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 United Nations is proud to have the Adopt-A-Minefield Campaign as a partner.
I often quote an African proverb that says: "The world is not ours, the earth is not ours, It's a treasure we hold in trust for future generations." And I often hope we will be worthy of that trust.
We need to decide our priorities. And we must adapt our United Nations so that in the future, those priorities are reflected in clear and prompt decisions leading to real change in people's lives. That my friend is what the people expect of us -- let us not disappoint them.
What is important is that they should be treated in accordance with established norms of law, internationally and otherwise,
when it comes to operations on that continent, we tend to do it on the cheap.
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,
This tragedy underlines the danger faced by unarmed humanitarian workers serving the U.N. in conflict and post-conflict situations,
Yet again, we face the abominable practice of 'ethnic cleansing' only a few years after it transformed the demography of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ... The Serbian authorities must halt such actions.
We are pressing ahead with our contingency planning and we hope to be ready to work with the African Union as we move forward to the implementation of the anticipated decision by the (UN) Security Council that we push ahead with the transition.
We are taking very active measures to ensure that we do not have any more bad apples in that department, ... We are going to act very energetically to take measures to ensure that what happened does not happen again.
We acted on the report as soon as it came out, ... This is not the end. It is the beginning and we'll act on the other branches of the report as they come out.
While many parts of the United Nations have been involved in the peace-building process, the system has lacked a dedicated entity to oversee the process, ensure its coherence or sustain it through the long haul.
The people of Serbia want to have a say in the decisions affecting them. And I hope that this choice and their voice will be heard.
I don't share the view that the ICC is anti-African. The ICC is not putting Africa on trial. The ICC is fighting impunity and individuals who are accused of crimes.