A book about great heroes, heroes of the United Nations. Indeed, Dag Hammarskjöld, Angela King, Graça Machel, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helvi Sipilä, Carlo Urbani, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and Nadia Younes have all contributed to make the world a better place. Some of them have lost their life under the UN flag, others are still working to better the lives of the world’s poorest. They’re UN heroes!
Edited by Andreas S. von Warburg — director and producer of the documentary film “Why is Kofi Annan not a Woman?” — and illustrated by New Zealand artist Matthew Couper, “Heroes of the United Nations: Men and Women Who Made the World a Better Place” narrates eight stories through speeches, interviews, articles. It is a powerful book. A great reading!
“Thousands of people are employed by the United Nations and other international organizations in the most dangerous spots around the world, where intestine wars, famine, drought, and natural disasters are killing millions of innocents every day,” writes the author in his introduction. “They are heroes who chose to spend most of their life in poor and under-developed countries in order to make a difference, to improve and save the lives of as many people as possible. They don`t represent a country, they don`t travel first class, they don`t go to lavish diplomatic dinners and parties. Instead, they risk their own life for world peace and security, for providing food and clean water to the poorest people on Earth, for fostering gender equality and social justice, for promoting and nurturing human rights and sustainable development.”
Sergio Vieira de Mello was one of them, and possibly the best-known casualty of war for the UN family. Born in Brazil in 1948, he joined the United Nations at the age of 21 and spent most of his career working for the UN refugees agency – eventually becoming the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 2002 – and humanitarian and peacekeeping missions around the world. Before going to I raq, he managed the political transition to the newly independent Timor-Leste (East Timor). In Iraq he lost
his life, but not his fight against injustice and poverty.
Today, Sergio Vieira de Mello still inspires thousands of students and young graduates to join the United Nations, the Red Cross, the World Bank, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and many other specialized, regional, and international institutions around the world. Indeed, risks are considerably high when working in dangerous areas – just as they are for any other international worker, such as war
correspondents, military personnel, or private contractors.
But the reward is infinite: saving the life of just one person marks a big step forward for humanity. And that is what “world diplomats” do every day working behind the scenes.
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