Publication

Ever since the concept of the Protection of Civilians (PoC) was coined by then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in an attempt to place civilians in armed conflict at the core of UN peacekeeping, there have been diverging interpretations of the meaning of the concept and its intended application. Simply put, PoC has meant different things in theory at UN headquarters and practice in the field. In the present brief we retrace the trajectory of PoC with a special emphasis on how the concept is embedded at headquarters level and how it has been applied in the field (UNMIS).