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May 13, 2024 | The United Nations (UN) recently released its Agenda for Protection, a comprehensive document aiming to enhance protection as a collective responsibility across various UN components. It addresses previous shortcomings highlighted by inquiries into UN responses in Myanmar and Sri Lanka. However, it faces challenges due to geopolitical dynamics undermining multilateral action and UN entities’ limited roles in ongoing conflicts. 

Damian Lilly and Jennifer Welsh emphasizes human rights agenda but they mention how it lacks specific measures to align protection approaches across the UN and faces implementation hurdles. Despite promising elements like the Protection Support Hub, questions remain about resource allocation and practical execution. "Given these many challenges, the Agenda for Protection takes a calibrated approach to the UN’s protection role. But it also takes a clear stand on the aim and substance of protection, grounding it in human rights and linking those rights to concrete protection outcomes," they wrote. They underscored the need for the agenda’s implementation and ensuring that it receives the necessary political support from senior UN leadership and adequate resources to deliver the kind of protection that at-risk populations ultimately expect from the United Nations.