By Udo Jude Ilo 30 November 2023 If the rules of war had been followed, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups would not have entered Israel on Oct. 7 and killed hundreds of civilians before taking hostage more than 200 others. Similarly, if Israel had taken better precautions in its military response, the deaths of…
Since the start of the Israel-Gaza conflict in early October, social media platforms have been inundated with misleading and intentionally falsified content surrounding Hamas’s attacks on Israeli civilians and Israel’s military response. Reports suggest that Hamas is leveraging the lax content moderation on sites like X and Telegram to promote violent content, gain support from…
From Just Security by John Ramming Chappell (Advocacy and Legal Fellow at CIVIC), Annie Shiel (US Advocacy Director at CIVIC), Seth Binder, Elias Yousif, Bill Monahan and Amanda Klasing Hamas’ attacks and the Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza that followed have rightly drawn critical attention to the applicable international humanitarian law standards governing the…
Northeast Nigeria has been mired in armed conflict for more than a decade, with civilians and local communities being hit the hardest. Considerable human and financial resources deployed to prosecute the insurgency in the region have yielded few results, raising the question of whether strategies adopted by previous administrations lacked a clear and sustainable vision…
Two years since its adoption, Security Council resolution 2594 on UN transitions remains as relevant as ever. Adopted by consensus on 9 September 2021, and spearheaded by Ireland during its term as a Security Council member from 2021 to 2022, the resolution was a response to the acute challenges in securing peacebuilding and stabilization gains…
Last month, the UN Secretary General presented the annual report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict in 2022 to the UN Security Council, as the incumbent of the position has done since 1999. Given the daily news coverage of the past year, drawing some general conclusions about what the report says could have…
When thinking of the protection of civilians in conflict, access to information might not be the first thing that comes to mind. Yet, access to timely and verified information can play a critical role in their protection. While civilians may turn to multiples sources to seek information, which vary from online forums to social media…
Civil-military relations are essential for maintaining peace and stability in any society. However, there are challenges to these relations, especially in areas where there are existing conflicts or tensions. One way to address these challenges is through deliberate community engagement by military and security forces. Engaging with the local communities to discuss and understand the…
Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), alongside 19 other leading organizations working to improve the protection of civilians in armed conflict (PoC), have published a joint statement ahead of the May 23rd UN Security Council Open Debate at the sixth edition of PoC Week. This statement calls for UN Member States…