29.02.2016.

Course on the Protection of Civilians and Gender Perspective in Peacekeeping Operations

In the Centre for Peacekeeping Operations of SAF Joint Operations Command, today, a five-day course on "Protection of civilians and gender perspective in peacekeeping operations" has been officially opened. The aim is to enable the participants to enforce the United Nations standards on the protection of civilians and gender equality in peacekeeping operations.

The course is attended by 33 participants. Apart from the participants from the Serbian Armed Forces, there are also representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, Faculty of Security Studies and the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, as well as four members of the armed forces of the United Kingdom.

The gathering was chaired by Major General Slavoljub Janicijevic, Deputy Commander of Joint Operations Command of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff, Colonel Simon Peter Fitzgibbon, Defence Attaché of the United Kingdom and Colonel Milivoje Pajovic, MSc, Head of the Centre for Peacekeeping Operations.

At the beginning of the work, the present participants were welcomed by Ms Natasa Mrdak, Director of the Course, and the meeting was opened by General Janicijevic. He recalled that on that day, in various peacekeeping operations, there are 327 members of the Serbian Armed Forces, who are engaged on staff positions, as military observers, in medical teams, in military hospitals, in the platoon and company level units.

- So far only praise and high ratings of the results of our engagement have come from the missions. This is recognition on the one hand, but also a great obligation on the other for the members of the Serbian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence to attain these estimates of their abilities also in the following period - General Janicijevic said.

When it comes to the topic of the course, he said that this is not a special commitment of the Republic of Serbia, but the principled position of our country to devote significant attention to the original principles of the UN. He wished the participants in the course to take the opportunity to apply the rich experience of the panellists whom they will listen to this week in their future work in a creative manner and to be open and willing to acquire new knowledge.

As part of the opening ceremony, a panel discussion was organized on the current

migrant crisis, and the panellists were Vladimir Cucic, Commissioner for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia, Ljubomir Miladinovic from the Serbian Red Cross, Milos Strugar, a former Deputy Chief of mission in Lebanon, Ms. Rana Rahal, officer for Gender Equality of the UN mission in the Republic of Lebanon (UNIFIL) and Dragan Jonic from the Border Police Department of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia.

After the panel, Prof. Dr Djoko Maksic from the MMA, on the eve of the day of this military medical institution – 2^nd March, presented the Programme for organ donation and issuing donor cards, and the participants and the staff of the course, as well as members of the Peacekeeping Operations Centre, have joined this humane gesture and signed donor cards.