnian judiciary system.¹¹ Under Annex 11, the International Police Task Force (IPTF) worked to train local law enforcement personnel as well as advise government officials in order to further the democratization process.¹² The IPTF’s priority was to work with local law enforcement to create a new police force that would protect all individuals in the community without prejudice or participation in human rights abuses.¹³ Many problems occurred, however, that hampered the fulfillment of the IPTF mandate. After three months, the U.N. had been able to field less than half of the pledged officers because member countries were not sending their quota of individuals or were sending individuals that were simply unqualified.¹⁴ In addition, about half of the international police stationed in Bosnia were working in Sarajevo, leading to complaints from other regions that their needs were not being met.¹⁵ In areas were IPTF members were working, individuals were accused of acting without sensitivity to Bosnian culture and the Bosnian legal system, as well as doing little to curtail the continued human rights abuses by the local police.¹⁶ Some IPTF members were even accused of involvement in human rights abuses themselves, including trafficking in women.

The second installment of this series, which will be in the next issue, will focus on trafficking in women with specific emphasis on peacekeeper involvement in trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Pauline White received her master’s degree in social science with a concentration in human rights from the University of Chicago and her bachelor’s degree in international relations from Wellesley College. She became interested in the international trafficking of women while working as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in Salinas, California. The subject then became the focus of her graduate studies at The University of Chicago. Pauline is currently the grants manager at The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio, a foundation working to create social change for women and girls. She can be reached via email at pauline@alum.wellesley.edu.

Notes

1. There have been fifty-seven peacekeeping operations since 1948, only thirteen of which occurred between 1945 and 1987. United Nations, United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Background Note, ONLINE (April 4, 2004, United Nations) Available: http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/home.shtml [May 16, 2004] and United Nations, An Agenda for Peace: Preventative Diplomacy, Peacemaking and Peace-keeping, Report of the Secretary-General Pursuant to the Statement Adopted by the Summit Meeting of the Security Council on Jan. 31, 1992, U.N. GAOR, 47th Session, U.N. Doc. A/47/277-S/24111(1992) par 47.
2. Peace-building is “a term of more recent origin that…defines activities undertaken on the far side of conflict to reassemble the foundations of peace and provide the tools for building on those foundations something that is more than just the absence of war..includ[ing] but…not limited to reintegrating former combatants into civilian society; strengthening the rule of law; improving respect for human rights through monitoring, education, and investigation of past and existing abuses; providing technical assistance for democratic development; and promoting conflict resolution and reconciliation techniques.” United Nations. Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations. U.N. GAOR, 55th Session. U.N. Doc. A/55/305-S/2000/809 (2000) [Brahimi Report] Par 13.
3. Jennifer Murray, Note: “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 475(2003): 477.
4. Agenda for Peace, Par 46.
5. Roy S. Lee, “Peacekeeping, Peacemaking, & Peacebuilding: The Role of the United
6. Nations in Global Conflict: The Historical Evolution of the United Nations in Global Conflict: Creating, Defining, & Expanding the Role of the United Nations: United Nations Peacekeeping: Development and Prospects,” Cornell International Law Journal 619(1995): 620.
7. Brahimi Report, par 12; Lee, 624; Elisabeth Rehn and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, United Nations Development Fund for Women, Women, War, and Peace: The Independent Experts’ Assessment on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women’s Role in Peace-building (2002) [Online Report]; Available from UNIFEM <http://www.unifem.org > (accessed May 16, 2004) 62.
   Brahimi Report, par 17.
8. P.W. Singer, “Corporate Warriors: The Rise and Ramifications of the Privatized Military Industry,” International Security Winter (2001-02) 186.
9. Murray, 485.
10. Murray, 485; Cynthia Cockburn and Dubravka Zarkov, The Postwar Moment: Militaries, Masculinities and International Peacekeeping (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2002) 15.
11. Murray, 486.
12. Human Rights Watch, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Beyond Restraint. Volume 10 (No. 5)
13. June 1998 [Online Report]; Available from Human Rights Watch < http://www.hrw.org/reports98/bosnia/> (accessed May 16, 2004).
14. Human Rights Watch, Beyond Restraint.
15. Barbara Crossette, “United Nations Members Slow to Send Bosnia Police,” New York Times (Mar. 21, 1996) at A11.
16. Crosette, U.N. Members Slow to Send Bosnia Police.
    Murray, 487.

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