Participants of RESDAL Seminar
First ever presence of a Lady Officer from Pakistan Army in Brazil, Lt Col Sara Alvi, EME Officer arrived at Brasilia for participating in the International Seminar “Uniformed women and peace operations; progress and challenges in creating safe and inclusive environments under the overall arrangements of RESDAL (Latin American Security and Defence Network) scheduled from 22-23 Oct 2024 at General Headquarters of Brazilian Army.
Since its inception, Pakistan has played a significant role as a responsible member of the international community to help realize the ideals of global peace and security through active support in various regions of the world. Our Peacekeepers have always distinguished themselves while undertaking challenging task of peacekeeping in conflict torn areas.
Historical Perspective
– Since 1960, Pakistan has deployed over 235,000 Peacekeepers in 29 Countries in 48 Missions across 4 Continents.
– Since 2017, over 450 x Pakistani Female Peacekeepers have served under UN Flag.
– 181 Pakistani Peacekeepers including 27 officers have laid down their lives for the noble cause of world peace and have been honoured with Dag Hammarskjold Medal, the highest UN accolade.
Current Deployment
Currently Pakistan is one of the leading TCC with over 2600 x Peacekeepers in 7x UN Missions. 123 x Female Peacekeepers are also included in the overall strength deployed in 7x UN Missions
Lt Col Sara Alvi presented overview of presence of Uniformed women in Pakistan Army which actually started immediately after independence in 1947 with induction in Army Medical Corps in 1948 and then in 2006 Lady Officers started getting inducted in other Arms as well. So far 23 x Lady Cadet batches have got commissioned.
*Role of Women in Peace Ops*
So far, a total of 450 Lady Officers have participated in UN missions / foreign assignments
*Challenges of Women in Military*
Miscellaneos challenges were discussed which are faced by pak Women and also globally recognised.
And
*Best Practices by Pak Army to Ctr Sexual harassment* were also presented which were greatly appreciated by all the participants.
Brig Gen Tariq Naeem Athar, Defence Attaché of Pakistan, also attended the seminar and also shared information about valuable contributions of Pakistani Uniformed Women in peace operations around the world and inside the country.
Source: Defense Attaché of Pakistan
