UNITED NATIONS, May 29 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday honored the more than 3,900 peacekeepers who have lost their lives since 1948 while serving under the UN flag.
On the occasion of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, which falls on May 29, Guterres laid a wreath at the Peacekeepers Memorial at the UN headquarters in New York before he chaired virtual ceremonies at which the Dag Hammarskjold Medal was awarded posthumously to peacekeepers who lost their lives in 2019, and the Military Gender Advocate Award was given to two female peacekeepers.
"The pandemic has required us to hold the ceremonies for the Military Gender Advocate Award and the Dag Hammarskjold Medal virtually. But what the virus has not changed is the service, sacrifice and selflessness of the more than 95,000 women and men serving in 13 peacekeeping operations around the world," Guterres told the ceremony.
"Every day, our peacekeepers continue to protect vulnerable local populations, support dialogue and implement their mandates while fighting COVID-19. They are doing everything they can to be an integral part of the solution to this crisis while keeping themselves -- and the communities they serve -- safe."
As always, they give the United Nations family many reasons to be proud, he said.
The Dag Hammarskjold Medal was awarded posthumously to 83 military, police and civilian personnel from 39 countries who lost their lives in 2019 serving in UN peace operations.
Commander Carla Monteiro de Castro Araujo of the Brazilian Navy, who is deployed with the UN Mission in the Central African Republic, and Major Suman Gawani of the Indian Army, a military observer formerly deployed with the UN Mission in South Sudan, jointly won the Gender Advocate Award. Enditem
