An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir Dec 2018/Jan 2019 www.dfmagazine.ie 26 | T he year 2018 marks a number of monumental achieve- ments for Irish peacekeeping, these include 70 years of Irish involvement in the UN, 60 years of Irish com- mitment abroad on UN missions and it also marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of the United Nations Training School Ireland (UNTSI). Keeping up this proud tradition of instruction in the UNTSI School they recently held their 4th International Protection of Ci- vilians (POC) Course, a topic that has been pushed to the forefront of UN, EU and NATO lead overseas missions in the last number of years. The course highlights the importance of the POC aspects in overseas missions with a POC mandate, and gives the students the skills to implement a POC strategy into their role as peace- keepers. It also emphases the need to understand who is most vulnerable and most at risk in a conflict zone. Apart from the Irish Defence Forces members attending the course, we also had National and International students, the national students coming from the An Garda Síochána, Dept of Defence, and Irish Aid workers. The International students her- alded from near and far reaches of the globe, from five different continents. Closest to home was members from the British Army, from the Middle East there was members of the Israel Defence Forces, from North America there was members of the Mexican Army, from Asia there was members of the People's Army of Vietnam, and from Southern Africa there was members of the Lesotho Defence Forces. UNTSI School Comdt, Lt Col Timothy O'Brien spoke about the importance of this course, "The Protection of Civilians is arguably the most important challenge facing the UN as it continues to deploy peacekeepers throughout the world on complex multi-dimensional peace support operations. Members of the Defence Forces are currently deployed on mis- sions in Lebanon and DR Congo, which have POC mandates and it is necessary that officers and NCOs deploying on these missions have a thorough understanding of what is expected of peacekeep- ers when they have a POC mandate. As a result, UNTSI has been running this course for the last 4 years. The course also gives us an opportunity to share our perspective on POC with international colleagues as well as with Gardaí, humanitarian staff, members of the Dept of Defence and post grad third level students. The course will be run again next April and I would encourage members of the Defence Forces who are interested in learning more about POC, to apply for it." The first day of the course began with an introduction from the school staff, then a brief history of the Irish Defence Forces and the role of UNTSI. Then it was straight into the main topic, Protection of Civilians, this began with the students being shown a documentary produced by the UN called Mandated To Protect. At the start of the documentary, Ban Ki Moon former Secretary- General to the UN give an opening address, "The protection of REPORT AND PHOTOS BY CPL LEE COYLE Mandated to Protect: Protection of Civilians

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