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UN Geneva's annual ceremony honours peacekeepers worldwide

UN Geneva 2022 ceremony for the International Day of UN Peacekeepers

At the annual celebration of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, held yesterday at the Palais des Nations, UN Geneva Director-General Tatiana Valovaya said the United Nations family in Geneva was working hard every day to address poverty, inequality, marginalization, climate change and other issues that are often the root causes of conflict.

Noting that the number of people forcibly displaced in the world had recently reached 100 million for the first time in record, according to the UN Refugee Agency, she said it was more important than ever for the UN and its partners to focus their efforts on conflict prevention and identifying new hotbeds of tensions.

“This [number] must serve as a wake-up call for all of us to intensify prevention efforts and address the root causes that force people to abandon their homes and seek refuge elsewhere,” she said to some 150 former peacekeepers, diplomats, UN staff, students and other guests who had gathered at the United Nations memorial in Ariana Park.

Emphasizing this year’s commemoration theme – “People, Peace, Progress: The Power of Partnerships” –, Ms Valovaya pointed out that “peacekeeping is a collective endeavour”.

“Lasting peace can only be achieved through a meaningful participation of all stakeholders in negotiating and implementing peace agreements,” she added. “Multilateral and inclusive partnership is key in creating conducive conditions for sustainable peace and development.”

The ceremony paid tribute to the 90,000 brave peacekeepers serving today in 12 UN missions around the world, as well as the 4,200 UN peacekeepers who have been killed over the past 74 years, 24 of them this year alone.

“One peacekeeper lost continues to be one too many,” said the head of UN Geneva, before observing a minute’s silence in their honor and laying a wreath by the UN memorial.

Ambassador Indra Mani Pandey, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations Office at Geneva, highlighted the role of Indian peacekeepers in UN missions around the world. The country is the third-largest troop contributing nation with over 5,500 uniformed personnel. Sadly, India had also lost 175 peacekeepers on the job, the ambassador recalled. While expressing pride for the achievements of peacekeepers, he said “it is equally important to protect the protectors”.

Mr. Laurent Attar-Bayrou, President of the International Association of Soldiers of Peace (IASP), based in Lyon, also recalled those who gave their lives in the cause of peace, saying “we remember the father who will not see his children again or the widow missing her husband.”

To conclude the ceremony, Clara Serin, a young French student who takes part in the AISP’s Young Peacemakers Programme and who was among 30 of them attending the ceremony, read Rimbaud’s poem “The sleeper in the valley”. She quoted: “He sleeps in the sunlight, one hand on his chest. Tranquil. In his right side, there are two red holes.”