Protection of civilians during peacekeeping missions is expected to take centre stage during a two-day international conference that opens tomorrow in Kigali.

The conference, dubbed ‘International Conference on Civilian Protection’, will convene about 30 major peacekeeping contributing nations as well as top financial contributors to United Nations missions to evaluate and deliberate on ways to improve the protection of civilians from atrocities in armed conflict.

Among other issues, the conference will seek to address the differences in expectations and understanding of protection of civilians – which is often challenging – during peacekeeping missions.

"The conference will discuss these challenges and make concrete proposals on how to further enhance our collective responsibility for international peace and security, while protecting the most vulnerable,” a statement from the organisers reads in part.

The forum comes in the backdrop of repeated calls by several experts in peacekeeping on the need to revise approach to mediation and give new meaning to peace operations to ensure such missions deliver on their mandate.

Among those who have suggested revisiting of peacekeeping ‘modus operandi’ include Lt Gen (rtd) Romeo Dallaire, a former Force Commander of the UN Mission that was deployed in Rwanda in the lead up to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Dellaire’s lecture

During a lecture to officers at Rwanda Defence Forces Command and Staff College, last month, Dallaire questioned the logic of several practices and principles in peacekeeping such as officers from far-flung nations deployed to peacekeeping missions that end up having no impact because the peacekeepers are either disinterested in solving the problem or lack understanding of context.

The speakers and facilitators are prominent personalities in the peacekeeping world, including the former President of the south-east Asian nation Timor-Leste and José Ramos-Horta, the current chairperson of the independent panel on peace operations, among others.

Speaking to The New Times, Dr Eric Ndushabandi, a researcher at the Centre for Conflict Management at the University of Rwanda, said among the factors that have led to the failure of the United Nations system in civilian protection include influence from developed nations contributing to the missions, ineffectiveness of international law and sovereignty of states in regards to the principle of responsibility to protect.

"There should be a serious debate on the state sovereignty in the context of failure of the state in protecting civilians and anarchical order,” the scholar suggested.

The case of French troops’ conduct

Citing recent allegations that French troops serving in Central African Republic were involved in sexual abuse of children, Ndushabandi said the forum should as well address the conduct of peacekeepers while on duty.

He said, among others, the conference should look at how to improve the peacekeepers’ discipline in the field for the credibility of the United Nations system.

"The conference can revisit the UN criteria to recruit peacekeepers,” Ndushabandi said, adding that choice should be based on performance and discipline of the peacekeepers in their home countries.

Another scholar, Dr Charles Kabwete Mulinda, the head of Department of Political Science at the University of Rwanda’s College of Arts and Social Sciences, echoed Gen Dallaire’s comments, saying recent experience had proved that peacekeepers drawn from the region were better performers in civilian protection in restive regional countries.

He called on the conference to recognise regional countries’ effectiveness.

Kabwete added that the forum should break the popular perception that wealthier and more developed countries are always the best placed to protect civilians in the event of armed conflict.

The meeting, which is a follow-up on the summit on peacekeeping operations held in September, last year, at the margins of the 69th UN General Assembly, is expected to propose a raft of principles to effectively enhance the protection of civilians.