About the Issue
In situations of armed conflict, the physical protection of the civilian population is a core responsibility of parties to the conflict. This obligation is set out in and reinforced through international humanitarian law: civilians and all those not taking part in the fighting must on no account be attacked and must be spared and protected. And yet, despite such obligations, civilians have been increasingly impacted by war, including through both indiscriminate and targeted attacks – from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas to the abduction, detention and execution of civilians by parties to a conflict. Such failures to protect do not reflect the absence of legal frameworks, but instead a lack of compliance.
Amidst the failures of duty bearers to fulfill their obligations to protect civilians, a range of other actors play important roles in trying to prevent, mitigate and respond to such violence. For humanitarian protection actors, actions such as support for community-based early warning networks, negotiations with armed actors for the release of child soldiers, or advocacy efforts with third-party member states to mediate a ceasefire all comprise part of the spectrum of potential interventions in support of the Protection of Civilians (PoC). UN peacekeeping missions, with uniformed and civilian components, play a particular role when it comes to the Protection of Civilians, including in light of mandates that may enable the use of deadly force to protect civilians under imminent threat, as well as other activities such as contributing to creating the security conditions needed for the delivery of humanitarian assistance or taking measures to ensure security in and around IDPs camps. Such efforts are outside of the humanitarian sphere but dialogue and coordination remains important, with the potential for such peacekeeping operations to complement the response of protection actors, including via the Protection Cluster and with respect to specialized interventions, such as mine clearance or the demobilization of child soldiers, as well as with logistics and access.
Humanitarian access, an important aspect of civilian protection set out in IHL, concerns humanitarian actors’ ability to reach people affected by crisis, as well as an affected population’s ability to access humanitarian assistance and services. In a situation of armed conflict, if parties to the conflict are unable or unwilling to meet the basic needs of the affected population within their control, they are obliged to allow and facilitate the impartial provision of assistance. Ultimately, humanitarian access forms the foundation for life-saving humanitarian action and protection. The deprivation, denial of, or impediment to access to basic services and assistance, crucial to survival, is a grave protection risk – one that threatens the safety, rights and wellbeing of people. While access impediments continue to hamper the delivery of humanitarian assistance as a whole, protection actors and services are often disproportionately affected. Communities or groups experiencing severe protection risks are often those with the least amount of access to life-saving support and some of the hardest to reach. Protection-related actions can also be perceived as particularly sensitive or threatening by relevant authorities or parties to conflict. At the same time, protection interventions themselves often require safe, timely and sustained access for proximity, ongoing trust building, engagement, and the delivery of specialized services. Counting the number of trucks allowed to pass a checkpoint simply does not represent a meaningful barometer of access, rather the ultimately aim of access should be protection, something integral to every humanitarian response. Starting in 2022, the GPC has undertaken a focused effort to better understand how access constraints globally are impacting protection action specifically and what can be done to address these challenges. These and other efforts were part of a campaign ‘Access that Protects’ and this continues to inform a range of operational, capacity-building and advocacy efforts by Protection Clusters and the GPC, together with partners such as OCHA, the CCHN and UNHCR – from further integrating protection considerations into the efforts of Access Working Groups to building the capacities of frontline protection actors to negotiate access and strengthened protection outcomes.
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