PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS (POC) COURSE – 2

In the past few decades, civilians have increasingly become the victims of armed conflict. In response, the Security Council has mandated a number of Peacekeeping Operations with the PoC from physical violence. In this regard the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and the Department of Field Support (DFS) have devoted significant attention to improving the performance in this area. As a result, training on POC has become of crucial importance in enhancing peacekeepers’ capacity to implement their mandates.

Realizing the importance, Centre for International Peace and Stability (CIPS)/ UN Peacekeeping Training Department (PKT) conducted Protection of Civilians Course Serial 2 from 04 Dec to 15 Dec 2016. This course was attended by Twenty five participants which included nine from Pakistan Armed Forces, five foreign student and eleven civilians. Foreign participants were from Egypt, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka. A instructor from Malaysia also joined CIPS faculty.

The Course was run on various modules on different aspects of UN Peacekeeping Operations in the context of PoC. The participants went through the learning process which included all the necessary UN modules including core pre-deployment training (CPTM), specialized training material (STM) and PoC Module which included child protection, human rights and conflict related sexual violence. Inter Group activity was also generated. Subject Matter Experts as well as reps from different UN Organizations and officers from Military Operations Directorate, GHQ also delivered lectures as visiting faculty. At the end of the course a two day situation based scenario oriented “CARANA Exercise” was also conducted which gave lot of situational experience to the participants.

Foreign students were administratively looked after well. They were taken around to Islamabad/ Rawalpindi, Murree and Army Museum

The course ended with a formal closing ceremony which was attended by reps of UN Organizations, many Defence Attaches, members from Academia and others. His Excellency Mr. Takashi KURAI, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan honored CIPS as the Chief Guest and awarded the certificates to the successful participants.