30 July 2007…..

The Second Forum for Peacekeeping Operations in Africa was held on 25 July 2007, on the effects of peacekeeping operations in Africa on women and children. It was co-organized by the Cairo Center for Training on Conflict Resolution and Peacekeeping in Africa at the Institute for Diplomatic Studies affiliated to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the International Centre for Future and Strategic Studies, at the headquarters of the centre in New Cairo.

The forum was held in four sessions, in addition to an opening session and a closing one. Numerous specialists in this area took part in the forum, and a number of Egyptian and African current and former senior diplomats, experts, academics and writers, as well as former officials in African and international peacekeeping missions spoke, which enriched discussions and combined all diplomatic, research, academic, and scientific dimensions and helped analyze the subject.

Discussions focused on women and children between the flame of disputes and conflicts in the continent on one hand, and peacekeeping operations on the other, and the responsibility of the peacekeeping troops to provide protection to women and children in the regions of conflicts, as well as recognizing the various forms of violations of the rights of women and children committed in some regions, which were supposed to be under the protection of African or international peacekeeping troops. The discussions also tackled demonstrating the problems related to the participation of women in peacekeeping operations in Africa, and the lessons learned from practical experience to protect the rights of women and children during the peacekeeping operations in Africa.

During the forum they also combined the theoretical framework with the practical experiences in analyzing the problems of the peacekeeping operations and the violations of the rights of women and children from historical and current perspectives. The also discussed the future visions of how to transcend these violations in a more general framework in order to bestow a more humane dimension on their work. They also tackled the need to offer special training on how to deal with women and children in the regions of conflict, in addition to incorporating a social and economic development dimension focusing on the status of women and children in the activities of the peacekeeping operations.

The participants stressed on the importance of continuing dialogue on peacekeeping operations in Africa, and indicated that they are looking forward to the third forum, which is expected to focus on specific topics, just like the second forum focused mainly on the repercussions of these operations on women and children, since the first forum had provided a comprehensive and general background for discussing the subject.

The participants also suggested that the Cairo Center for Training on Conflict Resolution and Peacekeeping in Africa should concentrate on the effects of the peacekeeping operations in Africa on women and children in regions of disputes in the training courses it offers to diplomats and to Africans participating in the peacekeeping missions.