UN Cinema celebrates the role of female peacekeepers at PNCA

UN Cinema celebrates the role of female peacekeepers at PNCA

Al-Bab Report

ISLAMABAD: UN Cinema was launched on Tuesday at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA), Islamabad, with the screening of ‘A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers,’ a documentary on the role of women in international peacekeeping.

The first screening of the UN Cinema marks the International Day of UN Peacekeepers which is celebrated each year on 29 May.

UN Cinema is a new collaboration between the UN Information Centre and PNCA to feature films and documentaries focused on development, humanitarian issues, and human rights from around the world.

Directed and produced by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Geeta Gandbir, ‘A Journey of A Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers’ follows a unit of one hundred and sixty Bangladeshi women who, between June 2013 and July 2014, travel far from their friends and families to join the United Nations Stabilizing Mission in Haiti. They form one of the world’s first all-female, predominantly Muslim peacekeeping units; shattering every stereotype the world holds about the capabilities of Muslim women.

In his opening remarks, UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan’s (UNMOGIP’s) Head of Mission and Chief Military Observer Major General Per Lodin highlighted the importance of female peacekeepers and the evolving nature of UN peacekeeping operations around the world.

UNMOGIP is the second oldest UN peacekeeping mission that monitors the ceasefire between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control and Working Boundary in Jammu and Kashmir.

Major General Per Lodin said:

“In all fields of peacekeeping, women peacekeepers have proven that they can perform the same roles, to the same standards and under the same difficult conditions, as their male counterparts. It is an operational imperative that we concentrate our efforts to recruit and retain female peacekeepers.”

Vittorio Cammarota, Director UN Information Centre said:

“This new partnership is instrumental in increasing the number of Pakistani people we can share information with on what the United Nations System is working on in Pakistan and abroad.”