The event is jointly held by the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations (VNDPKO) under the Ministry of National Defense and the UK Defense Attache Office in Hanoi to assist Vietnam in deploying an engineer company to a peacekeeping mission in 2020.

It will also help improve capacity of VNDPKO instructors to organize training course on the matter for the Vietnamese peacekeeping force before taking up missions overseas.

Main contents in the exchange program include basic principles of the International Humanitarian Law, especially those regarding preventing and fighting sexual and gender violence against civilians, and how to prevent discrimination against victims and support them to reintegrate into the society.

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At the exchange

Participants are also equipped with knowledge about international laws and resolution of the UN Security Council related to human rights, and international instructions on the protection of civilians, focusing on women and children.

The exchange is also set to raise the soldiers’ awareness of their responsibility towards women and children while fulfilling their UN peacekeeping tasks.

Addressing the opening ceremony in Hanoi on March 18, Senior Colonel Nguyen Nhu Canh, deputy director of the VNDPKO, said the exchange is particularly useful in the context of the fruitful development of defense ties between Vietnam and the UK, as well as their cooperation in UN peacekeeping operations.

Colonel David Houghton, UK Defense Military Attaché, said information shared during the exchange is essential to countries joining UN peacekeeping missions, and noted his hope that Vietnamese forces will apply effectively the knowledge during the operations.

Source: VNA