ASTANA (TCA) — The Kazakh Partnership for Peace Training Centre (KAZCENT) recently received approval from the United Nations (UN) to train peacekeepers from around the world in the “Protection of Civilians” and “UN Headquarters Staff Officers” courses, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said.
Documents on Kazakhstan’s recognition of compliance with the standards of UN peacekeeping courses, developed by Kazakh instructors and conducted at KAZCENT, were signed by UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix at the UN headquarters in New York.
Approval for Kazakhstan to run these courses was preceded by a thorough and long-term study of the country’s approach to training peacekeepers, as well as a visit to Almaty in December by a representative of the UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations, Lieutenant Colonel Said Tafid, who visited the KAZCENT base, assessed the training instructors and evaluated the content and compliance of training courses with UN standards.
KAZCENT is the only full member of the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres in the region.
KAZCENT courses are conducted to prepare peacekeepers for work in the multinational headquarters of UN missions. An integral part of the training is familiarisation with the basics, principles and goals of peacekeeping. During the training, considerable attention is paid to the issues of protecting civilians, explaining the procedure and features of UN peacekeeping operations. Many graduates of KAZCENT subsequently hold senior positions in peacekeeping missions, including commanders of peacekeeping centres and heads of the training department of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara.
Following the active and successful work of Kazakhstan in the UN Security Council during its 2017-218 term, in October 2018, Kazakhstan for the first time sent 120 peacekeepers to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, many of whom were trained at KAZCENT.
