Protection of Civilians in UN Peace Operations:A Functional Approach from Mandates to Realities

Abstract

Civilian protection as a mainstay of United Nations peace operations is an outcome of the failures in Rwanda, Bosnia and Timor-Leste and codified in Security Council Resolution 1265 (1999). This paper draws the thread of armed conflict from states to asymmetrical and urbanized warfare, in which civilians have come to constitute the proportionate majority of the killed. It analyzes the adaptation of peacekeeping mandates by the UN, the mainstreaming of humanitarian agency approaches and implementation of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). The analysis highlights the three tier PoC framework that includes dialogue and engagement, physical protection and environments for protection and the ever-present challenges of mandate ambiguity, resource deficits, host state consent and the gap between the expectations and operational actuality. By locating Protection of Civilians (PoC) within broader conversations on the topics of sovereignty, governance and humanitarian ethics, the research illuminates the normative relevance, as well as practical limitations of PoC. After all, PoC was and still remains the UN's most significant accomplishment and greatest challenge, requiring greater explicit release of mandate, training and sustained political will to succeed.