Practice Relating to Rule 143. Dissemination of International Humanitarian Law among the Civilian Population
In 2008, in a statement before the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly on the status of the 1977 Additional Protocols, made on behalf of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, the representative of Sweden stated: “To uphold respect for international humanitarian law, we must work in a preventive manner through such means as awareness raising campaigns for, and education in, international humanitarian law.”
[W]e must have a stronger policy for protecting children’s rights in peacekeeping operations. The recent serious allegations in the Central African Republic bear tragic witness to the importance of this. It is essential that personnel deployed in the field have adequate training in the rights of the child. Among the many steps needed, one could be to include child protection structures, including child protection focal points, in all missions and make pre-deployment training of peacekeepers in child protection mandatory. The coming United Nations Child Protection Training of Trainers Course that will be hosted by the Swedish Armed Forces this autumn will contribute to this.