Camilla Barker (DPhil - PIL) works with UN Mission in Liberia to combat child abuse in peacekeeping
Thanks to generous funding from the British Academy, Camilla Barker (DPhil in Law) has been working with child safeguarding organisation, Keeping Children Safe, and the School of Law, University of Reading, to combat the sexual exploitation and abuse of children in peacekeeping operations.
In September 2017, Camilla visited the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) Headquarters as well as other children’s agencies and organisations in Monrovia, Liberia, with Sarah Blakemore, Director of Keeping Children Safe. The aim of the trip was to engage with key stakeholders to better understand how SEA occurs in peacekeeping contexts and how allegations are handled at the local, national, and international levels, such that new measures can be formulated to help improve accountability.
The research fed into a wider project on sexual violence in peacekeeping, led by Professor Rosa Freedman at the University of Reading. Ms. Blakemore and Prof. Freedman presented the research findings at a panel event at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London in November 2017, and a report on the work - authored by all three in the research team - was published in December 2017.