International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers
Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit
International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers 2021 will be observed on May 29.The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers is a tribute to people who serve or have served in UN peacekeeping operations. The peacekeepers are honored for their high level of professionalism, dedication and courage. People who died for peace are also remembered. United Nations Organization is the outcome of the desire of the world people. Peacemaking is necessary and important in cases of protracted violence that do not seem to burn themselves out and in cases where war crimes and other human devastation demand the attention of outside forces. Over 70 years, over 1 million men and women have served under the UN flag. Today, more than 100,000 troops, police and civilian personnel from 125 countries serve in 14 peacekeeping operations on four continents. World peace is defined as an ideal of freedom, peace, and happiness among and within all nations and/or people.
UN peacekeeping operations mark the Day by strengthening bonds with the local populations that they have been deployed to serve. The UN is working for world peace by persuasion, conciliation, arbitration and by fighting against the culprit country in acute case. Without peace a nation cannot make any progress. So peace is ever desirable. But now-a-days if there be no peace, the whole human race will be destroyed, because modern war involves atom bomb and hydrogen bomb. So, war should always be avoided for world peace. Peace can never be achieved by one-dimensional and unilateral talks or efforts. On would find that even today there have been present several hindrances in way of securing a stable, healthy and enduring peace. Yet the international community fully realized the supreme importance of the virtue of peace against the evil of war only after having suffered the most unfortunate and highly destructive two World Wars in the first half of the 20th century. The blood soaked shreds of humanity that lay scattered in several hundred battle grounds, particularly on the soils of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cried for peace, peace and peace on the earth.
Panchsheel was conceived as a powerful weapon against war. The five principles of Panchsheel constitute an important and historic event in the history of international relations. The Panchasheel or the five points propounded by Jawaharlal Nehru has been accepted by many countries for world peace. The five points are (1) mutual respect for one another’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. (2) non-aggression, (3) non-interference in one another’s internal affairs for any reason of economic, political or ideological character, (4) equality and mutual benefit, (5) peaceful co-existence. India and the other non-aligned countries together have organized to peace-area. Ever since the achievement of independence India has been assiduously striving for the promotion of peace, it has unbounded faith in peace.
She believes that peaceful conditions alone can hold out any hope for the deliverance of mankind from the rut of so many ills it is at present plagued with.
Mahavir Swami and Gautama Buddha tirelessly preached against all kinds of violence. Their teachings were no heeded, but also acted upon by Indian emperors. Mahatma Gandhi has said, “Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.” Hence world peace is more essential not only for India’s economic development, but also for the economic development of all the backward countries of the world.