Assessment of the impact of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations on gender-based violence in Liberia Conflict

Abstract

The paper to assessed the impact of the United Nations peacekeeping operations on gender-based violence in Liberia. Historically, the UN has embarked thirty-three (33) peacekeeping operations from 1948 to 2009 with about twenty-five (25) of such operations in Africa. This shows that Africa remains a vital case study for the evaluation of the United Nations peacekeeping operations. The study is anchored on ABC Triangle and Hour Glass analytical tools to clearly understand the issues around gender-based violence during the Second Liberian Civil War despite the presence of United Nations peacekeeping operations. Data from secondary sources were analysed using relational-content analysis. Findings reveal, among other things, that the UN peacekeeping operations have negligible impact on reduction of gender-based violence in Liberia. Among other things, it is recommended that to mitigate the likely adverse impact of the United Nations peacekeeping operations on gender-based violence in Liberia, the United Nations should increase the quality and number of troops contributed to UN peacekeeping operations.