Humanitarian mediation : Protecting civilians

What issues are involved in developing a policy for protecting civilians?

Even outside the context of mediation and negotiation, the protection needs of civilians in conflict areas often receive inadequate facilitation and support. Despite the increased international attention paid to this issue over the past several years, the numbers of those who are displaced, raped, killed and forced into armed service during conflicts testify to a reality in which, often, little has changed on the ground. There is often no connection between the responses of the international community and those of national entities. Even within national communities, there is often a need for increased information and attention to the plight of affected civilians.

What activities is the HD Centre undertaking to address this issue?

Through its project, Promoting Civilian Protection in Conflict: African Dialogues, the HD Centre provides a platform for international and national entities to review best practice and lessons learned in the field of civilian protection. The HD Centre highlights different aspects of protection, such as sexual violence, with regional inter-governmental actors, governments, UN agencies and civil society, in an attempt to strengthen their awareness of, and interaction on, civilian protection. The HD Centre hopes that this approach will also provide local actors in particular with an increased capacity to address and advocate for protection needs.

What has the HD Centre achieved so far in this programme?

Following a charting of international and local organisations working on protection-related issues in Africa in 2007, a first meeting in the series of African Dialogues was organised in Nairobi, Kenya, on 13 and 14 February 2008. This focused on various African-related issues of civilian protection issues, including the promotion of protection through presence, sexual violence in conflicts (Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)), and protection in specific locations such as Somalia and Kenya. There were more than 40 participants, including the African Union Special Representative for Civilian Protection in Conflicts, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia,  representatives of the UN Missions in Sudan and the DRC), and UN, other agency and civil-society representatives from Kenya, Ethiopia, the DRC and South Africa.

A second meeting, a Roundtable on Somalia, took place in Nairobi on 16-17 April 2008.  Its purpose was to discuss a number of practical measures and strategies to improve the protection of civilians in south central Somalia. The two day discussions, took place between members of UN agencies, IGOs, regional and sub-regional organisations including the AU and IGAD, as well as various members of the Somali diaspora community and civil society. The main objective of the talks was to develop practical measures to improve safe humanitarian access, find ways to mobilise political support for more effective protection of civilians and  identify the scope for future humanitarian dialogue including with perpetrators of violence against civilians. The outcomes of the Roundtable were positive. Participants engaged on substantive issues and agreed on a number of concrete recommendations for action to address the humanitarian/protection operational challenges in south / central.  These include a series of dialogues, a security analysis in south / central Somalia, support for better documentation of protection-related issues and assistance to strengthening protection mechanisms.