As Australia prepares to assume its two-year seat on the U.N. Security Council from Jan. 1, it will either have to react to, or may well decide to actively promote, the cause of protecting civilians caught in harm's way in contemporary armed conflicts. Either way, it would benefit from drawing on a recent study by the U.N. University in Tokyo and the UNU-affiliated Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law (IEGL) based at Griffith University in Brisbane.