According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, Indian Army Major Radhika Sen has been chosen to receive a UN award in recognition of her advocacy for women and girls while serving as a peacekeeper. This announcement was made here.
According to Dujarric, on Thursday, the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, Guterres will give Ms. Sen the 2023 Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award.
The medal honors a military peacekeeper’s contributions to the advancement of the 2000 Security Council resolution, which calls for the UN to take on gender-related obligations and calls for the protection of women and girls from sexual violence associated with conflicts.
Guterres praised her, describing her as “a true leader and role model.” Her work was a genuine asset to the UN organization as a whole. As a platform for community leaders, youth, and women “to voice their security and humanitarian concerns,” Ms. Sen worked with the Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), where she contributed to the establishment of the Community Alert Networks in North Kivu, according to the UN. She sought to allay those fears with her MONUSCO colleagues.
Sen, a biotech engineer from Himachal Pradesh, chose to enlist in the Army while pursuing a master’s degree at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. She joined MONUSCO in 2023 and served with the Indian Rapid Deployment Battalion as the Engagement Platoon Commander. She left in April 2024. Sen follows Major Suman Gawani, who served with the UN Mission in South Sudan and was awarded the honor in 2019, as the second Indian peacekeeper to get the honor.
1,954 of the 6,063 Indian personnel participating in UN peacekeeping missions are with MONUSCO; 32 of them are female.
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