CCOPAB recalls World Humanitarian Day celebrating Sergio Vieira de Mello
On August 18, the Brazilian Peace Operations Joint Training Center (CCOPAB, acronym in Portuguese) celebrated the World Humanitarian Day by paying tribute to the Patron of the Center, Sergio Vieira de Mello, by means of a ceremony and a lecture for young students.
The ceremony was held in front of the statue of Sergio Vieira de Mello, in Leblon, Rio de Janeiro. Mr. André Simões, nephew of CCOPAB’s Patron, students and teachers from Sergio Vieira de Mello Municipal School attended the event. After the reading of words related to the patron, white flowers were laid in honor of the renowed Brazilian, who dedicated his life in the search of peace.
Following after the ceremony, Captain Lucas, CCOPAB’s instructor, delivered a lecture on the life of Sergio Vieira de Mello to the fifth graders of the School that carries the name of the late diplomat.
The World Humanitarian Day, August 19, was chosen as it marks the terrorist attack that occurred in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2003, killing the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other UN employees. Such act was the biggest attack ever made against a UN facility.
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.
TRANSLATION: CPT CAMILA PAIVA
