Safeguarding Sex: The Technopolitics of Humanitarian Genomic Accountability

Abstract

This paper is about the intersection of technological utopianism with the safeguarding rush in international aid and the DNA imaginations that it has given rise to. It explores the implications of the centering of DNA technology in efforts to prevent and punish sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers and asks what types of accountability DNA approaches yield. The article examines the discursive power of DNA imaginaries in shaping the politics and practice of safeguarding in the humanitarian sector. We consider the type of solutionism at play in the technological imaginary of consumer genomics as an appropriate mode of “catching” sexual predators among aid workers, as well as to the political interests in getting safeguarding “implemented” as rapidly (and simply) as possible. We argue that there are significant implications emerging from how the “turn to DNA” ties genetic and racialized biosurveillance to humanitarian accountability. This concerns how the humanitarian system thinks about consent and coercion and about children’s rights and bodily integrity. Moreover, we argue that drawing from the current moral crisis of safeguarding in aid, the project itself exemplifies how a discursive (white) genetic nationalism was able to shore up considerable political support and financial resources from Australian and UK political actors with little critical attention.