| 1948 - 1998 |  | 50 YEARS OF UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS |
| 1948 - 1998 | | 50 YEARS OF UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS |
Honouring those who have served:
The year 1998 marks half a century of United Nations peacekeeping. At the end of 1997, the General Assembly endorsed a recommendation from its Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations that Member States and the Secretariat arrange activities to commemorate this event, "and to honour those who served in peacekeeping operations of the past 50 years, especially those who lost their lives in the service of the United Nations." The Special Committee also recommended that part of the first day of the fifty-third General Assembly in 1998 be dedicated to a commemorative meeting to remember those who have served in peacekeeping. BASIC INFORMATION
Since 1948 there have been 49 United Nations peacekeeping operations; 36 of which were created by the Security Council between 1988 and 1998 17 UN missions are currently under way, with 14,453 peacekeepers serving in them as of 31 August 1998 Well over 750,000 military and civilian police personnel and thousands of other civilians from 111 countries have served in UN peacekeeping operations 1,581 peacekeepers have died while serving in these missions up to 31 August 1998 FOCAL POINT FOR INFORMATION
The Peace & Security Section of the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), as focal point for information about UN peacekeeping operations, will serve as clearing-house in the UN Secretariat for information about activities relating to the 50th anniversary. We would appreciate your notifying us of any publications, campaigns or other activities being undertaken to observe the anniversary. We will, in turn, make information available in print and on the Internet. We are glad to help you with any questions you may have. Please feel free to contact us, preferably using the e-mail address below.
DATES TO WATCH
Events at United Nations Headquarters are being planned around the following dates. National and local events to mark these dates are encouraged.
29 May
Launching the fiftieth anniversary of Security Council resolution 50 (1948) which established the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) in the Middle East, through a press conference by Mr. Bernard Miyet, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Anniversary of the death of the first UN peacekeeper Issuance of a series of commemorative peacekeeping postage stamps to coincide with International Peace Day
Formal observance of fifty years of United Nations peacekeeping at United Nations Headquarters. The General Assembly will hold a special meeting to honouring those who have fallen while serving in United Nations peacekeeping missions. Tthe first Dag Hammarskjold Medal, authorized by the Security Council in 1997, will be presented at Headquarters to the family of the first peacekeeper to die in the course of duty. A photo exhibition documenting five decades of United Nations peacekeeping is scheduled to open in the Public Lobby of United Nations Headquarters at New York.
