By all means necessary: Protecting civilians and preventing mass atrocities in Africa
Edited by Dan Kuwali and Frans Viljoen
2017
ISBN: 978-1-920538-66-8
Pages: 496
Print version: Available
Electronic version: Free PDF available
About the publication
Recent times have witnessed civilians increasingly becoming the main casualties of violence, often deliberately targeted rather than merely caught up in the midst of the fighting in armed conflicts, leading to an unacceptably high toll on human life and livelihoods of civilians around the globe, and particularly in Africa.
The Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, with the assistance of the United States Africa Command through the Africa Military Law Forum, on 18 and 19 September 2014 hosted a ‘Colloquium on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict’, in Pretoria, bringing together over 80 academics, judges, practitioners, policy makers, military personnel, government officials and other commentators. The aim of the Colloquium was to consider the legal, procedural and practical challenges in the implementation of measures to protect civilians in armed conflicts and prevent mass atrocities.
Participants examined the notions of the ‘responsibility to protect’ (and its relationship to article 4(h) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union) and the ‘protection of civilians’. They further examined the scope and effectiveness of states’ obligations under international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and the law relating to the protection of women, girls, children, internally displaced persons, refugees and other vulnerable populations in armed conflict.
This publication, By all means necessary: Protecting civilians and preventing mass atrocities in Africa, consists of the papers presented at the Colloquium, which were subsequently peer-reviewed and reworked, and updated. The Colloquium and this publication were sponsored by the Norwegian Government, through its Embassy in Pretoria.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Abbreviations and acronyms
List of contributors
PART I: IMPLEMENTATION OF PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS MANDATES
Introduction
Dan Kuwali and Frans Viljoen
Article 4(h), the responsibility to protect and the protection of civilians
Dan Kuwali
Defining protection of civilians in the context of armed conflicts 41
Conor Foley
Interpretation of protection of civilians mandates in United Nations Security Council Resolutions 73
Dire Tladi
PART II: PROTECTION OF SPECIFIC POPULATIONS AND PROPERTY AT RISK
Protection of civilians from wilful killing in armed conflicts
Thompson Chengeta
Prevention of violent extremism in Africa
Dan Kuwali
Protection of children in armed conflicts
Cephas Lumina
Protection of refugees and internally displaced persons during armed conflicts
Cristiano d’Orsi
Protection from sexual and gender-based violence in Africa
Dan Kuwali, Catherine Nakirya and Grace Amuge
Protection of minorities
Dan Kuwali and Gudmundur Alfredsson
Protection of cultural heritage during armed conflicts in Africa
Jan F Mutton
PART III: MEANS AND STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH MASS ATROCITIES
The role of humanitarian agencies in the protection of civilians
Anna Larsson and Dan Kuwali
The role of the UN Human Rights Council Special Procedures in protecting the right to life in armed conflicts
Thomas Probert
The role of courts in protection of civilians
John-Mark Iyi
Conflict prevention, peace building and prevention of mass atrocities
Mphatso Boti-Phiri
The role of the United Nations Security Council in protection of civilians
Neville Dastoor and Dan Kuwali
PART IV: LESSONS LEARNT IN PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS IN ARMED CONFLICTS
Protection of civilians in armed conflicts in West Africa
Buba Bojang
No peace, no war: Protection of civilians in the Great Lakes Region of Africa
Bright Nkrumah and Godard Busingye
Protection of civilians in the Horn of Africa
Paul Phiri
Protection of civilians: Experiences from the Middle East and North Africa
Joe Stork
The African Union’s agenda on the protection of civilians: A review of its ambition and practice
Solomon Dersso
Asian perspectives on atrocity prevention and protection of civilians
Noel M Morada
PART V: THE FUTURE OF PROTECTING CIVILIANS AND PREVENTING MASS ATROCITIES IN AFRICA
Overcoming challenges in protecting civilians
Gilbert Mittawa
The future of protection of civilians in Africa
Dan Kuwali
Conclusion
Dan Kuwali and Frans Viljoen
Selected bibliography
Keywords: