Two Indian to be honoured on International Peacekeepers Day
Two Indian peacekeepers will be honoured posthumously by the United Nations for their ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty on the International Day of UN Peacekeepers.
Lance Havildar Harbhajan Singh, who served with the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), and Naib Subedar Sujit Kumar Pradhan, who was deployed with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), will be posthumously honoured by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres with the prestigious Dag Hammarskjold Medal for their sacrifice in the line of duty.
Additionally, Guterres will present the 2025 Military Gender Advocate of the Year award to Major Abhilasha Barak of India, who serves on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), honouring her outreach efforts with women and girls during her deployment in the West Asian nation.
The world commemorates the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers annually on May 29, paying homage to the fallen Blue Helmets who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving in UN peacekeeping missions across the world.
The UN Headquarters in New York will observe the Day on June 5, when the Secretary-General will lay a wreath to honour the men and women who served in UN peacekeeping and lost their lives in the cause of peace, the UN said in a statement.
Guterres will then preside over a solemn ceremony at which the Dag Hammarskjold Medal will be awarded posthumously to 68 military, police and civilian peacekeepers, who paid the ultimate price in the line of duty, including 59 who died last year.
India is the second largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN Peacekeeping.
It currently contributes more than 4,200 military and police personnel — including 155 women — to UN peace operations in Abyei, the Central African Republic, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, the Middle East, Somalia, South Sudan and Western Sahara.
Nearly 180 Indian peacekeepers have made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty, the highest number by far from any troop-contributing country.
Barak will be the third recipient of the prestigious award from India, after Major Suman Gawani and Major Radhika Sen were honoured for their commendable work while serving in UN Peacekeeping missions.
Barak is serving with the Indian Battalion as the Commander of the Female Engagement Team (FET) in UNIFIL. She is also the first woman combat helicopter pilot of the Indian Army. Gawani, who had served with the UN Mission in South Sudan, was honoured with the 2019 United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. Sen, who served with MONUSCO, received the 2023 award.
The UN General Assembly had established the International Day of UN Peacekeepers in 2002 and selected May 29 for the annual commemoration since it was the day in 1948 when the Security Council established the first UN peacekeeping operation, the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation in the Middle East.
Currently, over 50,000 civilian, military and police peacekeepers serve under the UN flag in peacekeeping missions across some of the world’s most complex environments, where “conflicts are increasingly fragmented, protracted, and shaped by emerging threats, including the misuse of digital tools and the spread of harmful information”, the UN said.
A total of 118 countries currently contribute uniformed personnel to 11 peacekeeping missions.
In his message for the day, Guterres honoured the peacekeepers past and present and reaffirmed “our shared responsibility to respect and strengthen their work.” He paid tribute to the nearly 4,500 peacekeepers who have lost their lives since 1948, including 59 last year.
“No one should die serving the cause of peace. Attacks on peacekeepers are grave violations of international humanitarian law, and Member States must uphold their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel at all times,” Guterres said.
He added that “in an era of rising tensions, peacekeeping is a proven and cost-effective way to restore stability and hope. But it requires steady political backing - and reliable financial support.”
The theme for this year’s Day of UN Peacekeepers is ‘Invest in Peace’.
“At a time when UN Peacekeeping operations face reduced resources, the theme underscores that peacekeeping remains one of the most effective tools the international community has to respond to conflict - supporting political solutions, preventing escalation, protecting civilians, monitoring ceasefires, enabling humanitarian assistance, clearing landmines, and more,” the UN said.
“At a time of rising conflict and shrinking resources, United Nations peacekeepers continue to protect civilians, prevent violence from escalating, and keep hope alive in some of the world’s most difficult environments. Investing in peacekeeping means investing in stability, prevention and the possibility of peace itself,” Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said.
