Prosecution as Prevention? A study of the ‘End Impunity’ narrative in the UN’s fight against conflict- related sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Sofia Kahma Uppsala University, Department of Government Bachelor’s Thesis, Spring 2021 Supervisor: Johanna Söderström Word Count: 12 862 Pages: 41 1 Abstract This thesis explores the underlying assumptions guiding the United Nations’ activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with regard to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). The purpose is to reveal how the organization’s ‘End Impunity’ narrative represents the problem of CRSV and to analyze the ideational premises that legitimize the solution of increased accountability and prosecution. This thesis conducts a qualitative discourse analysis inspired by the ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be’ approach to analyze the implicit content of the narrative’s key policy texts. The results show that the narrative problematizes the inability of the Congolese judiciary to prosecute perpetrators, the disregard of legislation prohibiting sexual violence and the lack of justice provided to survivors of these crimes. These problematizations are reliant on assumptions of the rationality of perpetrators of sexual violence, as well as the universality of the Western human rights norm and ‘modern’ institutions. The findings suggest that the UN represents the problem of CRSV to be a problem of law and weak legal institutions in the DRC. Whilst this could be contingent on the ‘collapsed nature’ of the Congolese state, this thesis argues that as the DRC is a central case in the UN’s efforts to fight CRSV, the results of the analysis can be applied to the wider population of countries affected by conflict and sexual violence. Key words: Conflict-related sexual violence • United Nations • End Impunity • Democratic Republic of the Congo • Problem representation 2 List of Abbreviations CRSV = Conflict-related sexual violence DRC = Democratic Republic of the Congo MONUSCO = Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en République Démocratique du Congo (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo) OSRSG-SVC = Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict SG = Secretary-General ROL = Rule of Law UN = United Nations UNSC = United Nations Security Council WPR = What’s the Problem Represented to be 3 Table of Contents List of Abbreviations .............................................................................................................................................. 3 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1. Research Aim and Question .................................................................................................................. 6 2. Previous Research and Contextualization .................................................................................................. 8 2.1. Sexual Violence in the DRC .................................................................................................................. 8 2.2. End Impunity! ........................................................................................................................................ 9 2.3. Impunity and Rule of Law ................................................................................................................... 10 2.4. MONUSCO – Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en République Démocratique du Congo .................................................................................................................................... 10 3. Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................................................. 12 3.1. Poststructuralism ................................................................................................................................ 12 3.2. What’s the Problem Represented to Be? ............................................................................................. 12 3.2.1. Problem Representation ................................................................................................................. 13 4. Methodology and Material ......................................................................................................................... 14 4.1. Design – why the DRC? ...................................................................................................................... 14 4.2. Method ................................................................................................................................................. 15 4.3. Material ............................................................................................................................................... 16 4.4. Critical Reflection: Validity, Reliability and Reflexivity ..................................................................... 18 5. Results and Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 20 5.1. Problem Representation ...................................................................................................................... 20 5.1.1. Problem of Enforcement ................................................................................................................. 20 5.1.2. Problem with Compliance .............................................................................................................. 21 5.1.3. Problem of Reparations .................................................................................................................. 23 5.2. Underlying Assumptions ..................................................................................................................... 24 5.2.1. Capacity-Building and Formal Institutions ................................................................................... 24 5.2.2. Rational Actors and Strategic Targets? ......................................................................................... 25 5.2.3. Universality of Human Rights ........................................................................................................ 26 5.2.4. Survivors’ Justice? ......................................................................................................................... 27 5.3. Silences ................................................................................................................................................ 28 5.4. Discussion ........................................................................................................................................... 30 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 32 7. References .................................................................................................................................................... 35 8. Appendix 1 ................................................................................................................................................... 39 9. Appendix 2 ................................................................................................................................................... 40 4 1. Introduction In recent years, the international community has increasingly recognized conflict-related sexual violence as a tactic of war “that is preventable and punishable” (Guterres, 2020: 2). 2019 saw the first conviction of crimes of rape and sexual slavery as the former member of the Congolese and Rwandan armed forces, Bosco Ntaganda, was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity (ICC, 2021). The United Nations welcomed the sentencing and called it a “powerful message that perpetrators of atrocity crimes […] will be held accountable sooner or later” (OSRSG-SVC, 2019a: n.p.). The conviction of Ntaganda is considered a victory in the fight against CRSV and an important step towards bringing justice to its survivors. Prosecuting perpetrators of sexual violence has become a cornerstone of the UN’s effort to prevent and eliminate CRSV (Houge & Lohne, 2017) and the organization has mobilized a global operation to improve the rule of law in conflict-affected areas to this end (UN Peacekeeping, n.d.). This campaign is often summarized under the mantra of ‘ending impunity’, and whilst it is not an official strategic objective of the UN, scholars argue that it is the main avenue through which the organization fights CRSV (Houge & Lohne, 2017; Reilly, 2018). This mantra is here described as and understood to be a narrative as this is the word used to describe it in previous research, yet it should be noted that the UN has not formerly defined it as such. The ‘End Impunity’ narrative presents criminal accountability as the solution to CRSV and the prosecution of its perpetrators as the preferred method of preventing its continued practice (Houge & Lohne, 2017). Given the international influence of the UN with respect to questions of peace and security, the narrative used by the organization can be considered the cardinal framework of CRSV prevention worldwide (ibid). As stated by the former UN Special Representative on Sexual