The Secretary-General established in December 2000 the Dag Hammarskjöld medal for posthumous award to members of peacekeeping operations who lost their lives during service with a peacekeeping operation under the operational control and authority of the United Nations. Each year on Peacekeeper's Day, this medal is awarded to any Member State who has lost one or more military or police peacekeepers at a ceremony at UN HQ. The Under-Secretary-General for Field Support also accepts a medal on behalf of deceased civilian staff each year. For details see the Secretary-General's bulletin (ST/SGB/2000/15).
On 8 May 2014, the Security Council, by its resolution 2154, decided to create “the Captain Mbaye Diagne Medal for Exceptional Courage" to be awarded to “those military, police, civilian United Nations personnel and associated personnel who demonstrate exceptional courage, in the face of extreme danger, while fulfilling the mandate of their missions or their functions, in the service of humanity and the United Nations.”
The Security Council requested the Secretary-General to establish within six months after the adoption of that resolution, the design of the medal, and to submit to the Council the modalities for determining how the recipients of the medal shall be nominated and chosen.
The Dag Hammarskjöld medal and the Captain Mbaye Diagne medal should not be confused with the UN medal which was established by the Secretary-General in 1966 for award, subject to the Regulations for the United Nations Medal (ST/SGB/119/Rev.1, 16 February 1966), to military personnel and civilian police who are or have been in the service of the United Nations. The Secretary-General has also defined the specifications of the medal and the ribbon on which it is suspended.
This following is intended to provide those interested with a general description of the UN peacekeeping medals and accompanying ribbons. Where applicable, and available, an outline of the significance of the colours used for a particular ribbon is provided, an indication of the qualifying time necessary for each and a listing of the countries who provided troops, observers or police.
Terms used throughout this webpage are defined as follows:
Medal - In common usage, this term is used to indicate both the bronze medallion and the ribbon from which it is suspended. Commonly, the name of a specific mission will be prefixed, hence, the "UNDOF Medal" etc. In correct usage, this term refers to the medallion only.
Ribbon - Length of material woven into a narrow band, of specific colour(s) from which is suspended a bronze medallion only.
Standard - Indicates the current bronze medallion issued with a specific ribbon, indicating service with a particular peacekeeping mission.
In this context, the reference is to the bronze medallion. A total of three medallions have been issued to denote service with UN peacekeeping and other missions. The three are:
Korea - A bronze medallion bearing on the obverse the representation of the UN symbol in bas-relief and, on the reverse, the wording "FOR SERVICE IN THE DEFENCE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS", also in bas-relief. The medallion is attached to the ribbon by means of a bar which bears the name "KOREA" in bas-relief. The wording shown may be in English, French, Spanish, Danish, Greek, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Sanskrit or Turkish.
UNEF - A bronze medallion bearing on the obverse the representation of the UN symbol surmounted by the letters "UNEF", both in bas-relief and, on the reverse, the words "IN THE SERVICE OF PEACE" in bas-relief.
Standard - A bronze medallion bearing on the obverse the representation of the UN symbol surmounted by the letters "UN" both in bas-relief and, on the reverse, the words "IN THE SERVICE OF PEACE" in bas-relief. This standard medallion is used for all missions except the two mentioned above.
All medals listed below are considered peacekeeping medals. Please note that this record is not yet complete as we work on including images and descriptions of additional medals instituted for other peacekeeping operations, past and present.