Efforts to protect civilians may be hampered by a variety of reasons, such ...

Efforts to protect civilians may be hampered by a variety of reasons, such as the unwillingness of parties to a conflict to abide by international humanitarian law, the lack of resources, information gaps, or the lack of understanding about what peacekeepers should and can do to protect civilians. In such a situation, new and innovative approaches are required that are comprehensive in nature. The essential elements of such an approach include, inter alia, strict compliance with and respect for international humanitarian law, human rights law and international law; no impunity; the prosecution of those responsible for committing serious crimes; the development of country context specific United Nations mandates; the development of requisite benchmarks to assess progress; the pre deployment training of troops; and a well-charted mandate, along with appropriate guidelines to guide the mission in its work.