UNA-UK co-hosted Europe's largest gathering to celebrate the International Day of UN Peacekeepers on 25 May. The memorial ceremony was attended by diplomats from 98 countries, with representatives from the UK Government, Armed Forces and civil society.
Wreaths were laid at the Cenotaph in Whitehall by Baroness Anelay, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and Air Vice Marshall Brecht, Chief of Staff (Capability), Royal Air Force, on behalf of the UK Government and Armed Forces at the ceremony, co-organised with UNA-Westminster.
Members of the diplomatic corps also laid wreaths on behalf of their countries to give thanks for the global service of peacekeepers currently serving in 16 missions across the globe, and to remember the 3,466 peacekeepers who have lost their lives for the cause of peace.
See photos of the memorial ceremony
UNA-UK also held its annual peacekeeping conference in partnership with UNA-Westminster and the Royal United Services Institute, which focused on strengthening peace operations and building on a series of reviews that took place in 2015.
Jean-Marie Guéhenno, President and CEO of the International Crisis Group and former head of the UN's Department for Peacekeeping Operations, gave the keynote speech at the conference in memory of Folke Bernadotte, the first mediator to have lost his life while working to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948.
Mr Guéhenno considered the changes that have taken place in global politics since the 1990s and what this means for the practice of peacekeeping. Noting that there were "deepening divisions" within the international community - with regional powers becoming more assertive in their international activities - he argued that the UN and its member states needed to pay more attention to the importance of leadership in peace operations.
The conference also featured a number of distinguished speakers on three separate panel sessions, including Victoria K. Holt of the US State Department, Melinda Simmons, Head of the Conflict Department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and Lord Hannay of Chiswick, former UK ambassador to the UN. A conference summary will be added to this page shortly.
To accompany the conference and memorial, UNA-UK has launched a campaign to 'thank our peacekeepers', asking the public to show their support for British involvement in UN peace operations, and to meet some of the people behind our peacekeeping numbers.
Click here to thank our peacekeepers
[View the story "UNA-UK commemorates the International Day of UN Peacekeepers" on Storify]
