Emerging lessons from the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo: military contributions to the protection of civilians

Abstract

Since December 2008, protection of civilians has been the primary task of the United Nations (UN) mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Guidance on how UN military units can contribute to the protection of civilians has been lacking, however. This has necessitated a bottom-up approach to protection of civilians in which the mission and its partners have developed a series of cross-cutting protection initiatives. The UN military plays a key role in many of them. Based on the findings of a 2010 field study conducted in the DRC, the paper discusses how UN military units can contribute to protection of civilians in three dimensions, namely civil-military cooperation, the use of intelligence, and the use of military force. The aim is to inform the preparation of military contributions to future missions mandated to protect civilians.