The United Nations is set to honour 64 military, police, and civilian peacekeepers from around the world, who lost their lives serving the UN, including 61 who perished last year, at a special ceremony marking the International Day of UN Peacekeepers on Thursday (May 30), it was officially announced. Among the posthumous awardees of Dag Hammarskjold medals is Muhammad Zafar Abbas, a Pakistani who worked in a civilian capacity for the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen. UN Secretary-General will preside over the solemn ceremony in the Trusteeship Council Chamber at UN Headquarters in New York. Earlier, the UN chief will lay a wreath to honour the more than 4,300 UN peacekeepers who have lost their lives since 1948. Among them are 170 Pakistani peacekeepers embraced martyrdom during Pakistan’s decades-long participation in UN peace operations. Pakistan is the 5th largest contributor of military and police personnel to UN peace operations with more than 3,800 now serving in Abyei, the Central African Republic, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan and Western Sahara. In 1948, according to a UN press release, the historic decision was made to deploy military observers to the Middle East to supervise the implementation of Israel-Arab Armistice Agreements, in what became the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization. Since that time, more than two million peacekeepers from 125 countries have since served in 71 operations around the world. During formal ceremonies, according to the press release, the Secretary-General will also present the 2023 Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award to Major Radhika Sen, a military officer from India, who served with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). Created in 2016, the Award “recognizes the dedication and effort of an individual peacekeeper in promoting the principles of UN Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security”.