7 November 2025

The event

Key issues discussed

The goal of the event was to bring to light a broad range of protection efforts that missions undertake across a range of settings. The first session focused on protection approaches in multidimensional peacekeeping operations, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Lebanon. The second session focused on protection activities in other types of missions, including smaller peacekeeping missions without an explicit protection of Civilians (POC) mandate and special political missions. Explicit links were made with the Agenda for Protection and human rights capacities within missions.

What is being done/to do about them

Participants emphasized that protection needs to remain at the heart of all mission presences, which is currently challenged by the dichotomy between peacekeeping and special political missions. While acknowledging differences in approach between missions with explicit POC mandates and larger footprints with smaller missions and Special Political Missions (SPM), protection is at the center of everything the UN does (as noted in the Agenda for Protection). More could be done to articulate how SPMs contribute to protection and to articulate approaches to protection across the full spectrum of missions, whether or not they have explicit POC mandates.

The discussion also focused on the effects of budget cuts, as peacekeeper presence plays an important role in protection. Participants emphasized the importance of prevention and for connecting with the human rights agenda, as much of the human rights work within a mission relates to protection, including early warning mechanisms, investigation and engagement with communities, and monitoring and evaluation. Given the global pushback on human rights, there was discussion about how, in some cases, to “do” human rights without calling it human rights.

What implications emerged for the UNSC and UN HQ

• Member states from across regions, as well as experts, have been clear that POC needs to be at the heart of all UN presences, including all UN missions across the full spectrum. Whether or not missions have an explicit POC mandate, they need to be able to articulate how they contribute to the protection of civilians and how they will respond if civilians are targeted within the vicinity of UN presence. In line with this, there is a need to grapple with how SPMs contribute to the protection of civilians. This will also affect peacekeeping operations that may be deployed in modular or light footprint approaches, that may not have the size or mandate of a large multidimensional mission, but must still take into account protection threats and responses.
• Even as missions work to do “differently with less,” there must be a frank conversation about the effects of shrinking mission budgets and reduced numbers of people. Protection is facilitated in part through presence and drastic reductions will affect the safety and security of civilians. This must be spoken about honestly.
• The best/most effective approaches to protection are integrated and involve a mix of military, police, and civilian capacity.

The UN system will have to carefully grapple with the global pushback on human rights; this work is essential to everything else that missions do. There may be some cases where the UN can accomplish the goals of human rights work without explicitly calling it human rights; however, this may also carry a normative cost.