On 10 June 2026, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding and members of the Creating Safer Space research network held an event at the UK Houses of Parliament on “Stories of Self-Protection: Centring Agency in the Protection of Civilians”.
The event built on the observation that at a time when the need to protect civilians from armed violence is more urgent than ever, the capacity and willingness of the international community to respond appears to be in decline. This reinforces the need to better understand and support community-led protection.
Building on evidence from the Creating Safer Space research network, the event highlighted a critical yet often overlooked dimension of civilian protection: the strategies and practices that individuals and communities use to protect themselves when international assistance is delayed, insufficient, or absent.
Moderated by Lord Jack McConnell, the event brought together academics, civil society practitioners, Members of Parliament, and civil servants to:
- Share evidence on community self-protection from conflict and atrocity contexts.
- Identify priorities to strengthen UK policy and practice on community self-protection.
Panel contributions by CSS researchers Nancy Annan, Chas Morrison, Marwan Darweish, and Berit Bliesemann de Guevara explored:
- Why and where this matters, from neglected crises to high-profile conflicts.
- Practical strategies for community self-protection, with evidence from Cameroon.
- How it functions through embedded mechanisms, with evidence from South Sudan.
- Policy blind spots in external support to self-protection, with evidence from Palestine.
Roundtable participants were then invited to reflect on:
- How the evidence reinforces or challenges current understandings of civilian protection.
- Opportunities for UK policy and programming to support community self-protection.
- One step the UK Government can take and how the expertise in the room can contribute.
The event was co-organised with the APPG Secretariat – Miranda Hurst and Jack Farrell – hosted by Search for Common Ground and kindly supported by Coventry University’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.
