Download This PaperCivilians and Armed Conflict
The United Nations Security Council in the Age of Human Rights, Cambridge University Press, 2014
35 Pages Posted: 13 Aug 2013 Last revised: 5 Mar 2015
Date Written: 2014
Abstract
We tend to view concern with the protection of civilians as a relatively recent development within the Security Council: a product of the late 20th century genocides and ethnic cleansing campaigns in Rwanda and the Balkans. But while it is indeed true that the Council’s first thematic resolution directly addressing "protection of civilians" was not passed until 1999 — and also true, unfortunately, that Security Council civilian protection efforts have yet to move beyond the sporadic and inconsistent — the Council has always concerned itself with civilian protection. Indeed, the history of the Security Council itself (as well as the history of the United Nations as a whole) is in many ways inextricably interwoven with concerns about the protection of civilians during armed conflicts.
Keywords: UN Security Council, civilian protection, international peace
JEL Classification: K00, K30, K39
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation