Enhancing Protection Capacity: A Policy Guide

This Policy Guide seeks to enhance the ability of policy makers and practitioners in governments, regional and international organizations, and civil society in strengthening their efforts to protect civilians from conflict-related grave harm and mass atrocity crimes. The Guide clarifies and compares the twin of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and the Protection of Civilians (POC) in their normative, institutional and operational dimensions, distinguishes the principles different actors and methods, and specifies the situations when the two principles converge for specific actors and organizations. With full acknowledgement of the controversies, diversities of position and ongoing developments within these issues, the objectives of this Policy Guide are to: Inform relevant protection actors about the normative, institutional and operational scope of R2P and POC; Clarify the relationship between R2P and POC, including their points of intersection and divergence (with a specific focus on the needs of policy makers and practitioners); and Provide practical guidance regarding, how and by whom R2P and POC might be implemented.