Civilian Protection in the Eastern DRC Evaluation of the MONUSCO Peacekeeping Operation

Abstract

Since 2003 language mandating civilian protection (POC) has increasingly appeared in Security Council resolutions, peace support doctrine, and humanitarian frameworks. Despite the frequency of its use, the term lacks a universal definition and a clear gap exists between military operations that attempt to establish, introduce, and/or enforce civilian protection and humanitarian approaches to POC concepts. This thesis posits three metrics that should be used to evaluate the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations which aim to establish POC rates of civilian massacres, rates of internally displaced persons, and incidents of sexual violence. These criteria share both military and humanitarian priorities. They also represent elements of conflict present in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo since at least 1998, and each must be reduced in order to establish a minimum standard for civilian protection in the country. The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Congo (MONUSCO) was charged with implementing POC in the eastern regions of the DRC beginning in 2008. This thesis considers the ability of MONUSCO to address each of the three POC metrics and shows that the mission has fallen short of achieving its mandate to instill minimum standards of civilian protection.