PRESS RELEASE BY THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AND EUROPEAN AFFAIRS AND TRADE Agreement between the Government of Malta & the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for[...]

Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade Ian Borg has today exchanged letters with Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG CAAC) Virginia Gamba, signalling their agreement for an Advanced Training on Children and Armed Conflict to be organised by the Office of the SRSG with the financial support of the Ministry.

Children and Armed Conflict is one of Malta's priorities during its two-year mandate as an elected member of the United Nations Security Council.

The aim of the Advanced Training is to increase awareness, knowledge and understanding of the Children and Armed Conflict legal framework and mandate and develop skills and competencies to better address child protection in situations of armed conflict. The online course will feature both self-paced modules as well as live modules and will be open to professionals contributing or likely to contribute in various capacities to the implementation of the children and armed conflict agenda, including personnel of UN entities, governments, regional organisations, international NGOs, legal professionals, journalists and communication officers, military personnel, as well as academics and students.

This initiative follows the pilot project on the Virtual Summer School on Child Protection in Armed Conflict, developed by the Office of SRSG CAAC in collaboration and with the financial support of the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade of Malta. The Summer School, which took place last year, brought together 42 participants with diverse professional backgrounds contributing or likely to contribute in their various capacities to the implementation of the children and armed conflict agenda.

During their meeting, Minister Borg and SRSG Gamba expressed their satisfaction at their ongoing collaboration on this project, inspired and encouraged by the huge success of the first edition of the course. They also expressed their willingness to continue working in earnest to bolster capacity-building in the field of child protection for children in armed conflict.​​

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