"Justice Must be Done": Legal Engagements and Gendered Harms Following Peacekeeper Perpetrated Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Attention to peacekeeper-perpetrated sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) has developed importantly in recent years. However, there remains a dearth of empirical research bringing forward perspectives of those directly affected by this form of sexual violence. This dissertation uncovers the experiences and needs of survivors of SEA in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, contributing to improved understanding of how women experienced gendered harms, represent their needs, and explain their conceptions of justice following SEA. I compared these priorities to official UN accountability approaches and supports, contextualizing both within a highly militarized and legally plural context complicated by ongoing conflict and deep structural violence.

Sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated by peacekeepers complicates distinctions between atrocity, and ‘everyday’ injustices. My research has uncovered instances of ‘SEA’ that do not neatly distinguish it from conflict-related sexual violence in perpetration or impact. Community participants insisted on linkages between structural violence, sexual violence by state and non-state armed groups, and sexual abuses perpetrated by peacekeepers. ‘SEA’ is, however, typically relegated to a low rung on international actors’ hierarchies of harm that prioritize weaponized rape by state and non-state armed groups. ‘SEA’ operates in a liminal zone between war and peace, with jurisdictional challenges often preventing legal accountability.

Analysis of survey and interview data, collected from six communities in eastern DRC, revealed high material needs of SEA survivors, barriers to effective reporting, and a lack of systematic support or investigations into SEA. No woman in this research achieved a formal legal response and legal mechanisms are made inaccessible in cases of SEA. This represents a recession of law and reveals a serious SEA accountability gap. Beyond technical issues of implementation, my analysis further revealed an important disconnect between what survivors of SEA want and need and what the UN currently offers. Their experiences reveal deeply gendered conceptions of harm that are not legible within current UN approaches to SEA.

I argue for contextualization of SEA as perpetrated in structurally violent contexts and for understanding SEA as occurring on a continuum of sexual violence within conflict. Serious revision of current approaches to redressing SEA are necessary to achieve a rights-based response that meets survivors’ needs and secure justice following peacekeeper perpetrated SEA.