Challenges for Female Peacekeepers Can Come from within UN Militaries

May 21, 2019 | Vanessa Newby
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On 6 March 2019, Arizona Senator Martha McSally gave testimony at an armed services committee hearing that she had been raped by a senior officer while serving in the US Air Force. She said that she did not report it at the time for fear of retribution. While the sexual abuse of women by peacekeepers in host countries has generated significant policy changes in UN peacekeeping, sexual abuse within missions remains a little-discussed issue. It’s one of several problems faced by female peacekeepers that come from the peace operations themselves, and not from the challenging environments in which they work.