Protection through Vulnerability: A Gendered Analysis of Unarmed Civilian Protection

Abstract

Unarmed civilian protection (UCP) is a nonviolent method of civilian-to-civilian protection and civilian self-protection. Without the use of weapons, ucp instrumentalises nonviolent bodies in the protection of themselves and each other, with methods including interpositioning, protective accompaniment, and proactive engagement with armed and unarmed actors. Where traditional security actors may seek to reduce their own bodily precariousness and vulnerability, ucp practitioners instead embrace and instrumentalise their material vulnerability to violence in their own protection and the protection of others. This paper explores the complexity of the role of precariousness and vulnerability in civilian-to-civilian protection and its intersection with gender, age, while making a feminist critique of associations between protection and strength. It does this through two case studies: Women's Protection Teams in South Sudan - groups of women who come together to address physical and gender-based violence in their communities - and ucp engagement with boys and young men affected by blood feuds. The article seeks to demonstrate the possibility of pursuing protection not through strength but through an embrace of the vulnerability of civilians at risk of physical harm and sexual violence.