Challenges to Protection of Civilians in South Sudan A Warning from Jonglei State

"Protection of Civilians (PoC) is now well established as a policy realm within United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions, its agencies as well as among non-UN actors (Holt and Taylor 2009). However, as demonstrated in the literature on PoC and in the present volume, there is no unified understanding of what PoC means and entails in practice (Lie and de Carvalho 2010). This report focuses on how protection issues are conceptualized and operationalized among international stakeholders in Bor, the state capital of Jonglei state in South Sudan, and analyses key challenges to the implementation and impact of protection initiatives on the ground1. Since most of the literature on PoC tends to provide UN headquarters perspectives from various levels,2 the aim of the present study is to complement previous research by moving further down the protection chain and offering the perspectives of actors operating in the immediate interface with vulnerable populations. These actors include the military and civilian components of the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), various UN agencies, and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs).3 The PoC field in Bor has evolved as an important parameter to our broader understanding of the protection problematique, for several reasons. First, it adds another level of research to the protection chain. Second, it involves most of the relevant actors as found at higher levels. Third, due to the remoteness and particularities of Bor, these actors operate more detached from their mother institutions at more central headquarters levels. This context thus provides a privileged optic into the contextual application of the wider PoC sphere. This report focuses on how protection issues are conceptualized and operationalized among international takeholders in Bor, the state capital of Jonglei state in South Sudan, and analyses key challenges to the implementation and impact of protection initiatives on the ground."