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UN
PEACEKEEPING
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"UN peacekeeping operations are now increasingly
complex and multi-dimensional, going beyond monitoring
a ceasefire to actually bringing failed States back
to life, often after decades of conflict. The blue
helmets and their civilian colleagues work together
to organize elections, enact police and judicial
reform, promote and protect human rights, conduct
mine-clearance, advance gender equali-ty, achieve
the voluntary disarmament of former combatants,
and support the return of refugees and displaced
people to their homes."
-- Kofi
Annan
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On this
International Day of UN Peacekeepers, let us pay tribute
to the men and women from countries across the world who
serve selflessly, tirelessly and fearlessly in UN peacekeeping
operations. Let us remember the heroes who have laid down
their lives in lands far from their own in the service of
peace. And let us reaffirm our commitment to building a
world free from the scourge of war.
-- Kofi
Annan
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"Today,
we have more than 110,000 men and women deployed in
conflict zones around the world. They come from nearly
120 countries -- an all-time high, reflecting confidence
in United Nations peacekeeping. They come from nations
large and small, rich and poor -- some of them countries
recently afflicted by war themselves. They bring different
cultures and experiences to the job, but they are
united in their determination to foster peace. Some
are in uniform, but many are civilians and their activities
go far beyond monitoring. They train police, disarm
ex-combatants, support elections and help build State
institutions. They build bridges, repair schools,
assist flood victims and protect women from sexual
violence. They uphold human rights and promote gender
equality. Thanks to their efforts, life-saving humanitarian
assistance can be delivered and economic development
can begin. "
-- Ban
Ki-moon
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We have
voted time and again in the Security Council, and rightfully
so, to support critical missions in Lebanon, Haiti, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Kosovo, and many others. The
UN ‘blue helmets’ are literally on the front lines in conflicts
that are the worst of the worst: protecting civilians, monitoring
cease-fires, clearing mine fields, and disarming combatants.
Through UN peacekeeping, the U.S. contributes to international
peace and stability where we have critical foreign policy
interests, while sharing the human, political and financial
costs with other nations. We should not shortchange these
operations.”
-- US Senator Joe Biden
One
means of paying attention to smaller countries that
have sometimes been overlooked is by revitalizing
US leadership in the United Nations. The UN is committed
to the goal of ensuring that all nations share in
economic, social, & scientific progress. It delivers
humanitarian assistance to the victims of wars and
natural disasters. It provides a mechanism through
which the US can help in dozens of conflicts around
the world in which our vital interests aren’t directly
involved but where we feel a more imperative to
respond. Working with the UN’s diplomacy and development
arms, we can prevent minor differences from escalating
into wars. When conflicts do break out, UN peacekeepers
should play a role in defusing and settling them.
Without giving up our sovereignty, we can help the
UN with better training and better command and control
in order to develop more effective peacekeeping
forces.
-– Bill
Bradley
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The
United Nations exists not merely to preserve the peace
but also to make change - even radical change - possible
without violent upheaval. The United Nations has no
vested interest in the status quo. It seeks a more
secure world, a better world, a world of progress
for all peoples. In the dynamic world society which
is the objective of the United Nations, all peoples
must have equality and equal rights. --
Ralph
J. Bunche
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*
"Peace
is not just a colored ribbon. It's more than a wristband
or a t-shirt. It's not just a donation or a 5 K race.
It's not just a folk song, or a white dove. And peace
is certainly more than a celebrity endorsement. Peace
is a fulltime job. It's protecting civilians, overseeing
elections, and disarming ex-combatants. The UN has
over 100,000 Peacekeepers on the ground, in places
others can't or won't go, doing things others can't
or won't do. Peace, like war, must be waged."
-- George
Clooney
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"For all the civilians
saved thanks to the presence of peacekeepers, there
have been those who were lost – the United Nations
personnel who sacrificed their lives for a noble cause.
Even as we mourn our fallen colleagues, we are all
uplifted by their unflinching commitment and are inspired
to strive even harder for the collective cause so
eloquently envisaged in the United Nations Charter:
a world free from the scourge of war."
-- Jan
Eliasson (Former
President of the UN General Assembly)
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"A
world without the United Nations or with a paralyzed United
Nations would be far more costly to all of us and far more
dangerous to peace and stability."
-- Richard Holbrooke
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“The
heroes of the world community are not those who withdraw
when difficulties ensue, not those who can envision
neither the prospect of success nor the consequence
of failure -- but those who stand the heat of battle,
the fight for world peace through the United Nations.”
-- Hubert
Humphrey
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“The
primary, the fundamental, the essential purpose of the United
Nations is to keep peace. Everything it does which helps
prevent World War III is good. Everything which does not
further that goal, either directly or indirectly, is at
best superfluous.”
-- Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Peacekeeping
funds are an important and necessary part of what America
does for humanity and the rest of the world.”
-- US Congressman Michael McCaul
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This
is the one international institution we have in which
governments get together to work collectively for
a common purpose. International crises, by definition,
require international solutions. Peacekeeping is a
response to conflict, is a response to situations
in which often it is not the business of any one particular
country to get into. It seems to me, therefore, that
the world will for the foreseeable future need peacekeeping.
-- Shashi
Tharoor
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“The
United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom
and independence for all its members”
-- Harry S Truman
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*"Through
your support of UN peacekeeping, you can help to make
this tantalizing word—“peace”—a reality for all the
world’s citizens. Together, we can spread the message
that UN peacekeeping is essential. Without it, the
world would be a much less stable, and more violent,
place."
~ Timothy
Wirth
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