MANDATE ADJUSTMENT AND THE PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS - An Analysis of UN Peacekeeping Operations in Eastern DRC

Abstract

Civilians are frequently victims of targeted violence during civil wars. As a response, the UNSC at times adapts the mandate of a UNPKO to explicitly include the protection of civilians. Despite this, it remains uncertain whether these targeted mandate adjustments result in better protection of civilians. To fill this gap, this thesis examines the influence of mandate adjustment to include the protection of civilians from physical violence on the protection of civilians in an ongoing civil war. The thesis argues that mandate adjustment influences the protection of civilians via organisational change. The inclusion of the protection of civilians as a task to be implemented triggers changes in the structure of the mission, which in turn necessitates internal and external coordination, hence improving the operational approaches of UN peacekeepers to demands for the protection of civilians from physical violence. To test this argument, I qualitatively analysed the case of UNPKO in the eastern DRC from 2000 to 2014 using theory-testing process tracing. While the findings suggest that mandate adjustment is likely to lead to a proactive operational approach by UN troops to the demand for the protection of civilians, the presence of a large, well-trained and well–equipped UN troop contingent does not necessarily deter belligerents from either continuing hostilities or targeting civilians. These findings, in addition to contributing to the existing literature on peacekeeping, challenge previous findings on the deterrence effect of the presence of a large, well-trained and well–equipped UN troop contingent on belligerents´ decisions to continue with hostilities and or target civilians.