“Over the past sixty years, international humanitarian law (IHL) has established a comprehensive legal framework for the protection of civilians (PoC) in armed conflicts. There is broad consensus that these guidelines afford non-combatants significant protections from the effects of military operations – provided they are carefully implemented by all sides to a conflict. Notwithstanding these measures, on a daily basis civilians are directly affected, through death, injury, rape and forcible displacement as a direct consequence of war, or indirectly through conflict-induced increases in disease, hunger and malnutrition. This Policy & Practice Brief (PPB) discusses select recommendations that emerged from the Oslo, Norway, global conference of 2013, which built on the Geneva conventions of 1947 and 1977, respectively. It highlights these endorsements, while linking their application to ongoing processes and frameworks in the context of peace operations in Africa, with the goal of revamping the application of IHL in moderating existing and emerging hostilities across the globe.”
