Executive Summary
This policy brief focuses on the efforts of United Nations police to protect civilians from physical violence in armed conflict and post-conflict situations, and in situations where violence risks escalating to full-blown war or mass atrocities. In these contexts, UN police can play a vital role in maintaining security and protecting the civilian population from physical violence, and can fill a critical gap between the protection capabilities of military and civilian components of peacekeeping missions. However, the lack of clear doctrinal guidance has created confusion about the specific tasks to be undertaken by the police, the coordination and division of roles and responsibilities between the police and the military, and the precise role of the different UN police components.
This brief identifies six doctrinal gaps facing UN police with regard to the protection of civilians from
physical harm. These gaps have affected UN police effectiveness and preparedness in implementing
protection mandates, and include:
• Lack of conceptual clarity on how to engage in physical protection as opposed to other forms of
protection;
• Confusion around the precise roles of the different UN police components, namely individual police
officers (who are generally unarmed and are used in community-policing and capacity-building),
formed police units (armed and with expertise in public-order management), and specialized
police teams (a group of experts in a particular area of policing);
• Conceptual ambiguities in relation to non-executive mandates;
• Confusion over the use of force;
• Lack of clear coordination guidelines between the police and the military in different protection
scenarios; and
• Gaps linked to contexts in which major organized conflict coexists with other types of criminal
violence, such as in the Central African Republic, or in post-conflict situations where low-intensity
violence continues to pose significant physical threats to civilians. In these scenarios, military capabilities,
especially the use of lethal force, may be unsuitable to address physical violence related
to problems of public order and criminality.
To enhance UN police capabilities with regard to physical protection will require the UN Department
for Peacekeeping Operations to take the following steps:
• Adopt new guidance on police and protection with a focus on addressing current gaps;
• Address broader capability and training deficiencies affecting the preparedness of UN police in the
implementation of protection mandates;
• Expand the number of police-contributing countries that can provide capable police;
• Encourage further political engagement with police- and troop-contributing countries so that they
better understand the responsibilities of police in physical protection; and
• Promote agreements with regional organizations for the deployment of rapid-reaction units of individual
police officers and formed police units.