Publications Library 

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.

May 2026

Protecting Those Who Stay: Rethinking Duty of Care

Issue Brief

At NP, a holistic Duty of Care framework embeds physical, technical, psychosocial, and operational safety measures into the design and delivery of our work. NP’s Duty of Care approach has been shaped most clearly through experience in high-intensity conflict settings such as Ukraine. Yet, we're finding that the principles underpinning the approach are transferable across diverse operational environments. Our latest briefing explores how we are adapting the Duty of Care package across varying conflict landscapes, from Ukraine, DRC, Iraq, Myanmar, to South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and within the United States.

2025

Protection Trends Report 2025

Programme Brief

New report documents how contemporary conflicts are increasingly fought in civilian spaces, exposing communities to sustained violence, dangerous and cyclical displacement, widespread hunger, climate-related insecurity, conflict-related sexual violence, misinformation, and shrinking humanitarian access. Drawing on frontline reporting and close engagement with affected communities, the report highlights both the erosion of formal protection systems and the growing sense of abandonment felt by civilians. At the same time, it underscores that, even under extreme constraint, civilians continue to act with agency to protect themselves and one another — reinforcing the urgent need for preventive, civilian-led, and nonviolent protection approaches grounded in long-term presence and trust.

February 2026

Evacuation and Emerging Threats: The case of STEEL and what its first-year impacts tell us about civilian protection during modern-day warfare

Programme Brief

This impact report assesses the results from the first year of the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UHF) funded ‘Safe Transport for Emergency Evacuations and Logistics’ (STEEL) project, co-implemented by Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) and the Relief Coordination Centre (RCC). In this 19-month long project, RCC is NP’s subgrantee but remains the key implementor of the project, while NP provides technical support. Considering the unique nature of STEEL, and that the provision of Armoured Vehicles (AVs) to local partners is rare, NP has conducted this in-depth impact analysis of its first year of implementation as a way of supporting ongoing, adaptive programming.

January 2026

Expanding Duty of Care: Provision of Frequency Analysers for Frontline Humanitarian Networks in Ukraine

Programme Brief

Improvised Combat Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (ICUAVs) have become the deadliest threat to humanitarian operations in Ukraine. Local humanitarian organisations conducting frontline operations bear disproportionate exposure to this threat and have repeatedly requested support in obtaining frequency analysers (FAs) — passive radio wave detection devices that provide real-time alerts about drone presence. As the threat of ICUAVs expands globally, the frameworks developed in Ukraine will inform sector-wide approaches to emerging threats.

December 2025

Collective site(s) in Frontline Oblasts: Accessibility Assessment

Programme Brief

This assessment, conducted by Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) from July 2025 to October 2025, evaluates the current conditions of collective sites (14) accommodating internally displaced persons (IDPs) in frontline oblasts — Khersonska, Donetska, and Kharkivska — and identifies urgent repairs needed to improve accessibility, particularly for people with disabilities and the elderly. This assessment is especially critical given the escalating security risks caused by intensified shelling, missile strikes, and drone attacks in these areas which have led to a growing number of IDPs seeking refuge.

November 2025

Peacebuilding is Possible in Emergency Contexts: Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) as a Peacebuilding Approach

Issue Brief

Peacebuilding is often assumed to begin after violence ends. Yet many of the drivers of conflict- such as distrust, fractured institutions, and exclusion - are most visible and most urgent during moments of emergency or crisis. Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) is a form of peacebuilding which bridges this gap: it allows local actors to begin or sustain peacebuilding efforts in the midst of insecurity, through protective presence, relationship-building, and inclusive engagement.

2024

Community is the Answer | Unarmed Civilian Protection in Practice 2024

Extended Annual Report

Amidst escalating violence against civilians, it is critical that we recognise examples of possibility and hope. This publication contains testimonies of fortitude, of lives saved, of relationships repaired—always amidst difficulty and violence, but pursued nevertheless. We hope these actions and insights remind us that prevention, protection, and repair are possible, of the importance of investing in peace and protection to save lives, and as inspiration for future action.

November 2024

Localisation in Practice: Implementing Responsible Humanitarian Partnerships in Ukraine

Programme Brief

This brief will share the programmatic interventions implemented by NP in its attempt to bridge risk gaps between responders and assess their impact on asymmetric relationships between international and local actors, identifying where local actors are still absorbing disproportionate risk. Over the course of implementing different strategies, NP and our partners have learned instructive lessons, and this brief seeks to illuminate these so that other organisations and donors can learn from these experiences. We provide these broader recommendations for responsible partnerships for the implementation of localised humanitarian responses and for the better protection of civilians throughout Ukraine and beyond.

March 18, 2024

Perilous Journeys: Protection risks and responses to Ukrainian citizens returning from the Russia-occupied areas

Programme Brief

The movement from Russian-occupied Ukraine to Ukrainian-controlled territory entails numerous protection risks as people travel through regions heavily affected by conflict and into Russia, subjected to at least two security screenings, all before crossing into Sumy region of Ukraine via the Kolotilovka (RU)-Pokrovka (UA) border checkpoint. The Government of Ukraine, national and international humanitarian organisations, civil society groups, and international donors can take several steps to better respond to protection risks and challenges faced by Ukrainians returning from occupied area.