The Identity Work of Journalists and Humanitarians in South Sudan’s Protection of Civilians Sites

This article interrogates the simplistic juxtaposition of protectors and protected in South Sudan’s Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites, by asking: who was civilian in South Sudan, and how were civilians being protected? We present a civilian landscape that is much broader and more complex than the dominant PoC imaginary. Drawing attention to civilians who engage in professional tasks, the article considers the everyday practices of humanitarians and journalists. This illustrates that the category of ‘civilian’ is not the bureaucratic or legal certainty suggested by international law or PoC discourse, but unstable, shifting and constructed through everyday practice.