If successful compliance with protection standards requires an integrated and...

If successful compliance with protection standards requires an integrated and comprehensive protection strategy in collaboration with the main humanitarian actors, it remains that the primary responsibility for civilian protection rests with the concerned Government itself. Furthermore, occupying Powers have the clear obligation under international law to protect the population under foreign occupation. We would like to stress in this regard the implications of severe and sustained violations of international humanitarian law in the Palestinian-occupied territories and the appalling humanitarian situation confronting the 1.5 million Palestinians confined to the Gaza Strip. There is a prevailing awareness that United Nations peacekeepers cannot protect everyone from everything. However, protection is most successful when it is part of a larger strategy. The development by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Field Support of an operational concept and a framework to guide the preparations of protection of civilians strategies by missions is a good step in the right direction. There is a need, furthermore, to strengthen cohesion between mandates, resources and expectations, and to enhance peacekeeping capacity, especially in transport, communications and intelligence.