United Nations peacekeeping has been distinguished as a bringer of peace and stability to
countries plagued by war and insecurity. However, reports since the 1990s of sexual
exploitations by peacekeeping personnel have tainted these accomplishments. At the same
time as these reports started to surface there was an internal development within the UN
where the security discourse went from being state focused to being focused on securing the
population’s security and health. This new trend was established in the United Nations
Development Programme in 1994 as Human Security and laid the ground for the structure of
the peacekeeping operations. This study asks the question how these exploits can occur in a
discursive context where the population’s welfare and health is the reference of intervention.
By examining the following representative cases: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
and the Central African Republic (CAR), it can be seen how human security expresses a
discursive reproduction of two different kinds of power: biopower and sovereign power.
Through an analysis of the discourse in documents relating to the interventions it can be seen
how these expressions of power creates a contextual environment where the sexual
exploitations can take place.
2017. , p. 47
biopower, sovereign power, Homo Sacer, bare life, human security, discourse analysis, sexual exploitations, United Nations