(25 February 2016) “The course confirms its relevance and the need to support, through targeted training activities, African staff to professionally manage crises and post-conflict reconstructions”. Andrea de Guttry, Professor of International Law, Delegate of the Dean for advanced training activities and Director of Dirpolis (Law, Politics, Development) at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa comments the third edition of the training course dedicated to peacekeeping operations in Somalia organized by the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, with the contribution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The course will start on February 28 at the University of Hargeisa (in Somaliland): “The Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa is actively engaged, alongside its African counterpart – the University of Hargeisa, in providing a real contribution to improving the life conditions of millions of Somalis whose country has been ravaged by decades of internecine war,” emphasized de Guttry. With these new training initiatives, the Sant’Anna of Pisa continues its commitment to facilitate the reconciliation process in Somalia and to increase efficiency in the missions of the UN blue helmets and the African Union working in Somalia. The opening ceremony of the course will be attended by three Somaliland ministers, the Italian Embassy representatives in Somalia and of the various peace-keeping missions as well as the Dean of the University of Hargeisa. The lecture series coordinated by de Guttry will be open to 35 “students” from Somalia, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, USA and Italy itself. The course will provide skills and knowledge to address in a more professional, accomplished and effective manner Somali reconciliation and, more generally, the work of peacekeeping missions of the United Nations and the African Union. In Somalia there are: an African Union (AMISOM), a United Nations (Unsom) and two European Union (EUTM and EUCAP Nestor) missions that aim to stabilize the government and consolidate the peace process. Teachers will also address issues relating to the latest conflict resolution techniques, the role of the United Nations and regional actors in the pacification of Somalia, topics related to human rights (especially gender rights), and new modes of administrating a territory that appears complex and diversified. (Red)
