UN CHILD PROTECTION COURSE AT SWEDINT

SWEDINT hosting the first Child Protection training of the trainers course

SWEDINT – 22 August 2014 kl: 22.03
Archived news

The credibility of a UN-mission depends on many factors, but at the very core of a missions success or failure lies the capability and readiness to protect civilians, in particular children. If the UN cannot protect children from harm the other efforts made by the mission may be regarded as ineffective.In order to address this issue and really stress the importance of protecting children in conflict the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations has developed a course that will enhance UN-peacekeepers’ ability to take the necessary and correct actions to protect the ones that cannot protect themselves.

UN Child Protection Course, SWEDINT, Ny kurs för 2015
UN Child Protection Course, SWEDINT, Ny kurs för 2015
Photo: Thorsten Hagelberg, SWEDINT
UN Child Protection Course, SWEDINT, Ny kurs för 2015
First student from Burkina Faso, Major Franck Nion pinpointed his country on the world map, students from 145 countries have so far been provided training and education at SWEDINT Photo: Thorsten Hagelberg, SWEDINT
SWEDINT, UN Child Protection Course
Participants at the UN Child Protection Course Photo: Thorsten Hagelberg, SWEDINT

27 experienced trainers from 23 different nationalities have now commenced their training at the Swedish Armed Forces International Centre and will after the course be ready to implement the training in order to conduct pre-deployment training on child protection to peacekeepers in their respective countries.The participants range from key troop contributing countries who deploy military peacekeepers to missions with child protection mandates, notably MONUSCO, UNMISS, UNAMID, MINUSMA, MINUSCA, MINUSTAH and UNOCI.
“We have to prevent violations against children, to allow children to build their future on positive memories”, says Major Gaurav Bhatia from India, “and this training gives me the foundation to know how to do that.”
The programme was enriched by the participation of child protection advisers and in-mission the peacekeeping missions in Mali, Central African Republic and Sudan, who shared their experience with national trainers.
DPKO and SWEDINT hope that all participants will use this training to train peacekeepers on this important mandate. In the words of Rafael Barbieri, Course Director, Member States Training Support, Team Leader, DPKO: “All peacekeepers need to be trained on the key concepts on child protection before they deploy. Probably these trainers will never know it, but if they deliver this training, they will be saving children’s lives”.