All-Female UN Peacekeeping Unit

In an “unprecedented” move, the United Nations has decided to deploy an all-female peacekeeping unit in October. While women have been included in peacekeeping contingents in the past, this marks a new phase in UN peacekeeping. The Formed Police Unit (FPU), which will be deployed in Liberia, will consist of 125 Indian women picked from the country’s paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force. These women are specially trained in crowd control and insurgency reaction, having worked in India’s flashpoints of conflict, making them more effective than a regular police force. They will be expected to help build police capacity through training of local officers as well as serving as role models for the female population of Liberia. Further, the UN contends that the all-female unit will provide access to vulnerable populations.

One question this raises is how much this unit is a response to serious allegations of abuse and sexual misconduct by other UN peacekeeping missions in the Congo and elsewhere, where peacekeepers have been investigated for everything from rape to trafficking. By increasing the deployment of women in UN police contingencies above the current 3 or 4 per cent, the gender diversity may impact a significant problem within UN peacekeeping. Even with a previous concerted effort, the UN has failed to eliminate sexual misconduct. To read more about the UN efforts to eliminate sexual abuse in peacekeeping missions, read the UN's Septemeber 1, 2006 press release.