UN Secretary Sérgio Vieira de Mello is better
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sérgio_Vieira_de_Mello
UN Secretary
Sérgio Vieira de Mello
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to:
navigation,
search
Sérgio Vieira de Mello
Born15 March 1948(1948-03-15)
Rio de Janeiro,
BrazilDied19 August 2003 (aged 55)
Baghdad,
IraqCause of deathKilled in the
Canal Hotel bombingOccupation
3rd United Nations High Commissioner for Human RightsSérgio Vieira de Mello (15 March 1948 – 19 August 2003) was a
Brazilian United Nations diplomat who worked for the UN for more than 34 years, earning respect and praise around the world for his efforts in the
humanitarian and political programs of the UN. He was posthumously awarded a
United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 2003.
He was killed in the
Canal Hotel Bombing in
Iraq along with 20 other members of his staff on 19 August 2003 while working as the
Secretary-General's Special Representative in Iraq.
Contents
[hide]
[edit] Biography
Vieira de Mello was born in
Rio de Janeiro to the diplomat Arnaldo Vieira de Mello and his wife Gilda, on 15 March 1948.
[1] He had an older sister, Sônia. The family followed Arnaldo's diplomatic postings, such that Sérgio spent his early years in
Buenos Aires,
Genoa,
Milan,
Beirut and Rome.
[2] In 1965, he enrolled to study
philosophy at the
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, but as classes were frequently disrupted by strikes, he opted to continue his education in Europe.
[3] He studied for a year at the
University of Fribourg in Switzerland, before enrolling at the
Sorbonne University in Paris, where he studied
philosophy under
Vladimir Jankélévitch[4] He participated in the
1968 student riots in Paris against the
Charles de Gaulle government, and was hit in the head by a police baton, causing a permanent disfigurement above his right eye.
[5] He also wrote a letter published in the French leftist journal
Combat in support of the riots, which made returning to Brazil, at this stage a
military dictatorship, potentially dangerous.
[6] Thus, after graduating from the Sorbonne in 1969, he moved to
Geneva to stay with a family friend, and found his first job as an editor at the offices of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
[7]
At
UNHCR, Vieira de Mello participated in field work assignments in
Bangladesh during its
war of independence in 1971 and
Cyprus after the
Turkish invasion in 1974.
[8] In 1973, he married Annie, a French assistant at UNHCR, with whom he had two sons, Laurent and Adrien. During his early years at UNHCR, he also completed an
MA in
moral philosophy and a
PhD by correspondence from the Sorbonne.
[9] His doctorate thesis, submitted in 1974, was entitled
The Role of Philosophy in Contemporary Society.
[10] In 1985, he submitted a second "state" doctorate, the highest degree in the French education system, entitled
Civitas Maxima: Origins, Foundations and Philosophical and Political Significance of the Supranationality Concept.
[11] In addition to his native Portuguese, Vieira de Mello was fluent in English, Spanish, Italian and French, as well as some conversational Arabic and
Tetum.
Vieira de Mello spent three years in charge of UNHCR operations in
Mozambique during the
civil war that followed its independence from Portugal in 1975, and three more in
Peru. Vieira de Mello also served as Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for
Cambodia, being the first and only UN Representative to hold talks with the
Khmer Rouge. He became senior political adviser to the UN Interim Force in
Lebanon between 1981 and 1983.
The early 1990s found him involved in the clearing of
land mines in Cambodia, and then in
Yugoslavia. After working on the refugee problem in central Africa, he was made Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees in 1996 and he became UN
Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator two years later. He would hold this position simultaneously with others until January 2001. He was a special UN envoy in
Kosovo after the end of
Serbian control of the former Yugoslav province in 1999. Vieira de Mello was instrumental in dealing with the issue of
boat people in Hong Kong.
US Colonels secure a United Nations Flag over the transfer casket of Sérgio Vieira de Mello, prior to a memorial service at the Baghdad International Airport.
In mid-2000, he visited
Fiji together with
Don McKinnon, the
Commonwealth of Nations' Secretary-General, in an attempt to assist in finding a negotiated settlement to the hostage situation, in which Fiji's
Prime Minister and other members of
Parliament were kidnapped and held as hostages during the
2000 Fijian coup d'état.[
citation needed]
Before becoming the
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2002, he was the UN Transitional Administrator in
East Timor from December 1999 to May 2002, guiding that former Portuguese colony occupied by
Indonesia to independence. He was also special representative in Kosovo for an initial period of two months and was the coordinator of humanitarian operations at
UN Headquarters.
In May 2003 Vieira de Mello was appointed as the Special Representative of the
UN Secretary General to Iraq, an appointment initially intended to last for four months. According to
The New York Times Magazine journalist
James Traub in his book
The Best Intentions, Vieira de Mello had originally turned down the appointment before being persuaded by U.S. President
George W. Bush and
Condoleezza Rice. He had been working in this position when he was killed in the
Canal Hotel bombing.
He was mentioned in some circles as a suitable candidate for
UN Secretary-General. His death was widely mourned, largely on account of his reputation for effective work to promote peace. Vieira de Mello was buried at the
Cimetière des Rois in
Geneva, Switzerland.
[edit] Awards and recognition
Logo of the SVDM Foundation.
Vieira de Mello received a number of posthumous awards and honours, including a
United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 2003. In April 2004, Sérgio Vieira de Mello was posthumously awarded the 'Statesman of the Year Award' by the
EastWest Institute.
The Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation has been created in 2007 to honor his memory, pursue his ideals and continue his unfinished mission. The Foundation has been established in Geneva (Switzerland), at the initiative of his two sons and his wife with some friends and colleagues.
[12] In 2008, Mr
Kofi Annan launched the first annual lecture, followed by Ms
Sadako Ogata in 2009. Lectures take place at the
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, in Geneva.
On 11 December 2008, the
United Nations General Assembly made history when it adopted Swedish-sponsored GA Resolution A/63/L.49 on the Strengthening of the Coordination of Emergency Assistance of the United Nations,
[13] that amongst other important humanitarian decisions, decided to designate 19 August as the
World Humanitarian Day (WHD). The Resolution gives for the first time, a special recognition to all humanitarian and United Nations and associated personnel who have worked in the promotion of the humanitarian cause and those who have lost their lives in the cause of duty and urges all Member States, entities of the United Nations within existing resources, as well as the other
International Organizations and
Non-Governmental Organizations to observe it annually in an appropriate way. As a background to this landmark resolution, the family of Sérgio Vieira de Mello resolved to work towards having the 19th of August recognized as a befitting tribute to all humanitarian personnel. Early April 2008 the Board of the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Foundation prepared a draft Resolution to be sponsored and adopted by the General Assembly designating 19 August as World Humanitarian Day. France, Switzerland, Japan and Brazil, contacted with the draft Resolution, agreed to co-sponsor it.
Sergio Vieira de Mello founded two Human Rights Agencies: the
United Nations Housing Rights Programme and
United Nations Human Rights Educational Project (UNHREP). The former, currently a part of the
United Nations Human Settlements Programme, aims to "assist States and other stakeholders with the implementation of their commitments in the Habitat Agenda".
[14] UNHREP aims to be "an educational facility for teaching Human Rights from a variety of angles. ... [as well as, eventually] international relations, conflict resolution, diplomacy and diplomatic etiquette".
[15]
[edit] Career chronology
- 1969-1971: French Editor, UNHCR, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1971-1972: Project Officer, UNHCR, Dhaka, East Pakistan
- 1972-1973: Programme Officer, UNHCR, Juba, Sudan
- 1974-1975: Programme Officer, UNHCR, Nicosia, Cyprus
- 1975-1977: Deputy Representative and Representative, UNHCR, Maputo, Mozambique
- 1978-1980: Representative, UNHCR, Lima, Peru
- 1980-1981: Head of Career Development and Training Unit of Personnel Section, UNHCR, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1981-1983: Senior Political Officer, UNIFIL, DPKO, Lebanon
- 1983-1985: Deputy Head of Personnel, UNHCR, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1986-1988: Chef de Cabinet and Secretary to the Executive Committee, UNHCR, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1988-1990: Director of Asia Bureau, UNHCR, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1990-1991: Director of External Affairs, UNHCR, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1991-1993: Director for Repatriation and Resettlement Operations, UNTAC, DPKO, and Special Envoy of High Commissioner Sadako Ogata, UNHCR, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
- 1993-1994: Director of Political Affairs, UNPROFOR, DPKO, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
- 1994-1996: Director of Operations and Planning, UNHCR, Geneva, Switzerland
- October-December 1996: Special Envoy of Secretary-General to the Great Lakes Region
- 1996-1998: Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1998-2002: Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, UN, New York, USA
- June-July 1999: Special Representative of Secretary-General to Kosovo
- 1999-2002: Transitional Administrator, UNTAET, DPKO, and Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dili, East Timor
- 2002-2003: High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland
- May-August 2003: Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Iraq
[edit] See also
[edit] References
Constructs such as
ibid. and
loc. cit. are
discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please
improve this article by replacing them with
named references (
quick guide), or an abbreviated title.
- <LI id=cite_note-0>^ Power, Samantha (2008). Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World. Allen Lane. p. 16. ISBN 1-59420-128-5. <LI id=cite_note-1>^ Ibid. pp. 16-7 <LI id=cite_note-2>^ Ibid. p. 19 <LI id=cite_note-3>^ Ibid. p. 19 <LI id=cite_note-4>^ Ibid. p. 19 <LI id=cite_note-5>^ Ibid. p. 20 <LI id=cite_note-6>^ Ibid. p. 22 <LI id=cite_note-7>^ Ibid. pp. 25-33 <LI id=cite_note-8>^ Ibid. pp. 25-31 <LI id=cite_note-9>^ Ibid. p. 31 <LI id=cite_note-10>^ Ibid. p. 71 <LI id=cite_note-11>^ Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation <LI id=cite_note-UN_A-63-L.49-12>^ United Nations General Assembly Resolution A-63-L.49 session 63 World Humanitarian Day on 11 December 2008 <LI id=cite_note-13>^ "Housing rights". UN-HABITAT. http://www.unhabitat.org/programmes/housingrights/. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
- ^ McMeekin, Jessica (2004-07-22). "The Final Project of the Man of Peace"". IMC Brazil. http://midiaindependente.org/en/blue/2004/07/286986.shtml. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
[edit] Books
- Jean-Claude Buhrer et Claude B. Levenson, Sergio Vieira de Mello, un espoir foudroyé. – Paris : Mille et une nuits, 2004. – 199 p., 20 cm. – ISBN 2-84205-826-7 .
- George Gordon-Lennox et Annick Stevenson, Sergio Vieira de Mello : un homme exceptionnel. – Genève : Éditions du Tricorne, 2004. – 143 p., 25 cm. – ISBN 2-8293-0266-4. – En appendice, choix de textes de Sergio Vieira de Mello.
- Jacques Marcovitch - USP - Sergio Vieira de Mello - pensamento e memória. 1 Edição | 2004 | Brochura 344p. | Cód.: 167075 | ISBN 853140867 (pt)
- Samantha Power, Chasing the Flame: One Man's Fight to Save the World, (Hardcover - Pub. Date: 2/14/2008).
[edit] External links
[edit] Interviews
[edit] Films
Diplomatic postsPreceded by
Yasushi Akashi (Japan)Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and
Emergency Relief Coordinator
1998–2001Succeeded by
Kenzo Oshima (Japan)Preceded by
Mary Robinson (1997–2002)UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
2002–2003Succeeded by
Bertrand Ramcharan (2003–2004) Louise Arbour (2004)Preceded by
Nicolau dos Reis Lobato (nominal President of East Timor) 1978UN Administrator for East Timor
1999–2002Succeeded by
Xanana Gusmão as President of East TimorPersondataNameVieira de Mello, SergioAlternative namesShort descriptionDate of birth15 March 1948Place of birth
Rio de Janeiro,
BrazilDate of death19 August 2003Place of death
Baghdad,
IraqRetrieved from "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9rgio_Vieira_de_Mello"
Categories:
Brazilian diplomats |
Deaths by car bomb |
1948 births |
2003 deaths |
University of Paris alumni |
United Nations operations in Iraq |
Brazilian terrorism victims |
Terrorism deaths in Iraq |
Brazilian people murdered abroad |
Assassinated diplomats |
People from Rio de Janeiro (city) |
United Nations High Commissioners for Human Rights
Hidden categories:
Articles with hCards |
All articles with unsourced statements |
Articles with unsourced statements from June 2009 |
Articles needing cleanup from July 2010 |
All pages needing cleanup