| Abstract: Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) is one of the most depraved crimes against humanity.
When carried out by peacekeepers and humanitarian aid workers, it depicts a catastrophic failure of
protection bringing harm to the very people the United Nations and international organizations vow to
protect. This paper has highlighted the various allegations and incidents of SEA repeatedly happening
in conflict-affected countries. Allegations of SEA have since surfaced related to operations in Bosnia,
Cambodia, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kosovo, Cote d'Ivoire, Haiti, Sudan, Guinea and the
Democratic Republic of Congo. The symptoms of abuse survivors generally resemble those of PostTraumatic Stress Disorder, and SEA has significant health consequences and poses a severe threat to
public health advancement. Based on the literature review, we propose that international and
humanitarian organizations must ensure that these offences do not happen in the future by taking
appropriate measures. These organizations must prioritize rigorous training on gender equality and
values and include a basic mandatory test on gender equality before joining humanitarian missions.
Since humanitarian diplomacy encompasses actions carried out by the humanitarian organizations to
acquire space from military and political authorities within to function with integrity, we emphasize
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that strengthening humanitarian diplomacy can play a pivotal role to train the humanitarian workforce
on best practices to reduce SEA. Besides, we further propose that women should be allowed to lead
from the front; otherwise, true gender equality and issues relevant to gender, including SEA, will be
challenging to attain |