(24 October 2011) Today, directors and representatives of agencies of the United Nations in Chile, together with local authorities, ambassadors and international officials, celebrated United Nations Day with a tribute to the former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, who died 50 years ago.
The commemoration ceremony of the 66th anniversary of the international organization was held at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) headquarters in Santiago and was dedicated to the memory of the former Swedish diplomat who led the United Nations between 1953 and 1961.
"Dag Hammarskjöld was inspiring, one of the most important figures of the 20th Century. His contribution and ideas are more relevant today than ever," stated Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, who chaired the event.
She underlined that among his most important contributions was the launch of United Nations peacekeeping operations and the establishment of the doctrine of preventive or "silent" diplomacy which has enabled numerous conflicts between countries to be overcome over the last decades.
At present, more than 100,000 United Nations uniformed personnel (blue helmets) from 110 countries are participating in 16 peace missions in four continents. Their work is to promote security and bring political support and strengthen peace needed to help countries make the difficult initial transition from a situation of conflict to one of peace.
At the ceremony, the Regional Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Director General Elect of this organization, José Graziano da Silva, read out a message sent especially for the occasion by the present Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.
At the same time, the Ambassador for Sweden in Chile, Eva Zetterberg, highlighted Hammarskjöld's legacy. "The challenges of today are different and at the same time similar to those of his time. The most important thing now is to reflect on how each one of us can help to create better living conditions for everyone," she stated.
The Professor of International Law, Ove Bring, gave a magisterial conference entitled "Dag Hammarskjöld's perspective of the United Nations and international law" in which he told of the former Secretary-General of the United Nations career and how he managed to combine political will with international leadership, values which are under threat today.
United Nations Day 2011 drew to a close by unveiling a memorial monument of Hammarskjöld located in Bicentenary Park, in front of the buildings for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Latin American School for Social Sciences (FLACSO) and ECLAC. The monument was erected in collaboration with the Municipality of Vitacura.
An open-air information briefing was also held on the work carried out by the different agencies and programmes of the United Nations System in Chile, and recreational activities were held for children from the República de Colombia, Santiago, United Nations and Llay-Llay schools.
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Any queries should be addressed to the ECLAC Public Information and Web Services Section. E-mail: dpisantiago@cepal.org; Telephone: (56 2) 210 2040.
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