Operationalizing the responsibility to protect in the context of civilian protection by UN peacekeepers

This article examines how operationalizing the 'responsibility to protect' (R2P) concept may assist in defining the scope of civilian protection mandates for peacekeepers, which are ambiguously restricted by three caveats - 'imminent threat of physical violence', 'area of deployment' and 'capabilities'. It is argued that by restrictively interpreting civilian protection mandates in the light of R2P the limited resources of peacekeeping troops would be more effectively utilized to protect civilians from mass atrocity crimes. Greater investment would be required to build capacity among the more creative and specially trained units to protect civilians from physical violence, in addition to greater coordination between the military and those specially trained units.