Peacekeepers’ Day
On May 29, 2013, the Brazilian Peacekeeping Operations Joint Center (CCOPAB) celebrated the UN International Peacekeepers' Day. Although the celebration is in reference to May 29, 1948, the day on which the first United Nations peacekeeping mission was established, at that moment on Palestine territory, only in 2003 this date started to be celebrated as the UN International Peacekeepers' Day. In the celebration hosted by CCOPAB, military personnel from the Brazilian Navy, Army and Air Force were granted the Suez Battalion Peacekeeping Mission Medal.
The event counted on the presences of the Commander of the Center of Assessment and Training of the Brazilian Army Colonel Batista, of the Chief of the General Staff of the Brazilian Army's First Division Colonel Darkenwald, of members of the Association of the Suez Battalion and the Brazilian Interamerican Armed Force, as well as former members of peacekeeping missions. During the parade, the Commander of CCOPAB Colonel Baganha read a text concerning the Peacekeepers' Day. After that there was a homage for the military personnel deceased on duty for the United Nations Organization (UN), especially those Brazilian personnel who lost their lives during the earthquake that stroke Haiti in January, 2010 in the accomplishment of the United Nations Mission for the Stabilization in Haiti (MINUSTAH).
Peacekeepers – the International Peacekeepers' Day is referred back to May 29, 1948, the day on which the United Nations' Security Council first authorized a peacekeeping operation. The deployment took place in Palestine after the cease-fire treaty concerning the Arab-Israeli war. From that moment on, there has been a great effort in the search for peaceful solutions due to international conflicts.
Brazil has participated in UN peacekeeping missions since 1956, with the deployment of troops to Suez in Egypt. In Brazil's capital city Brasília, the celebration in honor of Peacekeepers has been part of the official calendar since 2008 in an annual event whose organization is made by the rotation of the Brazilian Armed Forces.
