This CIPSS research stream comprises a series of projects and policy-engagement activities that relate to the protection of civilian populations in armed conflict, refugees, and internally displaced peoples.

Projects engage in analysis of:

1. the normative and legal frameworks for protection - including the UN’s Protection of Civilians agenda, the principle of the ‘responsibility of protect’, the laws and norms related to asylum and refugees, and the Guiding Principles for IDPs

2. how the actors and institutions engaged in protection and humanitarian action are responding to both the changing nature of conflict and broader shifts in geopolitics.

Research within this stream has led to a series of publications, reports, and policy dialogues with practitioners from humanitarian NGOs, the UN’s Department of Peace Operations, and national governments.