Publications Library 

July 2026

Safe Shelter, Dignified Lives: Living Conditions in the Areas of Internal Displacement and Their Impact on Civilian Safety

Issue Brief

Years of large-scale ongoing displacement, housing destruction, and inaccessibility caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, have created a severe housing crisis across the country. Mandatory evacuations remain ongoing across frontline and border regions, affecting hundreds of settlements. Evacuation orders have been frequently issued in response to escalating insecurity and shifting frontlines. The following brief takes a closer look at the living conditions in the areas of internal displacement and their impact on civilian safety. It lays out key protection risks and concerns that civilians are facing, as well as recommendations for maintaining and/or improving their safety amidst displacement.

July 2026

Gender norms and protection: navigating agency, risk and backlash

Research Report

This report identifies six critical takeaways for humanitarian, protection and gender actors to strengthen the intersection of gender norms with protection action in the current hostile geopolitical context. It draws from research in Iraq, Myanmar, South Sudan and Ukraine, with a diverse spectrum of gendered protection actors and responses in support of communities. It identifies critical ways forward for humanitarian actors to strengthen gender-sensitive protection.

July 2026

Expanding the protection toolbox: community partnership in African-led peace operations

Research Report

The AU's 2023 civilian protection policy is ambitious, but communities remain sidelined. What would real partnership look like? African-led peace operations are playing an increasingly prominent role in continental peace and security. At the African Union, commitment to protecting civilians is growing through new policies and frameworks, including the 2023 Protection of Civilians policy. This report presents the challenges limiting the policy’s implementation and proposes expanding the African Union’s protection tools by recognising communities as protection actors and linking mission capacity to community-based approaches.

June 2026

Preventing Escalation, Restoring Cohesion: A Successful Experiment in Peaceful Conflict Resolution in the Buhavu Chiefdom

Case Study

When deadly landslides struck Bushushu and Nyamukubi on 4 May 2023, nearly 794 households fled to the Katashola plantation in Muhongoza village, Kalehe territory - settling without prior planning on farmland that the host community depended on for food and income. Over two years, what began as post-disaster solidarity deteriorated into a serious intercommunal crisis: huts were burned at night, markets became unsafe, and both communities lost access to their livelihoods. This case study examines how NP's facilitation of a structured community dialogue process interrupted that cycle and what made it work.

June 2026

Protection of Civilians in Temporarily Occupied Oleshky, Kherson Region

Programme Brief

This brief highlights a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian and protection crisis in the temporarily occupied settlements of Oleshky in the Kherson region. The brief calls for immediate humanitarian access, establishment of safe and dignified evacuation corridors, protection of civilians and humanitarian workers, and guarantees for the safe return of displaced residents once conditions allow.

2026

Night Markets: Community Partnerships for Safety

Case Study

As small businesses felt the impact from the pandemic and anti-Asian harassment surged across the U.S., NP became a key safety partner for Think!Chinatown (T!C)’s Night Markets. This case study reflects on the evolution of NP’s partnership with T!C and examines how this community partner continues to apply Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) practices. It demonstrates how direct protection practices, especially when rooted in community partnership, can foster both immediate safety and the conditions for longer-term peace.

January 2026

Youth of Sinjar: From Navigating Conflict Legacies to Leading in Peace and Social Cohesion

Case Study

In Sinjar and surrounding areas, youth-led efforts demonstrate practical peacebuilding through everyday actions. These efforts include organising community campaigns that respond to locally identified needs, such as access to electricity and community safety, while also facilitating dialogue, and advocating for dignified public life. This brief outlines key challenges that shape youth participation, highlights locally led responses, and proposes practical steps for policymakers, civil society organisations, and donors to strengthen youth leadership in peace and social cohesion. Recognising these realities is essential for advancing the Youth, Peace, and Security agenda in Ninewa in ways that are responsive to local priorities and constraints.

May 2026

PoC Week Through the Arts: Artists from Conflict on Protection, Pressure and Survival

Event Documentation

In a week defined by high-level statements and carefully hedged statements, the event tried to offer a different register (poetry, music, and visual art) created by people living in or displaced by conflict, presented in an intimate walking exhibition format.

May 2026

Centering civilian agency and community-led protection in an era of institutional constraints, austerity and impunity

Event Documentation

Overall, the discussion looked at locally-led unarmed civilian protection (UCP) approaches, how civilians and local organisations monitor, document, and advocate for community-level protection needs, and how this evidence can directly inform and strengthen civilian harm mitigation and response (CHMR) by armed actors, including by shaping how missions and military actors prevent, respond to, and account for direct and reverberating harm. Special attention was paid to how gender shapes protection risks and strategies, including how violence affects women, men, boys, and girls differently, and the leadership roles these groups play in community protection.

2026

Community-Led Analysis of Women, Peace and Security in Ninewa: Insights from Tel Afar, Sinjar, and Ba’aj

Programme Brief

Women in Iraq face structural barriers shaped by restrictive social norms, unequal access to resources, and limited participation in public and political life, with challenges amplified in conflict-affected Ninewa. This participatory analysis examines Women, Peace and Security dynamics in Tel Afar, Sinjar, and Ba'aj, drawing on focus group discussions and interviews with Women Peace Teams. Findings highlight how restrictive social norms, economic exclusion, and limited service and protection access constrain women's participation, and how community-led efforts work to address these harms.