After all these months, I did not see this coming before the IR...

BUT here's my hot take

1. What was billed as a review of the UK's Protection of Civilians *strategy* comes in the same form as the 2019 publication of the UK's *Approach* to Preventing Atrocities (even if this is longer & more detailed)

That means it is a guidance note not part of national strategy

2. It was drafted before Covid and published the week before the merger

WHY?

Does this mean it technically represents a document of the pre- #FCDO structure?

It seems like it does...

But surely that's absurd? Cross cutting issues such as civilian protection, conflict prevention, atrocity prevention MUST now be re-imagined for the new @FCDOGovUK structure, ways of working, priorities - because all these agendas were falling between FCO & DfID cracks

3. The document indicates the intention to pursue the protection of civilians in a more joined up manner. Bringing in WPS, PSVI, #R2P (I'm getting to that, don't worry), sexual exploitation & abuse etc is good stuff to see.

BUT it doesn't really explain *how* this will be done

4. Okay - now the #R2P and atrocity prevention stuff.

YES, fab to see commitments to R2P + atrocity prevention included explicitly in UK's approach to #POC.

It's great the UK is continuing to do more to replicate its multilateral commitments in national instruments & policy.

5. BUT I'm still worried that HMG continues to see atrocity crimes as violence that follows on from conflict rather than a driver itself (see Syria, Rakhine - in the 90s, Bosnia, Rwanda). This impedes UK POC, conflict prevention & development

Read more https://protectionapproaches.org/preventingwhileprotecting

6 Thus new UK approach to civilian protection underlines urgent need for clarity of exactly how "atrocity prevention is integrated into UKs overall approach to conflict prevention" AND how UK 'early warning mechanisms identify countries at risk of atrocities'

cc @StabilisationUK

(The way to do this, of course, is introduce a national strategy of atrocity prevention, embedding the prevention of identity-based violence from violent extremism to genocide in national security & across departments)

https://protectionapproaches.org/news/f/submission-to-the-integrated-review-of-uk-international-policy

https://ecr2p.leeds.ac.uk/what-can-the-uk-do-to-help-protect-the-uyghurs-adopt-a-national-strategy-of-atrocity-prevention/

Soz...had to plug the #UKMAprev work

7 It matters the word 'prevention' is only used 4 times. The UK has got to get behind a prevention-first approach to these issues, integrating prevention analysis at every stage. This is something NATO commanders + peacebuilding NGOs agree on. And it saves money as well as lives

8. The merger should strengthen UK's implementation of civilian protection & the related agendas this note sets out eg atrocity prevention, PSVI, WPS. But this doc doesn't tell us how. It also doesn't address the big challenges to POC or set a vision for what HMG wants to achieve

That should be addressed by the #integratedreview. POC should be rooted in a strategy that seeks to prevent the violence that kill civilians: war and atrocities. Both need addressing urgently. The UK doesn't have an atrocity prevention strategy but needs one. #UKMAprev

Okay, that's it. That's my quick fire take on the UK Approach to Protecting Civilians in Conflict. Now back to my actual #integratedreview submission...