Take a minute to watch the video honoring peacekeepers below. Then sign this letter and join us in thanking the 120,000 brave men and women from 118 countries serving as UN peacekeepers in 17 of the most difficult regions in the world, rebuilding societies wracked by violence and natural disasters, and restoring confidence in people who have known little but war.
The work of UN peacekeepers provides global security to the world and promotes more peaceful lives for millions of people.
Your work as peacekeepers is complicated and diverse: facilitating a peaceful, fair referendum in Sudan, supporting legitimate government in Cote d’Ivoire, promoting law and order in East Timor, and providing shelter in Haiti to those displaced and devastated by natural disasters. You face the daunting tasks of convincing armed groups to lay down their weapons and rehabilitating the thousands of children forced to become soldiers during war.
You create the conditions to bring warring parties to the negotiating table—resulting in numerous ceasefires, peace accords, and power-sharing agreements since 1945. You remove hundreds of thousands of mines from war zones all over the world, allowing communities to return to and rebuild their homes.
We all have a vital stake in the work that you do. Individual governments including the United States simply cannot afford to—nor would be advised to—send their own troops to all of the difficult and dangerousplaces where you are deployed.
To all of you, who have given your lives in the service of pursuing peace: Your work is heroic, and on behalf of all who have benefited, directly or indirectly, from six decades of UN peacekeeping, THANK YOU.
Sincerely,
Please Sign Your Name Below
[We will send this letter on your behalf to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and to all UN peacekeeping missions currently in operation worldwide.]
