MONUC strengthens the capacity of its staff for the protection of civilian populations

Kinshasa, 12 April, 2010 - The protection of civilians remains at the heart of the priorities under the mandate of the United Nations Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC). In order to reinforce its operational capacities in the protection field, the Mission has undertaken to train staff to enable them to efficiently accomplish that work.

25 MONUC staff members from various sections of MONUC, who had voluntarily agreed to work for three months as part of the Joint Protection Teams (JPTs) and who had completed a 4-month training course on the protection of civilians, received their certificate of completion on Saturday 10 April 2010. These training activities under the coordination of the Civil Affairs and Human Rights sections took place in Goma, Bukavu, and Kisangani.

Training objectives included the following: understanding the notion of protection and its general principles in the context of United Nations peacekeeping; being able to distinguish between acts of common law, violations of human rights and, among these, identifying those requiring protection; building awareness regarding existing international legal instruments and national laws relevant to human rights, international humanitarian law and refugee law.

"MONUC is entering a withdrawal phase, at the request of the Congolese Government. The protection of civilians nevertheless remains the top priority for the Mission, and we still have plenty of time ahead of us in which to continue saving lives and finding sustainable solutions for the country’s eastern provinces which are not yet concerned by this withdrawal,” the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Leila Zerrougui, said in Kinshasa on Saturday 10 April 2010, on the occasion of the completion of the civilian training programme and the awarding of certificates of completion to participants.

"The training you have received this week is crucial, not just because it has provided the opportunity for some of you to acquire new skills and for others to strengthen those skills in handling the problems and practical tools pertaining to the protection of civilians. But also and most important, because we want to systematize and implement the best practices that we have identified so far, “Ms Leila Zerrougui said, addressing the laureates.

A critical mission

Since last February, MONUC has deployed 86 Joint Protection Teams in the eastern provinces and Equateur province. According to Ms Zerrougui, the additional staff that have come forward voluntarily have helped ''to reach a monthly deployment rate without precedent since 2009, when 15 missions were first deployed on an experimental basis.”

On 12 December 2009, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Alan Doss, launched a call for MONUC staff, national as well as international, interested in bringing their expertise to Joint Protection Mechanisms. 54 additional staff were temporarily deployed for three months in North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Bas-Uele, Equateur, northern Katanga and Maniema.

More than 49 community liaison interpreters will soon be deployed in six strategic military sectors in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to help improve relations between military personnel and local communities. These interpreters will facilitate the implementation of recommendations produced by the Joint Protection Teams, help in restoring confidence between peacekeepers and local communities, and contribute to preventing, reducing or, better, anticipating risks to civilian protection.

"Thanks to these Joint Protection Teams and community liaison interpreters we are generating a considerable amount of additional of information and field experiences. It is a whole new approach that is being put in place, an approach based on mutual understanding and confidence with the grassroots communities. An approach based on concrete and measurable actions, with a direct impact on the conditions in which protection is provided for populations; [an approach] that enables us to gradually get out of a sometimes crippling a culture of inaccurate reports and vague recommendations,” the Deputy Special Representative said.