Heroes for a Better World

Dag Hammarskjöld
(1905-1961)

2nd United Nations Secretary-General
1961 Nobel Peace Prize Winner

birthdate: July 29
birthplace:
Jonkoping, Sweden

Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat and the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. He had already considered himself a citizen of the world before taking on this position, and he helped to strengthen the role of the United Nations in international affairs, especially in looking after the interests of smaller nations in relation to the major powers. He was a strong believer in peace through international law and hoped to help spread the goals of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights so that they would become the values that guided all nations.

Dag Hammarskjöld helped mediate many conflicts during his time as Secretary-General and advocated for the creation of UN peace-keeping forces. During his second term as Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjold was killed under suspicious circumstances as his plane crashed en-route to a peacekeeping mission in the Congo. Dag Hammarskjold was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his dedication to create "peace and goodwill among nations and men." The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation was created in 1962 in Sweden in his honor to explore "workable alternatives for a democratic, socially and economically just, ecologically sustainable, peaceful and secure world in which human rights are genuinely respected." Many buildings and schools around the world have been named in commemoration of this great peacemaker, and the year he died, the United Nations Library was dedicated in his honor. A park near the United Nations was named Dag Hammarskjold Plaza and the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal is given by the United Nations "in recognition and commemoration of those who have lost their life as a result of service in peacekeeping operations."


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