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
We have started a new year with a singular chance to prove that our humanity is intact and well -- a chance to prove that when calamity strikes, we are equal to the task,
If 2005 was a year of important progress on aid and debt relief, 2006 must be the year of trade, ... If we are to conclude the Doha negotiations by the end of next year we need to make real progress at the WTO talks in Hong Kong in December.
Notwithstanding the embargo, Cuba's achievements in social development are impressive given the size of its gross domestic product per capita, ... As the human development index of the United Nations makes clear year after year, Cuba should be the envy of many other nations ostensibly far richer.
The lack of major gains here... would be a severe disappointment for poor people around the world yearning to lift themselves out of poverty.
I have quite a lot of work to do and I'm carrying on with my work, ... We have a major agenda next year and the year ahead, trying to reform this organization, so we'll carry on.
I'm confident that next year they will be able to get onto the commission and this situation will be corrected, ... I think they should work towards next year rather than wanting to punish the membership at large.
and measures that ought to be taken to ensure what has happened this year does not happen in the future.
Drugs have destroyed many lives, but wrongheaded governmental policies have destroyed many more. I think it's obvious that after 40 years of war on drugs, it has not worked. There should be decriminalization of drugs.
The death toll from small arms dwarfs that of all other weapons systems — and in most years greatly exceeds the toll of the atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In terms of the carnage they cause, small arms, indeed, could well be described as 'weapons of mass destruction'.
The report [by a UN commission on Darfur] demonstrates beyond all doubt that the last two years have been little short of hell on earth for our fellow human beings in Darfur.
too early to say who's going to take charge and who's going to run the government.
We will take the measures to make sure poor and rich have access to the medications and the vaccines required,
The scale of this tragedy almost defies our darkest imagination. We meet today to prevent a second shockwave of deaths and to prevent further suffering.
The scale of this tragedy almost defies our darkest imagination, ... We meet today to prevent a second shockwave of deaths and to prevent further suffering.