A Brief Report about the Civil Military Affairs Conference 2011 was held at Canberra

The Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan Tasawar Khan and Defence Advisor Brigadier Zahoor Ahmad participated in the Civil Military Affairs Conference "Enhancing the Protection of Civilians in Peace Operations: From Policy to Practice" from 24-26 May 2011 in Canberra. The conference was organized by Asia Pacific Civil Military Centre of Excellence at Q Theatre, Queanbeyan.

The objective of the Civil-Military Affairs Conference (CMAC) was to consider the latest developments to improve Protection of Civilians (POC) effectiveness and its impact on the security and rights of women and children in conflict zones. The conference brought together approximately 100 high-level speakers and delegates from the United Nations, the African Union, troop and police contributing countries to United Nations peace operations, representatives from African Peacekeeping training centres, diplomats, the non-government sector, academia and the Australian Government.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, Senator David Feeney opened the Conference at Hotel Realm on 24th May 2011. Hon Kevin Rudd, Minister of Foreign Affairs delivered the opening address at the Conference on 25th May, while the Defence Minister of Australia Hon Stephan Smith hosted the official dinner of the Conference for the participants at Australian War Memorial.

Pakistan has a long and cherished history of supporting United Nation’s peacekeeping missions. Since 1960, Pakistan has been actively involved in most of the UN Peacekeeping missions and today stands at the top with 10,175 troops and observers serving in current missions. Some of the major contributions made by Pakistan were in Somalia, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Congo and Liberia.