The Dag Hammarskjöld Medal is a

posthumous award A posthumous award is granted after the recipient has died. Many prizes, medals, and awards can be granted posthumously. Australian actor Heath Ledger, for example, won many awards after his death in 2008. Military decorations, such as Hero of ...

given by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

(UN) to military personnel, police, or civilians who lose their lives while serving in a United Nations peacekeeping operation. The medal is named after

Dag Hammarskjöld Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld ( , ; 29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 196 ...

, the second

Secretary-General of the United Nations The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-g ...

, who died in a

plane crash An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any person boards the aircraft with the ''intention of fl ...

in what is now

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

in September 1961.

Creation of medal

On 22 July 1997, during its 3802nd meeting, the

United Nations Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

unanimously adopted Resolution 1121, in which it established the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal.United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1121 (1997)
. In the resolution, the Security Council also requested that the UN Secretary-General establish criteria and procedures for the awarding of the medal. The first medals were awarded in October 1998.

Criteria

On 1 December 2000,

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founde ...

, the UN Secretary-General, published regulations for the awarding of the medal.United Nations Secretariat
"Secretary-General’s bulletin: Regulations for the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Medal"
1 December 2000. The award is given to any military personnel, police, or civilians who lose their lives while serving in a United Nations peacekeeping operation, so long as the death did not result from misconduct or criminal acts. The criteria came into force on 1 January 2001 and the medal may be given to individuals who qualified before or after that date. The physical medals are presented to the next of kin of the deceased recipient.

Medal

The medal is egg-shaped and made of clear lead free glass, engraved with the name and date of death of the recipient, the United Nations logo, and the inscription "The Dag Hammarskjöld Medal. In the Service of Peace", in English and French.

Recipients

On 6 October 1998, the first three Dag Hammarskjöld Medals were awarded to Hammarskjöld himself, René de Labarrière (killed by a land mine in Palestine in July 1948), and

Folke Bernadotte Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish nobleman and diplomat. In World War II he negotiated the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps, including 450 Danish Jews fr ...

(assassinated in Jerusalem by Jewish extremists in September 1948). Beginning in 2001, the UN began awarding dozens of medals each month for the UN peacekeepers who had been killed between 1948 and 2001. Since 2001, there have been annual medal ceremonies for those who were killed in UN peacekeeping operations the previous year. The ceremony is held on 29 May, which is the

International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, May 29, is "an international day to pay tribute to all the men and women who have served and continue to serve in United Nations peacekeeping operations for their high level of professionalis ...

. In 2009, the medal was awarded to each of the 132 UN peacekeepers who were killed in 2008. Pakistani peacekeeper Naik Naeem Raza, who served the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was killed in January 2018, was on 25 May 2019 posthumously awarded a UN medal by Secretary General António Guterres. Raza had died during an ambush on a UN Convoy in January 2018, according to a press release by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military's media wing. "The medal is awarded to blue helmets for their supreme sacrifice in the line of duty," read the statement issued by the military's mouthpiece. According to the press release, 156 Pakistan peacekeepers have so far laid down their lives for global peace and stability. In 2019, Indian officer Jitendra Kumar and 119 men and women were posthumously awarded the medal for their courage and sacrifice in the line of duty. Kumar laid down his life while serving in the UN Organisation Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dag Hammarskjold Medal Awards established in 1997 Medals of the United Nations Posthumous recognitions United Nations peacekeeping