Our approach to protection is first and foremost to prevent the commission of...

Our approach to protection is first and foremost to prevent the commission of human rights violations. Where that fails, as regrettably it sometimes does, we also contribute to mitigating the effects of conflict on populations at risk and to ensuring proper accountability for violations once they have occurred. Establishing accountability, in turn, can help serve the longer-term goal of prevention by making a recurrence of violations less likely.