• In 2022, the number of casualties from fighting and its humanitarian consequences has risen sharply, according to the UN's annual report.
  • Its secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, believes that the international community then failed to protect civilians in conflicts.
  • Why is it so complicated for international organizations to fulfill this protection mission? Elements of answers with three specialists in the question.

This is a painful admission of failure for the international community. It has failed to protect civilians, innocent victims of armed conflicts around the world. The number of victims of fighting and its humanitarian consequences rose sharply in 2022. "The truth is terrible: the world is failing to fulfil its commitments to protect civilians, commitments enshrined in international humanitarian law," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.

Ukraine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Sahel, Somalia, Burma, Afghanistan, Syria... How to explain the impotence of organizations as influential as the UN in these countries? Why can't the international community, and the West on the front line, act as a shield against the violence suffered by the population? International humanitarian law is now showing its limits as it is violated by certain powers, but is it useless?

Deadlocks in the Security Council

In the case of armed conflicts, the UN Security Council has the means to act. It can, for example, decide on a mandate for a peacekeeping operation, which is the mission of the blue helmets. It can also form an international coalition, as was the case in Syria to fight the Islamic State in 2014. Except that the Security Council needs the agreement of the five permanent members (France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia and China) who also have the right of veto. This mandate to protect civilians is already "very complicated to put in place, when it is obtained because China and Russia are very reluctant and are in an offensive position to block everything," Camille Bayet, a doctoral student in political science at the Thucydides Center of Pantheon Assas University, told 20 Minutes.

A blockage that has been amplified with Russia's entry into the war. The latter is not going to shoot itself in the foot by authorizing a mission in Ukraine. It is a fact, "when a country invades its neighbor, it cares little about civilians," Isabelle Dufour, director of strategic studies at Eurocrise, told 20 Minutes. Since 2011, Beijing and Moscow have been reluctant to agree. The two friendly countries had agreed to the formation of a US-led humanitarian coalition in Libya. As a result, they felt betrayed when this coalition used the intervention to finally assassinate Muammar Gaddafi. "That's also why we've never intervened in Syria," Bayet said.

The difficult mission of peacekeeping

And even when we manage to intervene, as has been the case in the past in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Mali, the mission has often ended in failure. "These are conflicts that the armies cannot manage because the solutions are not military, we need a coherent strategy for a long-term state, and we cannot do it," says Isabelle Dufour. There is an acknowledgement of the failure of peacekeeping. »

A difficult mission that adds to a lack of will on the part of States. "We could imagine blue helmets in Burma, but are we ready to send our soldiers there? After so many failures and a very complicated work over years, we wonder what it is all about. In Sudan, for example, no militarily credible country wants to risk the skin of its soldiers," says Isabelle Dufour.

International law, a "soft" law

It is not so much the current weaponry that causes civilian casualties, but the use that is made of it. "Today, we are in a very precise industrial and technological dynamic, there is no more precise than the drone," explains Camille Bayet. So targeting hospitals, schools or using the double-strike technique, which consists of bombing an area that has just been attacked to cause even more casualties, is a deliberate act.

However, international humanitarian law (IHL) tends to limit the damage to civilians. And targeting civilians is strictly prohibited, it is a war crime. But "our application of this international humanitarian law is never perfect, it is a soft law, a right of regulation, there is no authority above the States that can enforce it," notes Isabelle Dufour. It is certainly imperfect, but for Camille Bayet, it remains indispensable. "If it didn't exist, wouldn't it be worse?" she asks.

Citizen mobilization, a means of pressure

The difficulty of protecting civilians also comes from the "civilianization of war," according to Julia Grignon, scientific director of the Institute for Strategic Research of the Ecole Militaire (Inserm) and professor at Laval University. "Today, they are closest to conflicts, as in Bakhmut or Mariupol, and sometimes they are the very stakes of the conflict," she said. To prevent them from being targeted, there are still economic, diplomatic or military sanctions even if "they are not totally effective means," concedes Julia Grignon.


Unfortunately, the year 2023 does not look much better than 2022. Tigray, Sudan, Burma, Armenia, not to mention the war in Ukraine which will continue to claim victims for years even if the fighting ends... "The outlook is not good," warns Isabelle Dufour. Julia Grignon then calls for "exerting pressure on our governments to act" and even if the situation is "a little desperate, we must remain mobilized."

  • War in Ukraine
  • Sudan
  • World
  • UN
  • Sahel
  • China
  • Russia
  • Burma