The British military has introduced a blanket ban on personnel paying prostitutes for sex while stationed abroad to crack down on unacceptable sexual behavior in the armed forces.
A new defense strategy called “zero tolerance for sexual abuse” was drawn up after a scathing parliamentary report on sexual harassment in the armed forces and reports on the behavior of British soldiers during training in places like Kenya.
The move, which will apply equally to all three branches of the military, comes as the Department of Defense seeks to encourage more women to enlist.
The policy aims to tackle sexual activity by British military personnel abusing their position of power while on duty abroad, with a zero-tolerance attitude ensuring every single allegation of sexual exploitation is dealt with.
Those believed to have engaged in the abusive behavior the mod calls “transactional sex” must be fired.
They could also be prosecuted if the country where the crime was committed criminalized the conduct.
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has issued a blanket ban on British military personnel paying for sex abroad in a bid to encourage more women to join the armed forces
Under new rules, British military personnel will be fired and potentially prosecuted if they are found to have engaged in “transactional sex” while stationed abroad
The new policy will replace a patchwork of overlapping and undercutting rules currently in place in the military.
According to Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace, the developments have been driven by a gradual change in social attitudes towards sexually inappropriate behavior across society.
At the Farnborough Airshow, Wallace said he could not immediately explain why the directive had taken so many years to implement.
‘Don’t ask me, I’m the secretary of defense who’s in charge now and life goes on. It’s a different generation. I was in the army in Germany in 1991 and things are different,” he said.
“You know, we want more and more women to be in our armed forces, we have to take into account all that means in different environments and we have to set parameters for those environments and be very clear about what’s acceptable.”
A related policy provides a similar zero-tolerance approach to any unacceptable sexual conduct.
Rose Wanjia holds a photo of her sister Agnes Wanjiru, who was allegedly killed by a British soldier in Kenya in 2012
Kenyan sex workers hold placards and shout slogans in the streets during a protest against the killing and harassment of their colleagues in recent years by their clients, who claim the majority of their clients are British soldiers
Greater emphasis is placed on victim support, with similar punishment of dismissal from service as for those found guilty of sexually inappropriate conduct.
The Department of Defense will offer a new strategy to “Respond to Defense Sex Offenses” aimed at helping victims and fighting sex crimes.
The new strategy is likely motivated by a parliamentary report released a year ago that condemned the Defense Department for failing to protect servicewomen from bullying, harassment and sexual assault within the military.
The Defense Subcommittee’s report on women in the armed forces found that of those surveyed, 64 percent of female veterans and 58 percent of women serving in the armed forces experienced bullying, discrimination and harassment throughout their careers.
The new ban on prostitution does not apply within the UK, where national law takes precedence.
The behavior of British soldiers abroad has recently come under scrutiny after members of a regiment reportedly knew that one of their comrades had killed a young Kenyan woman, Agnes Wanjiru, who was working as a prostitute in 2012.
The case revealed that British soldiers in the East African country regularly visited sex workers who depended on the income to support their families, which is illegal.
Two years ago, soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment’s battle group, were locked in their barracks in Kenya after up to 100 sought medical advice after visiting makeshift brothels that had been set up near their base.
