World Humanitarian Day celebrates Sergio Vieira de Mello
August 19 marks the World Humanitarian Day, which was set by the United Nations General Assembly on December 2008, in order to honor those who face harships to help people in need.
This day was chosen as it marks the terrorist attack that occured in Baghdad in 2003, when 21 employees - among them, Sergio Vieira de Mello - from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) – got killed.
Sergio Vieira de Mello was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and served the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for many years. From 1969 on, He played an important role in many humanitarian and peace missions, such as the ones carried out in Bangladesh, Sudan, Cyprus, Mozambique, Peru, Cambodia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and East Timor.
Known as “the right person to solve any kind of matter”, Sergio Vieira de Mello faced his biggest challenge between 1999 and 2002, when he became a member of the Interim Government of East Timor, during the turbulent independence process of the former Portuguese colony in Indonesia.
Still in 2002, Sergio Vieira de Mello was appointed the High Commissioner for Human Rights. For this reason, Kofi Annan, still as UN General Secretary, designated him as his Special Representative in Iraq, after an Anglo-American military operation brought Saddam Hussein down. Unfortunately, he became a victim of the biggest attack ever made against a UN facility.
Today, Sergio Vieira de Mello is remembered for his great deeds by the Brazilian Peace Operations Joint Training Center (CCOPAB, acronym in Portuguese), for being the Patron of this military unit, inspiring Peacekeepers from today and tomorrow.
TRANSLATION: CPT CAMILA PAIVA
