Today is the International Day of UN Peacekeepers.
Easily recognisable by their appearance, UN peacekeepers are also called ‘blue berets’, ‘Blauhelme’ or ‘casques bleus’. The day was established by the UN to remember former and current peacekeepers. Since 1948, 69 operations have taken place. Peacekeeping is the effort to maintain peace after a struggle or crisis. Official activities of the UN peacekeepers include peacekeeping, conflict prevention and mediation, peace-making, peace enforcement, and peacebuilding in conflicts and crises. The annual conflict barometer of the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK) lists 223 violent conflicts including 25 limited wars and 21 wars in 2014. 16 peacekeeping operations were led by the UN in 2014 and they are still ongoing. Peacekeeping activities of the EU involved hosting and mediating negotiations.
By choosing this term we also want to encourage translators to make a contribution to IATE and propose the equivalents in other languages.
Here you can read more about the conflict barometer 2014.
Sources:
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/peacekeeping.shtml
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/pkday.shtml
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/history.shtml
http://www.hiik.de/en/konfliktbarometer/
Written by Anne Becker, study visitor at TermCoord