Introduction

Abstract

The UN is currently transitioning out of some of its largest peacekeeping operations (PKOs) and cutting back these budgets. POC mandates largely arose from the experiences of the UN peacekeeping missions which failed to prevent genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the mid-1990s. The costs of the missions also increased dramatically, and the UN is under pressure to wind up some more of those that remain. As the UN has cut back its physical footprint, it has also been rethinking how it envisages itself providing protection to civilians under threat. POC was, until recently, primarily seen as a military task, but the UN is now placing more emphasis on Prevention, situational awareness and analysis of the human rights violations that often drive and accompany conflicts. The UN is ‘a complex network of entities’ and is also operationally very decentralized with significant authority delegated to senior officials in headquarters and the field. Getting the right information to the right place, at the right time and in the right format can be crucially significant in a particular crisis.