Victims of Violence A Review of the Protection of Civilians Concept and Its Relevance to UNHCR's Mandate

The classical context for the discussion of protection of civilians in armed conflict is to be found in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols. The road to these instruments was long and contested as the recognition of the special status of the civilian came only slowly to the fore in the humanitarian tradition of war. It is also in these Conventions and Protocols that the so-called humanitarian imperative is grounded (para. 8). Within the category of civilian, there are two groups with a protected status, namely refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).

In 1998, in a report on The causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa, the then Secretary-General spoke for the first time, in an extensive manner and, in an analysis of what he considered as humanitarian imperatives, of the protecting civilians in situations of conflict; this theme preceded a consideration of the need to address refugee security issues.

In the same year, the Secretary-General presented to the Security Council a Report on the Protection for Humanitarian Assistance to Refugees and Others in Conflict Situations. In its deliberations on these Reports in 1998, and as reflected in Security Council (SC) Resolution 1208 (19 November 1998), the Security Council focused to a large extent on the issues of refugees, and the civil and humanitarian nature of refugee camps and settlements.

Since 1999, the theme of protection of civilians in armed conflict has been the subject of a twice-yearly open debate in the Security Council and of a Report of the Secretary-General every eighteen months. The last debate was held in July 2010 and the Secretary- General‟s last report was issued on 29 May 2009 (S/2009/277).

In its Resolution 1894 (11 November 2009), the Security Council, referring to the Secretary-General‟s Report, listed the core challenges to the effective protection of civilians (PoC) as: enhancing compliance with international law; enhancing compliance by non-State armed groups with their obligations under international law; enhancing protection through more effective and better resourced United Nations peacekeeping and other relevant missions; enhancing humanitarian access; and enhancing accountability for violations.

While the many references throughout the Resolution to international law include references not only to international humanitarian and human rights law, but also refugee law, one is left with the impression that the subject of refugees, including their physical protection, has lost something of the importance in the Security Council‟s deliberations and in other fora that it initially enjoyed when the theme of PoC was first taken up by the Council.

In fact, it has been observed that, while the protection of civilians – and IDPs in particular – is now a regular item before the Security Council, and in the policy statements of aid agencies and donors, refugee protection and asylum policy has been strikingly absent from these deliberations.