Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annanis a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. Annan and the United Nations were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world." He is the founder and the Chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as being the chairman of The Elders, a group founded by Nelson Mandela...
NationalityGhanaian
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth8 April 1938
CityKumasi, Ghana
CountryGhana
The Iraqi people have made their decision and have approved the draft constitution,
The U.N. family must do its part, but today I also call yet again on member states to do all they can to ensure a secure environment for U.N. staff as they go about their work in the service of humankind,
This is a huge, huge disaster, ... It is a race against time to save the lives of these people. And I would hope that the international community will respond and those with capacity will do everything possible to work with us and work with the Pakistani government.
This is a house of peace and we work in the interest of all nations and this kind of activity is not something that anyone can condone, ... I appeal to them to desist and use other means to raise their complaints.
All is not well. Science tells us that if we do not take the right action now, climate change will bring havoc, even within our lifetime,
If I give the impression we are a world government, we'll get even more critics and our critics will be emboldened,
I came here to show support for all the millions of people in the world who stand to benefit if the Millennium Development Goals are reached, especially the children who will be saved from malaria or Aids, who will grow up healthy, go to school and have the chance to earn their living and enjoy life.
I don't think that the United States government rushes to judgment until all the facts are in.
I think that peacekeeping can do quite a lot, if they are given the right mandate with the commensurate resources to get the job done.
We knew the Syrian situation was complex and there were lots of divisions, particularly on the side of the opposition.This is a tough job.It can perhaps be done if you stand united and work with me in putting sustained pressure on the protagonists or the parties to come together and seek a political settlement.
In all these cases, part of the reasons for failure perhaps was not analyzing and assessing the true nature of the crisis, the resources that would be required, and exaggerated expectation of what the U.N. troops can do.
I don't see a situation where one side will win militarily, take over Syria, and there will be peace and quiet, a clean victory.
We at the U.N. have to take some of the blame, because we have not lowered expectations creating the impression we are here to save people, even when we have very limited resources.
The U.N. power comes from concerted action of the governments.