OSN a ochrana civilistů v ozbrojených konfliktech

The article deals with the protection of civilians in armed conflicts. It studies the important shift to be observed in the UN context in the past decade after the UN Security Council had decided to put this theme on its agenda. Taking into account the nature of conflicts we see emerging in the world after the Cold had ended in 1989 – asymmetrical new wars taking place in the territories of dysfunctional or entirely failed states, whose parties and actors are not only armed forces of these states, but also various paramilitary groups, private militias, liberations movements, etc. – the protection of civilians has become not only a matter of respect for the norms of international humanitarian law, but also an important, maybe even a key question from the point of view of international peace and security. The text analyses the legal concept of protection of civilians in armed conflicts – especially the impact its current development has on rapprochement/amalgamation of so far separated branches of public international law (international humanitarian law, international human rights law, refugee law, international criminal law). It comments on the thematic debates in the Security Council on this topic between 1999 and 2009. It follows the efforts of the Security Council to strengthen the valid international Jaw and its rule in this area, to enforce more vigorously the international responsibility for its violations, to create, in the other words, the climate of compliance instead of climate of impunity.