When a Government lacks the resources to ensure compliance with its obligatio...

When a Government lacks the resources to ensure compliance with its obligations, the protection of civilians is a moral obligation inherent to peacekeeping, although peacekeepers are not the only actors involved. Greater efforts should thus be made to ensure that peacekeeping mandates include explicit reference to civilian protection, clear strategies for pursuing it and careful monitoring of the implementation and impact of these mandates. The security of civilians in post-conflict environments is also critical to the legitimacy and credibility of United Nations peacekeeping missions, the peace agreements they are deployed to implement and the United Nations itself. These are difficult tasks that require a consistent approach, including advanced planning to ensure that future and current missions have the authority and capacity to protect. At the earliest stages of planning, threats to civilians must be taken into consideration, and peacekeeping missions must be properly tasked with clear, credible and achievable mandates to be implemented by military and police personnel who have received the appropriate training before deployment.