Peacekeeper-fathered children in Haiti and DRC - a comparative analysis

Although the issue of ‘peace babies’, children fathered by UN peacekeeping personnel and born to local mothers, was raised in 2005 in the Zeid Report,1 the UN, member states, and indeed academia, have all but ignored the need to understand and address issues concerning women who bear and raise ‘peace babies’. The majority of ‘peace babies’ live in Official Development Assistance (ODA) recipient countries, and obstacles to their integration into volatile post-conflict societies have been identified as an impediment to sustainable peace. The proposed PhD project will explore comparatively the situation of peace babies and their mothers in two significant host countries, Haiti and the DRC, which share the experience of long-term hosting of peace support operations (PSOs), but which otherwise provide different PSO settings (geography, size, provenance of troop contributing countries, political systems, length of stay and mobility of PSOs etc), allowing meaningful comparison of both the UN and peacekeeping policy perspective as well as the perspectives of the local populations.

Peacekeepers are increasingly associated with sexual exploitation and abuse of the vulnerable populations they are mandated to protect. Missions have been tarnished by reports of rape, forced prostitution and other forms of sexual abuse in a variety of countries including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, DRC, Haiti, Liberia and Sierra Leone or the Central African Republic. Of course, consensual relationships also occur between peacekeeping personnel and locals. Many of the intimate relations, of both a voluntary and exploitative nature, have led to pregnancies and to children being born. These so- called ’peace babies’ and their mothers face particular challenges in volatile post-conflict communities, ranging from stigmatization to psychological issues to disproportionate economic and social hardships.

The project will use the history and contemporary realities of the particular situation of ’peace babies’ conceived by personnel from or associated with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and in the DRC (MONUSCO) as a lens through which to consider wider issues of accountability of the UN for its peacekeeping mission. From their early days, MINUSTAH and MONUSCO have been associated with allegations of sexual abuse and an unintended legacy of children fathered by UN personnel. However, there is currently no reliable data about the welfare of children fathered by UN peacekeepers, and the very few existing UN policies and support programs are woefully inadequate.

PhD candidate specification:
The PhD candidate will have an undergraduate degree of at least upper second class standard as well as a Masters degree. At least one of these will normally be in history, social or political sciences or a cognate discipline. By the time of the fieldwork, the student will have to be able to work effectively in a country context where – apart from the local languages – the predominant working language is French. Therefore, a working knowledge of French at the time of application is an advantage. The candidate will have to be prepared to carry out fieldwork in Haiti and the DRC. Experience of living or working in an ODA recipient country is welcome. Experience of volunteering or work in the third sector, especially in the NGO sector, is welcome.

For more details on the scholarship, please visit our University webpage: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/postgraduate/pgr/global-challenges-scholarship.aspx