Message H.E. Mr. Olyntho Vieira-Ambassador of the Federative Republic of Brazil to Pakistan.

The United Nations Organization, or simply UN, is at the same time familiar to anyone who reads a newspaper or has access to any communication tool nowadays and, I would dare to say, mostly unknown. Then comes the question: do we need this organization? It is not surprisingly to hear or read comments like "the UN should do this or that" in face of an international issue as if it were a supranational government. It is not.

Maybe the key word to understand what the UN is should be cooperation. Cooperation among independent states who freely decide how to tackle any specific issue that affects international life and create international law by means of treaties, conventions, covenants or other types of formal agreements. Behind such an array of instruments lies the principle which says that everything which is convened must be complied with in good faith (pacta sunt servanda) by all parties.

Stephen C. Schlesinger ("Act of creation", Westview Press, 2003) recalls John Keegan's affirmation that four times in modern age men have sat down to reorder the world. At the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648 A after the Thirty Years War; at the Congress of Vienna, in 1815 A after the Napoleonic Wars; in Paris, in 1919 A after the World War I; and in San Francisco, in 1945 A after the World War II.

At first sight, one might believe that all the efforts failed given the fact that each agreement ended in war, except for the UN. However, it is possible to infer that each of these landmarks was built upon the knowledge and experience acquired during the years that lay behind each one of them. In fact, the creation of the United Nations brought under a large umbrella an array of independent organizations that existed long before, as it is the case of the International Labor Organization

(ILO) and the Universal Postal Union (UPU). Others such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) came to life after the creation of UN. The common line among all the elements of the UN system is the cooperation to face common problems.

The comments above lead to the initial question of this text: does the world need the United Nations? How does UN impact our daily lives? At this point, I would suggest the reader to think of a few ordinary aspects of life. How would air travel be if there were no international regulations on air transport safety

and security? How would be food safety and biotechnology? How would be the world without the...