Cairo, Egypt – CCCPA took part in the 73rd Tahrir Dialogue Series, titled “Peacekeeping Operations: Lessons Learned from 60 Years of Participation”. The session was organized by the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy of the American University in Cairo on 3 October 2018, with the support of the Embassy of Ireland in Cairo.
Guest speakers included former UNIFIL Force Commander, Major General Michael Beary, Senior Advisor to CCCPA, Brigadier General Ehab Khadr, former UN Resident Coordinator in Lebanon, Mona Hamman, Aileen Keating from UNTSO Jerusalem, and Karim Makdisi, associate professor of International Politics at the American University in Beirut.
Brigadier General Ehab Khadr discussed how peacekeeping operations promote international peace and security. He shed light on Egypt’s contributions to peacekeeping operations since 1960. Today, Egypt is the world’s 7th largest contributor of troops, 4th largest contributor of police and the 2nd largest contributor of military experts. It currently contributes to six UN peacekeeping operations, namely: MINUSCA (Central African Republic), UNAMID (Darfur), MONUSCO (the Democratic Republic of Congo), MINUSMA (Mali), MINURSO (Morocco), and UNMISS (South Sudan).
CCCPA organizes pre-deployment trainings for Egyptian peacekeepers joining UN peacekeeping missions. The trainings are held in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Defense, in accordance with General Assembly resolution A/RES/49/37. Since 2014, CCCPA has trained 11,815 Egyptian peacekeepers. The trainings are based on the UN Core Pre-Deployment Training Material (CPTM), including UN peacekeeping principles, international humanitarian law and human rights, the rules of engagement, protection of civilians, the role of gender and women in peacekeeping, and preventing sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers. Each training is tailored to the specific mandate of the related mission. Moreover, CCCPA is the sole provider of training to the North African Regional Capability (NARC) of the African Stand by Force (ASF).
