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
I have argued for quite a long time that we should define humanitarian assistance in a broad enough manner to allow for assistance and repairs to electricity and heating systems and water for people through the winter, ... Otherwise we will have another humanitarian crisis on our hands.
We need helicopters, trucks, heavy lifting equipment, shelter and health care, ... We need tarpaulins, ground sheets and stoves. We need water and sanitation equipment. We need food supplies.
Fierce national competition over water resources has prompted fears that water issues contain the seeds of violent conflict.
If there is one area where equity is crucial and essential, I think it should be the issue of water.
Access to safe water is a fundamental human need and therefore a basic human right.
As I travel around the world, people think the only place where there is potential conflict [over] water is the Middle East, but they are completely wrong. We have the problem all over the world.
Access to a secure, safe and sufficient source of fresh water is a fundamental requirement for the survival, well-being and socio-economic development of all humanity. Yet, we continue to act as if fresh water were a perpetually abundant resource. It is not.
We shall not defeat any of the infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water, sanitation, and basic health care.
In a world of intense economic competition, shifting populations and shrinking distances, the pressures of living together with people of different cultures and different beliefs from one's own are very real,
In less than 12 hours, East Timor will be an independent country, a moment of pride and liberation,
I know we will not be alone. We will be happy to work with other parts of the international community to support the efforts of President Bush and his administration, the American Red Cross , and other U.S. relief organizations who have been our partners in the past,
I know that I speak for the whole world in offering them my heartfelt sympathy and any assistance that the United Nations can give, ... We will be happy to work with other parts of the international community to support the efforts of President Bush and his administration, the American Red Cross, and other U.S. relief organizations who have been our partners in the past.
immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access in conformity with Security Council resolutions.
immediate and exceptional escalation of the global relief effort.