ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the uncertainties of international protection. It discusses that many of the problems of international protection arise not at the conceptual level, but in its interaction with other key aspects of international relations. The chapter considers the protection of civilians during armed conflict (POC), looking at the long-established principle of civilian immunity and its status in relation to parties to armed conflict and to peacekeeping operations. Protection, which manifests concern with the 'life, liberty and security of person' of individual people inevitably interacts with sovereignty. Bellamy and Williams identify six 'streams of thought and policy' on civilian protection, associated variously with: international humanitarian law (IHL); humanitarianism; the UN Security Council; peacekeeping mandates; regional arrangements; and Responsibility to Protect (R2P). The challenges for international protection of fundamental human rights could hardly be greater, especially given the inherently anti-social character of contemporary war.
