By Chris Brew & Lauren Spink The use of deception and disinformation in warfare is not new. Sun Tzu, a Chinese general and military strategist was already writing about the phenomenon in the 5th century BC. But disinformation—defined as the intentional dissemination of inaccurate or misleading information—no longer just travels by word-of-mouth or newspaper. Modern…
The CIVIC Toolkit for Advancing the Protection of Civilians in Conflict, distills over two decades of practical experience, sources in international law, and common recommendations on best practices into one simplified resource. This toolkit is for civil society actors – international and local – and governments seeking to achieve a high global standard of…
By Garret Dellwo For over 20 years, the use of force by the U.S. military has caused significant civilian harm in multiple parts of the world. Yet, the U.S. has accepted limited responsibility and taken few steps to assess and respond to this harm. A report, prepared for CIVIC as my master’s capstone project at…
The UN peacekeeping mission in Mali has a new mandate. Weeks of negotiations between members of the UN Security Council concluded on June 29 with a reauthorization of the Mission. The renewal of MINUSMA’s mandate follows a series of tumultuous developments in Mali during the past six months. On the military front, France withdrew its longstanding…
As the war in Ukraine drags on, we continue to witness abuses against civilians and entire cities being razed to the ground. Elsewhere too, civilians are being slaughtered and starved with complete impunity such as in northern Ethiopia,or killed during security operations in Mali.Today, one-quarter of the world’s population lives in a conflict zone as…
By Vanja Kovac, CIVIC’s Gender Advisor The war in Ukraine and allegations of sexual violence by Russian troops have brought back to the forefront the issue of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). However, the history of CRSV is as old as war itself and attempts to stop and prevent it from happening have been mostly unsuccessful.…
By Beatrice Godefroy and Julien Théron Even as people in Ukraine’s Donbas region continue to suffer amid the seven-year-long conflict between government forces and Russian-backed separatists, populations elsewhere in Eastern Europe find themselves also at the center of lingering tensions between conflicting regional powers. The “flash” hostilities that broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan in…
“It has been six or seven years since the crisis started and I think we can say with absolute certainty that the situation is worse than before,” warned one humanitarian actor, describing the environment in Mali in May of 2019. The official told CIVIC, “The population is being pushed into the abyss.” Over the past…
Part 1 of our analysis discussed how MINUSMA’s new mandate affords greater priority to the protection of civilians. The piece also stressed that Member States must ensure the Mission has the necessary resources to achieve its expanded list of tasks. But prioritizing the protection of civilians (POC) and adding a second strategic priority are not the…