United Nations Security Council

Crisis Simulation on Protection of Civilians

This UN Security Council simulation focuses on Protection of Civilians (“PoC”—in UN-talk), one of several thematic areas of the work of the Security Council. Grounded in international humanitarian law (“IHL”) and human rights law, PoC gained renewed urgency in the 1990s, especially in the aftermath of widespread protection failures as evidenced by the Rwandan Genocide, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, East Timor, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By 1999, PoC had become a separate thematic agenda item of the Security Council. UN reforms have also contributed to the normative framework and practices of PoC, including the Global Protection Cluster chaired by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Responsibility to Protect (“RtoP” or “R2P”).