Today the relevance, legitimacy and credibility of the United Nations are widely seen as a function of its efforts to end civil wars and prevent the worst mass atrocities. The UN¡¯s protection record over the past decade is mixed and recent events give few indications of major improvement. Most recently, an Independent Special Investigation called upon by Ban Ki-moon to review UNMISS¡¯s (UN Mission in South Sudan) response to violence in Juba in July 2016 concluded that peacekeepers blatantly failed to protect civilians from gross human rights violations and called on the Secretary-General to address these failures.
In South Sudan as elsewhere, the issue of civilian protection will feature highly on the agenda of Ant¨®nio Guterres when he assumes the post of Secretary-General in January 2017. He will need to overcome a number of daunting challenges to ensure the UN realizes its protection promise and restores its damaged credibility in this area.
The authors argue that Ant¨®nio Guterres will need to pursue action on three fronts in order to advance the UN¡¯s protection agenda: first, fostering a renewed consensus around the Responsi?bility to Protect norm; second, strengthening the ability of peace operations to imple?ment protection mandates while ensuring that expectations are in line with what blue helmets can deliver; and third, improving the UN¡¯s response to severe human rights violations in non-mission settings.
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