Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro (centre) lays wreath for fallen peacekeepers. UN News Service
As the United States prepares to celebrate the memory of Americans who served for their country, the world is celebrating a much less known date that honors unparalleled contributions to global peace and security, the International Day of United Nations (UN) Peacekeepers.
The first UN peacekeeping mission was established 63 years ago, on May 29, 1948, after the Arab-Israeli war. Today UN peacekeepers constitute the second largest expeditionary force in the world, second only to the United States. There are over 120,000 military, police, and civilian personnel from 114 countries serving as UN peacekeepers in 15 operations around the globe.
These brave individuals continue to face grave dangers in the name of peace, a fact highlighted on Friday by the injury of six Italian peacekeepers by a roadside bomb in Lebanon. Last month seven peacekeepers were killed in an attack in Afghanistan and another 32 lost their lives in a plane crash in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
UN peacekeepers will continue to play a vital role in providing global peace and security, but need the sufficient mandate and resources to carry out their missions. As budgets tighten and talks of cuts to international accounts arise, it is important to remember the relative costs and benefits that come from peacekeeping efforts. Peacekeeping costs $8 billion annually – just 0.5 percent of global military spending. As U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice has said, for every dollar that the United States has spent on independent peacekeeping operations, it usually cost the UN 12 cents.
As discussions of how the newest mandates and missions will be shaped continue (the UN Security Council is scheduled to meet on Tuesday to discuss the new UN peacekeeping mission for the soon to be newest nation of South Sudan), and particularly on this day, the role of the individual peacekeeper should be remembered and future operations given the resources, mandate, and political backing to allow them to fulfill the mission they so selflessly set out to do.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.
Tags: peacekeepers, Susan Rice, United Nations
