‘It’s Not a Gift When It Comes with Price’: A Qualitative Study of Transactional Sex between UN Peacekeepers and Haitian Citizens

‘They Were Going to the Beach, Acting like Tourists, Drinking, Chasing Girls’: A Mixed-Methods Study on Community Perceptions of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN Peacekeepers in Haiti

“…Acknowledging the peacekeeping economy in Haiti, which has been previously described (Vahedi, Bartels, and Lee 2019;Kolbe 2015), this participant pointed out that salaries paid by MINUSTAH were double that paid by many other local employers, thus making MINUSTAH jobs financially attractive. However, not only does this employment put women/girls at risk of SEA but it does so under circumstances that diminish mechanisms for recourse, given the informal nature of many of the jobs.…”

“…Throughout its 13-year history, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), historically one of the most controversial PSO, was marred by allegations of wrongdoings, both by peacekeepers themselves and the institutions monitoring their practices. For instance, MINUSTAH personnel (uniformed and non-uniformed) have been linked to a variety of human rights abuses, including sexual exploitation and rape (Yearman 2007), as well as offering minors food and small amounts of cash in exchange for sex (BBC News 2006;Kolbe 2015). Often, reports were not investigated thoroughly, and even where allegations were substantiated, little action was taken to deliver justice for victims.…”

Transactional Sex among Young Women in Post-Earthquake Haiti: Prevalence and Vulnerability to HIV

“…Despite the multiple links with HIV, TS remains a poorly understood and understudied topic in Haiti. Only a few studies have investigated this phenomenon in the Haitian context and none focused specifically on youth (Kolbe, 2015;UNAIDS, 2011). Given the high prevalence of HIV among young women and the persistence of high risk sexual practices in the context of chronic poverty; Haiti is a logical place to explore the dynamics of these relationships including the motivation and the social, cultural and economic factors that lead young people to engage in this practice.…”

“…al., 2011;Severe et al, 2014;Kolbe, 2015, UN, 2011. TS elevates women's exposure to HIV because it may involve multiple sexual partners, low or no condom use, intimate partner violence, and reduced ability to negotiate safer sex practices.…”

Looking beyond conflict: the long-term impact of suffering war crimes on recovery in post-conflict northern Uganda

“…For instance, Agiresaasi (2012) reported that desperation in post-conflict northern Uganda pushed girls returning from the LRA into transactional sex, and Atwood et al (2011) found that many young girls in Liberia engaged sex in exchange for money after the civil war. Similarly, in Haiti, women in desperate economic situations had sex with UN Peace Keepers in exchange for food, employment or other material assistance (Kolbe, 2015), and the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo forced women to take on the role of providing for their families, sometimes through transactional sex (Maclin et al, 2015).…”