United Nations

Women’s leadership and collective action have changed the world by combatting violence against women and building equality. Women’s leadership is central to reconciliation and conflict resolution and to peacebuilding efforts that bring results for families and communities.

Responders to natural disasters face increasingly complex operating environments, characterised by new challenges and new actors. Global trends that are overwhelming the international humanitarian system come into sharp focus in South-East Asia.

Australia’s peacekeeping and peace-building experiences in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, and in Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.

In August 2014, the United Nations (UN) Security Council declared the Ebola virus outbreak in the West African subregion a ‘threat to international peace and security’. The UN’s request for assistance from member states resulted in the mobilisation of technical expertise, medical capacity, humanitarian assistance, and military and civil defence assets.

Following on from the ACMC Australian Guidelines for the Protection of Civilians (2015) this handbook aims to provide the ‘what’, the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of protecting civilians in violent contexts and is intended for people working at the operational level including government, NGOs, UN and other organisations.

In August 2014, the United Nations (UN) Security Council declared the Ebola virus outbreak in the West African subregion a ‘threat to international peace and security’. The UN’s request for assistance from member states resulted in the mobilisation of technical expertise, medical capacity, humanitarian assistance, and military and civil defence assets.

Moving past the theoretical by drawing together the real-life experiences, reflections and lessons of male leaders from the Australian Defence Force, the Australian Federal Police and civilians.

Between November 2018 and November 2019, the primary author conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 100 Syrian women in Jordan and Lebanon – host countries for large numbers of Syrian refugees (along with many Palestinian and Iraqi refugees) – and in Australia. The women were between the ages of 18 and 63; most were in their 30s and 40s. The primary author also interviewed people working with Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon.

This document affirms the principles that guide the Australian Government and its stakeholders in international multiagency response efforts. It captures the best of the learning that has come from the Australian experience of contemporary operations overseas.