ForMin Melescanu reaffirms Romania's commitment to achieving UN objectives on civil protection

Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu reaffirmed Romania's commitment to contribute to achieving the objectives set by the UN Security Council in the field of civil protection. 

On Thursday, he attended the open debate in the UN Security Council on Civil Protection, organized at the initiative of Indonesia, the country that is holding the presidency this month. 

In his speech, the head of the Romanian diplomacy expressed appreciation to the UN Secretary-General's report on Civil Protection, which states that in 2018 tens of thousands of civilians were killed, injured or mutilated as a result of attacks and acts of parties in conflict that occurred in several countries confronted with internal crises or conflicts, reads a press release issued by the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) on Friday for AGERPRES. 

Presenting the measures taken at national level to protect civilians, Minister Teodor Melescanu mentioned the adoption of the Strategy for the Application of International Humanitarian Law and the attention paid to this issue in the process of preparing the participants in the future UN peacekeeping mission. 

He pointed out that Romania is currently participating with military and police personnel in UN peacekeeping missions that include in their mandate the protection of civilians in Haiti, Mali, Central African Republic, Congo and South Sudan. 

The debate was held in the context of the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Geneva Conventions and 20 years after the UN Security Council's first resolution on Civil Protection (1265/1999). Civil protection has become in recent years a constant concern of the UN, the Security Council and UN's field missions, a fact confirmed by the inclusion of this objective in UN peacekeeping mandates, informs the quoted source.