Reflections on Protection of Civilians in UN Special Political Missions

One of the core roles of United Nations (UN) Missions is protection. Whether that protection is mandated or de facto, all UN Missions have some role to play in protecting the populations they serve. This includes protection across the spectrum of mandates and available tools. The UN Security Council is increasingly relying on Special Political Missions (SPMs) to support peace and conflict prevention. Therefore, PAX has conducted interviews with protection professionals in a variety of UN Missions, headquarters and elsewhere to better assess current capacities for the Protection of Civilians (PoC) specifically in SPMs, and to determine how and if these capacities might be improved upon, including through provision of context-specific protection-enabling mandates and resourcing.