Protection of Civilians from the Perspective of the Soldiers who Protect: Ghana and India in United Nations Peacekeeping

This report explores how India and Ghana, two of the main countries contributing troops to UN missions, define, approach and experience in-mission protection of civilians. What do they consider its key components to be? What do they think is required to protect well? And what combat experiences do they draw on in implementing the protection of civilians when they deploy? The report concludes that how the protection of civilians is conceived and approached in the UN’s peace support operations reflects the combat experience of troop-contributing countries. Peace support operations are constituted by a range of armies that differ in size, combat experience, levels of funding, etc. Different historical trajectories, technical capabilities and political motivations in respect of peace-support operations shape their views on the tasks allocated to them by the UN Security Council, as well as their ability and willingness to carry them out.