‘Protection of Civilians’ (PoC) has been a dominant focus of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions in recent decades. At the same time, ‘Protection of Civilians’ is a contested and ambiguous concept, with its practical meanings often established in the realities of implementation. The paper explores the concept of ‘protection of civilians’ and its related impact on the everyday experiences of those seeking safety. Using the case of ‘protection of civilian’s (POC) sites in South Sudan,…
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CSRF Research Repository
The CSRF Research Repository aims to support greater contextual knowledge for policy makers, programme managers, and implementers by providing a searchable repository of research, analysis, and resources, and providing periodic updates on new research and analysis.
This article investigates contestations over the roles and legitimacy of gangs within the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Protection of Civilians (PoC) site in Bentiu, South Sudan. Drawing on qualitative interviews, it argues that ‘gangs’ represented the medium through which everyday struggles and processes of social contestations were negotiated between youth, elders, and protection actors. Prevailing narratives of gangs as violent criminal entities structured conflict with elders and protection actors, but to their…
This article explores the everyday politics of protecting women from war and atrocities, based on ethnographic work within the United Nations Protection of Civilians sites, South Sudan. It examines the heterogenous ways that peacekeepers and displaced people conceptualised and enacted women’s rights and protection inside the sites. Protection and gender were variously interpreted, resisted, and transformed. But sexual and gender-based violence remained rife in these makeshift ‘safe havens’. These experiences demonstrate that international peacebuilders cannot…
As Security Council members prepare to renew the UNMISS mandate in March 2022, they should reinforce the mission with increased resources and stepped-up diplomatic engagement. The year ahead will come with risks of further political violence, which UNMISS should strive to prevent, especially as the 2023 elections approach. The UNMISS mandate must remain focused on the implementation of South Sudan’s peace agreement. But the mandate must also continue to prioritize the protection of civilians and…
This article explores the unintended consequences associated with the protection of civilians (PoC) mandate in United Nations peacekeeping. Drawing primarily on two case studies – the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and South Sudan (UNMISS) – we advance three lines of argument. First, the gravitational pull of PoC can distract missions from other, often interdependent, priorities. Second, the implementation of PoC can distort intended impacts. Third, these distractions and distortions can combine to produce…
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 the authors explore this issue by investigating the following questions: 1) how can the discrepancy between UNMISS and its mandate be…
This desk-based study assesses the contribution of humanitarian–military coordination to the protection of civilians (PoC) in South Sudan, with a particular focus on the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
This report focuses on how protection issues are conceptualized and operationalized among international takeholders in Bor, the state capital of Jonglei state in South Sudan, and analyses key challenges to the implementation and impact of protection initiatives on the ground. Download
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