Systematic violence and mass atrocities against civilians increasingly occur in armed conflicts. Millions of individuals have lost their lives, while tens of millions more have been displaced from their homes. In war-torn societies, civilians – in particular women and children – have suffered from gross violations of human rights and political, psychological and economic repression that have become part of deliberate conflict strategies. In 1999, the UN Peacekeeping Operation in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) was mandated “to afford protection to civilians under imminent threat of physical violence.” Today, the majority of the nearly 100,000 uniformed UN peacekeepers deployed worldwide operate under such a mandate.

Over the past decades, the world has witnessed armed conflicts marked by systematic violence and mass atrocities against civilians. In the framework of the United Nations, notable efforts have been put in place to improve the effectiveness of protection of civilians. The concept of protection of civilians first appeared in the UN Secretary-General’s Report on the Situation of Africa of 13 April 1998 (S/1998/318), in which Kofi Annan identified the protection of civilians in situations of armed conflicts as a "humanitarian imperative". As part of this evolution, the protection of civilians has been progressively incorporated to the mandate of peace operations.