For twenty years, from 1986-2006, northern Uganda experienced a long and vicious civil war. Fought mainly between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the conflict displaced between 1.5 and two million people across vast swathes of…
In every crisis people find creative ways to protect themselves. Examples include digging trenches in market places in Sudan for protection from aerial bombings; establishing underground schools and medical clinics in Afghanistan and Syria to continue lifesaving services; using radio…
In the context of widespread sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Colombia, the courageous work of grassroots women’s organisations in the Pacific coastal city of Buenaventura has been critical in saving lives, accompanying and supporting survivors and their families, and…
Communities and individuals affected by armed conflict and violence do not wait for humanitarian actors to analyse and address the problems and threats they face. They permanently monitor their surroundings and take decisions themselves: displacing themselves as a self-protection mechanism,…
In the past ten years, the city of Medellín in Colombia has received more than 300,000 people displaced by violence. When other options other than leaving fail, the process of settling elsewhere is itself primarily a process of collective action…
The ways in which communities respond to risks vary widely, and their protection strategies can be positive or negative in the effects they have on people’s lives. In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), positive community protection strategies include women…
The protection of civilians has become a central tenet of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping. Most peacekeeping missions are now mandated to support host authorities in various forms but are also required to take unilateral action should the host government be…
The critical role of people themselves as ‘providers of first resort’ in displacement is well established. Community-based protection is now a key principle for UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) and for non-government organisations (NGOs) but the question of how to…
Making refugee camps ‘safe’ for their residents is the responsibility of police, military or other national security forces in host countries. Aid agencies and governments alike acknowledge that the (physical) protection of camp refugees is meaningless without refugees’ own active…
Community centres and their protection role Nicolas Martin-Achard In situations of forced displacement, the ties which hold a community together are often severely weakened or broken. Maintaining the social fabric of displaced communities and promoting their peaceful coexistence with…