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The Changing Nature of the Protection of Civilians in International Peace Operations
Abstract
The protection of civilians is a priority in most international peace operations today. There are important differences in the concept, however, in the operations undertaken for example by the UN, NATO, EU and the AU. In particular, a distinction needs to be made between the protection of civilians in ‘peacekeeping’ as compared to ‘peace enforcement’ operations. While in the former a ‘proactive’ approach to protecting civilians is usually adopted, in the latter a ‘reactive’ approach is normally required. These theoretical differences present important implications for those decision-makers mandating the operations as well as those involved in planning and implementing them in the field.
... Nestas ocasiões, as missões não foram capazes de proteger os civis da violência física iminente, implicando na morte de milhares de inocentes (Holt, Taylor e Kelly 2010 Em 1999, o Conselho de Segurança da ONU, pela primeira vez na história, inseriu a tarefa de "proteger os civis contra ameaça iminente de violência física" em um mandatoa missão de paz em Serra Leoa. Desde então, a organização passou a evocar o Capítulo VII 3 da Carta das Nações Unidas para configurar mandatos de proteção de civis (Lilly 2012 Em especial, James (2015) relata que um dos redutos de apoio a Machar estava localizado perto do campo petrolífero Thar Jath, estado de Unity (figura 2), palco dos combates iniciais, em dezembro de 2013, quando a 4 a Divisão do SPLA se amotinou, liderada pelo General James Koang. Como consequência, a operadora dos campos petrolíferos, Greater Pioneer Operating Company, foi forçada a encerrar a produção (retomada no início de 2013, depois de cessada a atrição com o Sudão). ...
... 4 Ademais, observou-se a contínua implementação da Política de Proteção de Civis, instrumentalizada no âmbito de doze missões de paz que, já em 2012, eram demandadas com a tarefa de proteger civis nos seus mandatos. Neste escopo, foram contempladas as missões: no Burundi, na República Central Africana, no Chade, na Costa do Marfim, na República Democrática do Congo, no Haiti, no Líbano, na Libéria, em Serra Leoa, no Sudão e no Sudão do Sul(Lilly 2012).Finalmente, em 2015, foi emitida a Política do DPKO/DFS acerca da proteção de civis, trazendo a primeira revisão do PoC Operational Concept (2010) e indicando às diversas missões a necessidade de customizar estratégias próprias, empregando a abordagem do Three-tier Approach, à luz das peculiaridades de cada espectro conflitivo: socioeconômicas, políticas e culturais. Neste sentido, Copeland (2012) destaca que a abordagem militar para PoC envolve ações cinéticas e o emprego de aparato bélico para impor a segurança e estabelecer um ambiente pacífico. ...
... Em 1999, o Conselho de Segurança da ONU, pela primeira vez na história, inseriu a tarefa de "proteger os civis contra ameaça iminente de violência física" em um mandatoa missão de paz em Serra Leoa. Desde então, a organização passou a evocar o Capítulo VII 3 da Carta das Nações Unidas para configurar mandatos de proteção de civis (Lilly 2012 Sob este prisma, as missões de paz deveriam formular as suas estratégias de proteção de civis, sinergicamente, em três níveisa proteção por meio do diálogo e/ou engajamento político; a proteção física per se; e a proteção por meio do estabelecimento de um ambiente estávelobservando que: ...
... Em primeiro lugar, a segurança dos civis é fundamental para a legitimidade e credibilidade das missões de manutenção da paz. Em segundo lugar, a proteção de civis é um componente crítico para uma paz política sustentável (Holt, Taylor e Kelly 2010 (Lilly 2012). ...
Trata-se de um estudo de caso que examina o contexto da ruptura política ocorrida no Sudão do Sul (2013), destacando os seus efeitos para a segurança humana, e analisa a resposta das Nações Unidas, com enfoque na proteção de civis, no período 2014-2018. A investigação adota um desenho de pesquisa baseado em uma perspectiva qualitativa, operacionalizada por meio de um método hipotético-dedutivo. Como dividendos, são indicadas condicionantes a serem observadas, na consecução de políticas e estratégias, para mitigar processos de violência e atrocidades em massa.
... The situation becomes even more problematic when the acting organization has no formal definition of civilian protection. According to Damian Lilly (2012:630), among the various international organizations engaging in civilian protection, only the African Union has adopted an official definition of civilian protection. This lack of clarity not only impedes civilian protection at the conceptual level, it impedes civilian protection at the operational level (Williams 2013). ...
... Civilian protection may require , or result in , states taking sides in a conflict . For instance , the NATO intervention in Libya marked the first time the UNSC authorized a military mission to protect civilians without state consent ( Bellamy and Williams 2009 ; Lilly 2012 : 628 ) . While the UNSC ' s mandate for that operation was neutral on its face , some states felt its execution was not . ...
The absence and limitations of civilian protection efforts have contributed to civilians in conflict zones adopting a variety of strategies to protect themselves from physical violence. These self-protection efforts have sometimes saved individuals and communities from violence and engendered a level of security. Nonetheless, the civilian protection literature and community have largely underestimated the importance of these self-protection strategies. This article traces the growth of the civilian protection regime and interrogates the absence of civilian self-protection therein. It reviews the emerging self-protection literature and offers a typology of civilian self-protection strategies. Additionally, this article sheds light on how self-protection strategies might undermine civilian protection, particularly when they contribute to civilian targeting during armed conflict. It also proposes ways in which this typology can be extended to foster theory building and can inform traditional civilian protection efforts.
... 93 As discussed in Section 2.3 of Chapter 2, UN peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations are fundamentally distinct operations, and so have different approaches to the POC. 94 For example, peace enforcement forces are usually authorised by the Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to use military force to achieve their goals and protect civilians, whereas UN peacekeeping forces may use force at the tactical level with Security Council authorisation if acting in self-defence and defence of the mandate, including the POC. 95 Furthermore, forces of peace enforcement operations generally remain in exclusive command and control of respective States. ...
This book discusses the legal responsibility of UN peacekeepers for the protection of civilians under international legal regimes, particularly international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international refugee law, and occupation law. It considers both negative and positive obligations, that is, a duty to respect or not violate a particular right directly and a duty to take positive action to secure or protect a particular right, respectively. In addition, it describes the standards and methods, as well as their strengths and weaknesses, by which actors in UN peacekeeping operations, including the UN, troop contributing countries, and individual peacekeepers, can be held accountable for third-party claims and allegations of criminal misconduct against UN peacekeepers for violations of responsibility in peacekeeping operations. The work will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers, and policy-makers working in the areas of International Law, International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law, and International Relations.
... 3 The academic scholarship on peacekeeping has expanded in recent years due to the increasing size of peacekeeping operations around the world. Many studies have looked at the changing nature of the UN mandate to protect civilians (Lilly, 2012). With the operationalization of R2P, some scholars have sought to reconcile the framework with civilian protection by UN peacekeepers (Nasu, 2011). ...
The protection of civilians (PoC) mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), was established in 2011, coinciding with the country's independence. Since then, the public discourse on UNMISS has called into question the capacity of the mission to fully meet the expectations created by this mandate in practice. In this chapter we explore this issue by investigating the following questions: 1) how can the discrepancy between UNMISS and its mandate be understood within the context of international law? 2) what does the quantitative data available on incidents requiring civilian protection indicate regarding who were the actors involved, the frequency and distribution of events, and the extent of documented fatalities?; 3) what does the public discourse (media accounts, academic publications, as well as UN and third-party investigations) reveal about UNMISS and its PoC mandate? To answer these questions, we first present the international legal context in which the mission operates, and identify key areas of concern. We then analyze incidents that took place in the national capital, Juba, as well as the state capitals of Malakal and Bor, to highlight the challenges facing UNMISS in protecting civilians in South Sudan. We make use of data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), concentrating on incidents that occurred in South Sudan between 2011 and 2016. This data is then traced to the public discourse that exists on UNMISS and its mandate. We find that there remain contradictions between the actions of the peacekeeping force and the mandate of UNMISS, the public expectations of the institution, as well as the resources and personnel provided to support its activities. We conclude by proposing that a path forward be created that involves robust and citizen-centered peacekeeping.
... 3 The academic scholarship on peacekeeping has expanded in recent years due to the increasing size of peacekeeping operations around the world. Many studies have looked at the changing nature of the UN mandate to protect civilians (Lilly, 2012). With the operationalization of R2P, some scholars have sought to reconcile the framework with civilian protection by UN peacekeepers (Nasu, 2011). ...
The protection of civilians (PoC) mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), was established in 2011, coinciding with the country's independence. Since then, the public discourse on UNMISS has called into question the capacity of the mission to fully meet the expectations created by this mandate in practice. In this chapter we explore this issue by investigating the following questions: 1) how can the discrepancy between UNMISS and its mandate be understood within the context of international law? 2) what does the quantitative data available on incidents requiring civilian protection indicate regarding who were the actors involved, the frequency and distribution of events, and the extent of documented fatalities?; 3) what does the public discourse (media accounts, academic publications, as well as UN and third-party investigations) reveal about UNMISS and its PoC mandate? To answer these questions, we first present the international legal context in which the mission operates, and identify key areas of concern. We then analyze incidents that took place in the national capital, Juba, as well as the state capitals of Malakal and Bor, to highlight the challenges facing UNMISS in protecting civilians in South Sudan. We make use of data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), concentrating on incidents that occurred in South Sudan between 2011 and 2016. This data is then traced to the public discourse that exists on UNMISS and its mandate. We find that there remain contradictions between the actions of the peacekeeping force and the mandate of UNMISS, the public expectations of the institution, as well as the resources and personnel provided to support its activities. We conclude by proposing that a path forward be created that involves robust and citizen-centered peacekeeping.
... Evoluindo a uma terceira geração de missões de paz, destacam-se aquelas configuradas pela demanda de restabelecer o funcionamento do próprio Estado, por meio do estabelecimento de uma administração internacional interina (FEDOZZI, 2006). (LILLY, 2012). Assim, a Proteção de Civis é um conceito em evolução, com destaque à Resolução 1894 do Conselho de Segurança, ao enfatizar,"that mandated protection activities must be given priority in decisions about the use of available capacity and resources, including information and intelligence resources, in the implementation of mandates" (UNITED NATIONS, 2009). ...
Trata-se de uma breve análise que objetiva caracterizar as perspectivas propostas para reforma da ONU, condensadas pelo Relatório In a Larger Freedom (2005), e a sua possível relação com o fomento do conceito da Segurança Humana. Neste sentido, o texto instiga o debate acerca dos posicionamentos e da representatividade de uma instituição supranacional que reúne 193 países, em um cenário internacional perpassado pela complexidade característica do Século XXI. Para tanto, o Referencial Teórico mobilizou a discussão acerca do poder e do conceito da Segurança Humana. Metodologicamente, utilizou-se uma perspectiva qualitativa, por meio de um método de procedimento monográfico, operacionalizado em um Estudo de Caso que enfocou a evolução da agenda constante no referido relatório. Como resultado, constatou-se uma relação da agenda proposta com o fomento da Segurança Humana e, por outro lado, verificaram-se limitações no avanço das temáticas elencadas, com destaque à previsão de reforma do Conselho de Segurança.
... This tension has played out in the turn towards 'robust peacekeeping'-a more assertive and militarised approach aimed at assuring 'freedom of action' for peacekeepers (DPKO/DFS 2008: 35;Sartre 2011: 11). The assimilation of a more aggressive posture emerges in a political context where there is an important lack of consensus on the both the meaning of civilian protection in practice, and on exactly how assertive/aggressive a 'robust' approach might be (Holt and Berkman 2006;Tardy 2011;Lilly 2012). In such a context, there is an increasing likelihood that the national militaries seconded to perform protection of civilians operations in UN peacekeeping may resort to the familiar forms of highimpact warfighting for which they are primarily equipped. ...
O objetivo deste artigo é examinar e comparar o impacto da Brigada de Intervenção da Força (FIB) e da Força de Proteção Regional (RPF) na proteção de civis na República Democrática do Congo e no Sudão do Sul, respectivamente. O método de pesquisa escolhido para este estudo foi a abordagem qualitativa por meio de estudos de caso que se concentraram na Missão de Estabilização da Organização das Nações Unidas na República Democrática do Congo e na Missão das Nações Unidas no Sudão do Sul. Os parâmetros de comparação selecionados para este estudo foram a redução da vulnerabilidade, a neutralização de grupos armados violentos e o desenvolvimento de forças locais. Como resultado, foi possível verificar que tanto a FIB quanto a RPF tiveram um impacto positivo, embora limitado, sobre a proteção de civis e a criação de um ambiente estável. Além disso, foi observado que esse impacto positivo tende a se dissipar com o tempo.
Why do the attitudes of United Nations military peacekeepers towards peacekeeping shift after their deployment from positive to negative ones and how do labour hierarchies influence this shift? Using surveys with military peacekeepers gathered within a professional military education (PME) context, we conducted an exploratory pilot study about individual attitudes towards UN peacekeeping operations (UNPKOs) after deployment. We found that a majority changed their opinion about UNPKOs as an effective tool for peacebuilding from positive to negative. Specifically, we found that 82% of troops from the Global South changed their perceptions from positive to negative after deployment; while 59% of Global North peacekeepers did not change their perceptions. This shift was on account of enduring command and control challenges, problems with analysing intelligence, and, the growing demands of robustness to protect civilians, which increasingly place peacekeepers from the Global South at the risk of armed attacks and under scrutiny for underperformance. Findings urge scholars and policy-makers to address the problem of labour hierarchies in the political economy of peacekeeping as a significant source of misalignment between the perceptions and experiences of troops from the Global South and the growing expectations of performance from them.
The United Nations Security Council mandates peacekeeping operations to protect civilians, and regularly authorizes operations to use force to achieve this objective. Yet in the challenging situations facing contemporary peacekeeping operations, local civilians remain vulnerable to extreme violence. One set of reasons for this unwelcome result surrounds the decisions to protect civilians forcefully in any given context. This paper describes how peacekeeping operations vest discretion over the use of robust force across multiple agents. Using signal detection theory to model the decision-making of these agents, our analysis shows how the iterative nature of the decision-making process gives rise to a chain of authority where the most conservative decision-maker tends to prove decisive. With this analysis in tow, we turn our attention to recent protection initiatives, including Security Council Resolution 2098 (2013) and its controversial mandate for the new ‘Intervention Brigade’ in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Protection of civilians has been on the international agenda for more than ten years. In that time, many UN peace operations have received protection mandates but few have been successfully carried out. Protection requires all elements of a peace mission to have a common understanding of the relevant concepts, processes and desired outcomes. This requires partnerships between the various elements of the mission. Partnership between disparate groups is difficult at the best of times, and is exacerbated by the operational contexts of peace missions. Successful partnerships require extensive pre-mission preparation, in-mission coordination and post-mission evaluation. Participants have only just begun to address these issues at a basic level.